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Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server | Azure DevOps Server 2022
If you track progress on a backlog with a board, use boards to track epics and features too.
As with child task checklists for backlog items, you can quickly define and track child items for features or epics. The following examples show stories defined for features that are in progress and completed.
For more information, see Define features and epics.
Tip
You can use AI to help with this task later in this article, or see Enable AI assistance with Azure DevOps MCP Server to get started.
Prerequisites
A board is created when you create a project or add a team. Each team has access to their own product and portfolio boards as described in About teams and Agile tools.
| Category | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Access levels | - Project member. - To add work items and use all board features: At least Basic access. - Users with Stakeholder access: - Public project: Full access to board features, similar to users with Basic access. - Private project: Can add work items and update status through drag-and-drop but can't update fields displayed on cards, and can add tasks and change task status. |
| Permissions | To view or modify work items: View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has these permissions. For more information, see Set permissions and access for work tracking. |
| Category | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Access levels | - Project member. - To add work items and use all board features: At least Basic access. - Users with Stakeholder access for a private project can add work items and update status through drag-and-drop but can't update fields displayed on cards. They can add tasks and change task status. |
| Permissions | To view or modify work items: View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has these permissions. For more information, see Set permissions and access for work tracking. |
Open your board from the web portal
Your board is one of several boards available in a project. For an overview of supported features on backlogs and boards, see Backlogs, boards, and plans. To switch to the product backlog, choose Stories backlog. To open the taskboard, choose Sprints and then Taskboard.
Sign in to your project at
https://dev.azure.com/{Your_Organization}/{Your_Project}.Choose Boards > Boards.
Select the correct team from the team selector menu.
To choose another team's board, open the selector and pick a different team or choose the
Browse all team boards option. Use the search box to filter team boards for the project.
Tip
Choose the
star icon to favorite a team board. Favorited artifacts (
) appear at the top of the team selector list.Select Features or Epics from the backlog selector menu.
Add epics or features
Add new items to a feature or epic from the item's action menu (the actions icon). For field descriptions used by features and epics, see Define features and epics.
To add many items at once, continue typing titles and press Enter after each one. To open a work item and add details, hover over the item and press Enter.
Use AI to manage features and epics on your board
If you have the Azure Boards MCP Server connected to your AI agent in agent mode, you can use natural language prompts to create and manage features and epics.
| Task | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Create a feature | Create a new feature called 'User Authentication' in the <Contoso> project |
| Add child stories | Add three user stories under the 'Payment Processing' feature: checkout flow, payment validation, and receipt generation |
| View epics by state | Show me all epics that are currently in the 'In Progress' state |
| Check feature progress | List all child user stories under feature 2345 and their current states |
| Review portfolio board | Show all features in <Contoso> grouped by their parent epic with completion percentage of child stories |
| Find features without epics | List features in <Contoso> that don't have a parent epic assigned |
| Track epic timelines | Show all epics in <Contoso> with their start date, target date, and count of active vs completed features |
| Identify at-risk features | List features in <Contoso> that have active child stories with no one assigned |
| Balance feature workload | Show the count of active user stories per feature in the current sprint for <Contoso> |
| Plan next increment | List all features in <Contoso> that are in the New state and have acceptance criteria defined |
Note
Agent mode and the MCP Server use natural language, so you can adjust these prompts or ask follow-up questions to refine the results.
Related content
REST API resources
To programmatically interact with a board and team settings, see the REST API, Boards reference.