ado-work-items

Azure DevOps Work Items Skill

This skill provides guidance on creating and managing Azure DevOps work items when using the Azure DevOps MCP server tools. It ensures work items follow organizational best practices for hierarchy, formatting, naming conventions, and hour estimation.

When to Use This Skill

This skill should be used when:

• Creating Features, User Stories, or Tasks in Azure DevOps
• Planning work item hierarchies for a feature or epic
• Structuring acceptance criteria or task descriptions
• Applying naming conventions to work items
• Estimating hours or story points for work items
• Using the @azure-devops/mcp MCP server tools

Work Item Hierarchy

Azure DevOps uses a three-level structure for Agile projects:

1. Features (top level) - High-level capabilities or business objectives
2. User Stories (child of Features) - Specific functionality from a user perspective
3. Tasks (child of User Stories) - Individual work items for implementation

Key Rules:

• Every User Story must belong to a Feature (parent-child relationship)
• Every Task must belong to a User Story (parent-child relationship)
• Features contain one or more User Stories
• User Stories contain one or more Tasks

HTML Formatting Requirement

CRITICAL: All text fields (Description, Acceptance Criteria) must use proper HTML formatting for correct rendering in Azure DevOps.

Examples:

<!-- Good: Proper HTML -->
<p>As a developer, I need to implement user authentication.</p>
<p><strong>Background:</strong></p>
<ul>
  <li>Current system has no authentication</li>
  <li>Users need secure login</li>
</ul>

<!-- Bad: Plain text -->
As a developer, I need to implement user authentication.

Background:
- Current system has no authentication
- Users need secure login

HTML Formatting Guidelines:

• Use <p> tags for paragraphs
• Use <ul> and <li> for bullet lists
• Use <ol> and <li> for numbered lists
• Use <strong> for bold text
• Use <em> for italic text
• Use <h3>, <h4> for section headers (if needed)