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Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server | Azure DevOps Server 2022 | Azure DevOps Server 2020
As a project member, your ability to use Azure Boards features depends on the access level and security group assigned to you. Users with the Basic access level or higher get full access to Boards features. Users assigned the Stakeholder access level get limited, targeted access: they can view and modify many work items but can't use some Board features. Built-in security groups—Readers**, Contributors, and **Project Administrators—and team administrator roles control permissions for specific features.
In the tables that follow, a ✔️ indicates that an access level or security group has the corresponding feature permission by default.
Note
Team administrators can configure settings for their team’s tools. Organization owners and members of the Project Administrators group can configure settings for all teams.
For a quick comparison of Stakeholder versus Basic access, see the Feature matrix. To assign or change access levels, see Add users and assign licenses. To grant specific users particular permissions, see Request changes to permissions.
Work item feature access
Use work items to track work, bugs, tasks, and larger pieces of work. For background, see Understand how work items are used to track issues, tasks, and epics.
Note
You can change the work item type or move work items to another project within a project collection. These features require that the data warehouse is disabled. With the data warehouse disabled, you can use the Analytics Service to support your reporting needs. To learn more about disabling the data warehouse, see Disable the data warehouse and cube.
Task or permission
Readers
Contributors
Project admins
View work items in this node (Area Path permission)
✔️
✔️
✔️
Edit work items in this node (Area Path permission)
✔️
✔️
Edit work item comments in this node (Area Path permission)
✔️
✔️
Create tag definition
✔️
✔️
Change work item type (Project-level permission)
✔️
✔️
Move work items out of this project (Project-level permission)
✔️
✔️
Email work items
✔️
✔️
✔️
Apply a work item template
✔️
✔️
Delete and restore work items (Project-level permission) (able to restore from the Recycle bin)
✔️
✔️
Permanently delete work items (Project-level permission)
✔️
Provide feedback (through the Microsoft Feedback client)
✔️
✔️
✔️
✔️
Note
Work items are subject to rules applied to them. Conditional rules based on user or group membership are cached for your web browser. If you find yourself restricted to update a work item, you may have encountered one of these rules. If you believe you've encountered an issue that doesn't apply to you, see Work item form IndexDB caching issues. For more information, see Rules and rule evaluation.
Boards feature access
Boards show work items as cards and let users update status quickly with drag-and-drop.
Task
Readers
Contributors
Team admins
Project admins
View boards and open work items
✔️
✔️
✔️
Add work items to a board; update status through drag-and-drop
✔️
✔️
Reorder work items or reparent child items through drag-and-drop; update a field on a card
✔️
✔️
Add work items to a board; update status, reorder, or reparent child items through drag-and-drop; update a field on a card
✔️
✔️
Add child items to a checklist
✔️
✔️
Assign to a sprint (from card field)
✔️
✔️
Configure board settings
✔️
Backlogs feature access
Backlogs display work items as lists. Use product and portfolio backlogs to plan and organize work.
Task
Readers
Contributors
Team admins
Project admins
View backlogs and open work items
✔️
✔️
✔️
Add work items to a backlog
✔️
✔️
Use bulk edit features
✔️
✔️
Add child items to a backlog item; prioritize or reorder a backlog; parent items using the Mapping pane; Assign items to a sprint using the Planning pane
✔️
✔️
Configure team settings, backlog levels, show bugs, work days off
✔️
Sprints feature access
Sprints provide filtered views of work items assigned to a team’s iteration paths or sprint.
Task
Readers
Contributors
Team admins Project admins
View sprint backlogs, taskboards, and open work items
✔️
✔️
✔️
Add work items to a sprint backlog or taskboard
✔️
✔️
Prioritize/reorder a sprint backlog or taskboard; add child items to a backlog item; reassign items to a sprint using the Planning pane
✔️
✔️
View team capacity and work details
✔️
✔️
✔️
Set team capacity
✔️
Use bulk edit features
✔️
✔️
Define team sprints
✔️
Queries and semantic search
Use Queries to filter and list work items by criteria you define in the query editor.
Tip
By default, Contributors can create personal queries but can't create shared queries in the team folder. We recommend that Project Administrators create and manage shared query folders for teams and grant the team group or team administrators the folder permissions they need. You need Delete permission to rename or move a shared query or folder, and Contribute permission to save queries into a folder. For more information, see Set permissions on queries and query folders.
Task
Readers
Contributors
Project admins
View and run managed queries, view query charts
✔️
✔️
✔️
Create and save managed My queries, query charts
✔️
✔️
Create, delete, and save Shared queries, charts, folders
✔️
Stakeholder access
Stakeholder access supports business owners, product managers, and others who need to add context, review progress, and contribute to the backlog without using every Boards feature. Assign Stakeholder access to users who don’t need the full developer experience.
- For public projects, Stakeholder access provides full access to work-tracking features. For more information, see Stakeholder access quick reference.
- For private projects, Stakeholders can view and modify many work items, and they can add child tasks and comments, but they can't perform certain actions such as reordering backlog items via drag-and-drop or updating some card fields.
Note
Stakeholder behavior differs between public and private projects. Confirm the project visibility and test expected behavior if you rely on Stakeholder access.