Automatic notification trigger

Question

Hi Team,

I am going to add a custom field called Decision with dropdown values "Accept" and "Reject" on Feature work-item. I would like an automatic notification to get triggered to the person who has created that Feature if I select accept or reject.

This is basically because we are managing cross-team work, and Team A would have generated the Feature but Team B has been requested to deliver it. However, Team B may not have capacity so the decision to accept or reject lies with Team B.

Ideally, I won't want Team B users to manually put in a comment saying the Feature got accepted or rejected. I would prefer an automatic trigger notifying Team A.

Is that possible please? Thanks.

Answer 1

I think Azure DevOps can notify the Creator with a work item‑changed subscription filtered on Decision = Accept or Reject. It only checks the value after the update, so it’ll fire when Team B sets it but won’t detect an actual change. If you need transition‑only behavior, you basically end up using a Service Hook and comparing oldValue/newValue in a Logic App or Function.

Answer 2

You can cover the broad case with an Azure DevOps notification subscription rather than Power Automate. In Project settings, open Notifications, create a New subscription for “A work item is changed,” and set the recipient role to the work item’s Creator. Add filters for Work Item Type equals Feature and Decision equals required value, then test with a Feature created by someone else. The limitation is transition logic: a notification filter can evaluate the work item after the change, but it may not express “Decision changed from another value specifically to Accept or Reject” or produce the custom message you need. For that stricter requirement, configure a Work item updated service hook filtered to the Decision field and send it to an Azure Function or Logic App that compares old and new values and emails the creator. This remains within Azure DevOps and Azure services while avoiding a polling flow.

Answer 3

Hi @SB

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A and thank you for your question.

Yes, this scenario can be automated. A common approach is to create a custom Decision field with the values Accept and Reject, and use Power Automate to monitor updates to the Feature work item.

When the Decision field is updated, the automation can evaluate the selected value and automatically notify the user who created the Feature work item. This eliminates the need for Team B to manually add comments indicating whether the Feature has been accepted or rejected, while ensuring that Team A is informed automatically whenever the decision status changes.

This approach can help streamline cross-team collaboration and provide a consistent notification process.

Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any further questions. Thank you.