Many enterprise organizations add multiple projects to support their business needs. While we recommend that you maintain a single project to keep things simple, there are instances where multiple projects are needed. In that event, several questions arise as to what tasks are supported when working with two or more projects.
This article addresses these questions. To learn about specific cross-project features, see Work across projects.
Projects
How many projects should I create?
In general, we recommend that you create a single project. However, certain business needs, such as supporting a public project or applying security policies, may require creating more than one project. To learn more, see one of the following articles.
Can I connect to more than one project at a time?
When you connect from a web browser, you can connect to different projects from different browser tabs. When you connect from a client or IDE, you can only connect to a single project at a time. For more information, see Connect to team projects.
How do I view all projects available to me?
How do I turn off cross-project collaboration?
If you want to limit users to view or modify select work items, you can by setting permissions on Area Paths. However, there's no method for limiting users to linking work items that reside in different projects.
Dashboards and reports
Can I create a dashboard with information that spans two or more projects?
The only way to view data from different projects is to use Query-based widgets or Embedded Webpage widgets. Query-based widgets reference queries that you define, which can reference projects other than the project where the query is defined. Embedded Webpage widgets display data from a URL, such as a backlog, board, or chart for a team in different projects. However, the backlog, board, or chart displays using the display preferences set by the currently logged in user viewing the dashboard.
Note
There is a suggested feature, Single Dashboard for Multiple Projects that you can review and up vote.
Can I create a report that spans two or more projects?
Yes. The SQL Server Reporting services support creation of reports that span two or more projects.
Azure Boards and work tracking
Can I query across projects?
Yes. You can create work item queries that span all projects within an organization or filter for specific projects. Also, you can use the search tool to perform work item searches across all projects in an organization. To learn more, see one of the following articles:
Can I link work items across projects?
Yes. You can use any link type you want to link work items that are defined in different projects. The projects must be defined within the same organization or project collection. To learn more, see Link user stories, issues, bugs, and other work items.
Can I query for work items linked across projects?
No. There is a prohibitive performance cost for trying to execute such a query, so it isn't supported.
Can I export a cross-project query to Excel?
No. Cross-project queries won't open in Excel.
Can I link work items across organizations or collections?
No across collections. This isn't a supported feature.
Can I perform capacity planning across projects?
No. Capacity planning data isn't stored in the work tracking data store or Analytics service. This isn't a supported feature.
How do I manage dependencies across projects?
To manage dependencies in Azure Boards, you can link work items using the Predecessor/Successor link type. To learn how, see Link user stories, issues, bugs, and other work items.
Can I query for work items linked across projects?
No. There is a prohibitive performance cost for trying to execute such a query, so it isn't supported.
Azure Boards customization
Can I apply an Inherited process defined in one organization to another organization?
Yes. To perform this operation, you need to export the process and import it to the other organization. While there is no import/export user interface, you can use the Process Migrator for Node.js application.
Can I apply an Inherited process defined in one collection to another collection?
Yes. To perform this operation, you need to export the process and import it to the other collection. While there is no import/export user interface, you can use the Process Migrator for Node.js application.
Azure Repos
How can I find all completed pull requests across projects?
There is no user interface feature to extract this information. You can use the REST API to get this information as follows:
- Get all projects using Projects-List.
- Get all repositories of each project using Repositories - List.
- Get all pull requests of each repository using Pull Requests - Get Pull Requests.