DevOps How to Create a central test plan (cross project) when working with Individual teams \ boards

Question

DevOps How to Create a central test plan when working with Individual teams (cross project) who have their own boards and we need a central Test Plan - that covers items from multiple individual team projects and boards.

Answer 1

Creating a central test plan in Azure DevOps that covers items from multiple individual team projects and boards involves a few key steps. While Azure DevOps does not natively support cross-project test plans directly, you can achieve this by using the following approach:

1. Create a Central Test Project: Set up a dedicated Azure DevOps project that will serve as the central repository for your test plans. This project will contain the central test plan that references test cases from various team projects.
2. Define Test Cases: In the central test project, create test cases that correspond to the requirements or features from the individual team projects. You can create these test cases manually or import them if they already exist in the individual projects.
3. Link Test Cases: Use the linking feature in Azure DevOps to associate test cases in the central test plan with work items (like user stories or tasks) from the individual team projects. This allows you to track the status of these items across different projects.
4. Use Queries: Create queries that pull in relevant work items from the individual team projects into the central test project. This can help in managing and monitoring the progress of testing across multiple teams.
5. Manage Permissions: Ensure that the necessary permissions are set up so that team members from different projects can access the central test project and contribute to the test plan as needed.
6. Regular Updates: Regularly update the central test plan based on feedback and changes from the individual teams to ensure that it remains relevant and useful.

By following these steps, you can effectively manage a central test plan that encompasses the testing needs of multiple teams working on different projects within Azure DevOps.

Answer 2

Hi Whittle, Jonathan,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.

Azure Test Plans are project-scoped — there isn’t a single built-in “cross-project Test Plan” object. You can, however, achieve a centralised workflow using one of a few supported patterns (single project, central test project + copy/import, or cross-project reporting).

1. Single project for all teams
   • Use one Azure DevOps project.
   • Use Area Paths, Teams, Iterations to separate team workstreams.
   • Simplifies traceability, dashboards, shared test assets.
2. Central “Test” project with import/copy
   • Create a dedicated project to host central test plans/suites.
   • Copy or clone test suites/test-cases from team projects into this central project.
   • Use REST/CLI or built-in “copy test items” functionality.
   • Reference: Copy or clone test plans, test suites, and test cases
3. Decentralised (each team in its own project) + cross-project reporting
   • Let each team maintain its own test plans in separate projects.
   • Use Analytics, Power BI, cross-project queries/dashboards to get aggregated visibility.

Please do let me know if you have any further question on this.