Azure DevOps integration prerequisites

Before configuring the tool integration, you need to decide on the basic setup in Jira Align and collect the following information on your Azure DevOps projects.

1. Create a list of Azure DevOps projects that you plan to synchronize to Jira Align. Determine which Jira Align portfolio, program, or team to map to each Azure DevOps project. See the table above.
2. Access for data integration.
   

   Note: The Jira Align Azure DevOps connector is installed with the Jira Align server and makes its calls from Jira Align to the Azure DevOps system using a combination of Azure DevOps APIs. Data is always pulled and pushed by the Jira Align server.
   
   • What type of authentication does your server use?
     - Basic Authentication
     - NTML Authentication
   • If using Azure DevOps, you need only the organization/collection URL(s).
   • If Azure DevOps is behind a firewall and Jira Align is hosted in the cloud, SSL encryption on your server with certificates from a public certificate authority is required, along with a path through the firewall for the connector to call from the Jira Align server.
   • If both Azure DevOps and Jira Align are to be on-site behind the firewall, then VPN access for both the Jira Align engineer and the Solutions Architect is required. If no VPN access is provided to the Jira Align team, there is an additional license fee.

3. In each organization/collection, create an Azure DevOps user specifically for the integration and provide the user names and passwords to the Solutions Architect. These user accounts must be assigned to the following permission groups in Azure DevOps:
   
   • Project Organization/Collection Service Accounts
   • Team Foundation Service Accounts
   • Project Organization/Collection Administrators
4. What process template do you use? There are different object names, properties, and default workflows based on the template. If you use multiple or customized templates, be sure to note that on the project list in Step 1 of this section.
   
   • CMMI
   • Agile
   • Scrum
   • Other
5. Provide an overview of your structures including any customizations.
6. Provide XML for any customized epic, feature, story, task, and any custom-created items.
7. From what date would you like data to be pulled?
   Start date: (e.g. 03/01/2015)
8. Provide PI dates to be mapped to replicate the exact dates in Jira Align. If you change the dates of the PI in Azure DevOps too far, they will not be mapped anymore. Mapping is driven by dates. There is a configurable range for date overlap in the configuration file. 
   
   

   PI # (e.g. PLI-P1; PLI –P2)	Start Date	End Date	Program Name	Sprint Length (e.g. 1wk, 2wk, 3wk)

9. Are there any areas of the Area Hierarchies that should be specifically included or excluded? The real-life situation here is a ragged hierarchy. Sometimes areas are used to represent teams and sometimes they are used for other things, like triage or backlog.
   
   

   Project Name	Area Paths	Include/Exclude?
   Example	Example\Bad\Area	Exclude
   Example2	Example2\ProgramArea	Include

10. Are there any areas of the Iteration Paths that should be specifically included or excluded? The real-life situation here is a ragged hierarchy. Sometimes iteration paths are used to represent timeline work, and sometimes they are used for other things, like triage or backlog. Iteration Paths are excluded explicitly one-by-one.  Iteration paths can be limited to include only  a single branch of the tree. For example, it is possible to configure the system to only review iteration paths that start with Example\2019.  Note, however, that this must be a valid path: Example\20 would not be sufficient to capture all paths in this century (unless the path is actually Example\20\2019\...
    
    

    Project Name	Iteration Paths	Include/Exclude?
    Example	Example\Bad\Iteration	Exclude
    Example2	Example2\2019	Include

Type Mappings

For work items that are synchronized, the connector can map values between the Value Area field in Azure DevOps and the Type field in Jira Align. For each record type, determine the value(s) that will match the values in Jira Align.

Features

Stories

Severity Mappings

For work items that are synchronized, the connector can map values between the Value Area field in Azure DevOps and the Type field in Jira Align. For each record type, determine the value(s) that will match the values in Jira Align.

State Mappings

For work items that are synchronized, the connector can map values between the state fields in Azure DevOps and Jira Align.  For each record type, determine the value(s) that will match the values in Jira Align.  Be sure to have a home for all possible states in both systems.

Features

Stories

Defects

Tasks