Documentation › Create an Azure DevOps item

Create an Azure DevOps item from a step

An Azure DevOps step creates a work item (a product backlog item, a bug, a task…) in your Azure DevOps project. The designer fills the item once in the editor; the person who does the step clicks one button, and the item exists, with its number and address kept in the process.

What is this step for?

• You do not leave ProcNest to write the item in Azure DevOps: the title, the description, the area and iteration paths, the tags and the other fields are filled for you.
• The item type is chosen in the step: Product Backlog Item, User Story, Bug, Task, Feature, Epic… Take the type from a variable to let the people choose it while the process runs (for example with a question asked before the step).
• The step also keeps the number and the address of the new item in variables, so the next steps can use them.

1. Draw the step in the editor

1. Add the step

   Drag Azure DevOps from the stencil of the process editor, then click its edit button. In the Properties tab, give the step a name and choose who does it, like for any task.

2. Connection

   On the Azure DevOps tab, write the Organization address (for example https://dev.azure.com/contoso), the Project and the Personal access token. The token must be allowed to create work items.

3. Work item

   Choose the Item type, then write the Title (required), the Description and the Acceptance criteria. HTML is allowed in the last two.

4. Planning

   Fill what you need: Area path, Iteration path, Assigned to, Tags (separated by semicolons), Priority (1 to 4), Effort and the Parent item number. A field left empty is not sent.

5. Other fields

   Add any other field of the item by its reference name, for example Custom.Team, and switch a row off to keep it without sending it.

6. What to keep

   Choose the variable that keeps the item number and the one that keeps the item address. They get an outcome in the step.

Everywhere, write ${VariableName} to insert the value a variable has when the item is created, for example Fix the login of ${Customer}. The project, the item type and the token can also be taken from a variable. If a variable has no value yet, nothing is sent and ProcNest tells which one is missing.

2. Create the item

1. Open the task

   In My tasks, open the task made from the step. The Azure DevOps item section lists the variables that will keep the item number and address.

2. Click Create the item

   Azure DevOps creates the item. The answer is shown below the button, and the number and the address of the item appear in the outcomes of the task.

If Azure DevOps refuses, Failed is shown with the reason, and nothing changes in the variables. The usual causes: a wrong or expired token (Azure DevOps answers with a sign-in page), a project or an item type that does not exist, a field that is required by your Azure DevOps process.

Good to know

• The step creates one item each time you click: click once, and check the item number before clicking again.
• The Effort goes to Story points for a User Story and to Effort for the other types. Use Other fields for any other field of your process.
• The Parent item number links the new item under an existing one (a feature, an epic).
• To call another service, or to do something else in Azure DevOps, use an API call in a task.

Permissions

• Draw the step: the permission to edit processes. Users and roles explains how to get it.
• Create the item: the permission to edit your tasks, like for any task.