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FYI, the above video is for our legacy loader only. A new video will be coming for the new data loader. |
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Our new Data Loader is out! The new data loader offers two ways to load your data:
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How to Load Data in Azure DevOps
Navigate to the Data Set drop-down menu and select Create New Data Set.
Create a data set
Step One: Select Work Items
This action will kick off step one of the new data loader, where you will choose what data you want to load.
Firstly, choose a unique name for your data set that is less than 50 characters in length.
- Secondly, choose whether you want to load via Board Columns or Workflow States.
For Board, select the Team and the corresponding Board you want to view.
For Work Items, select the Team(s) you want to view.
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“Get Cross-Project Work Item History”, what does this mean? Well, if you have work items that have migrated across Azure projects that you have access to, and you want to be able to map it’s journey, you can check this option for ActionableAgile Analytics to get your work items history from across all the Azure projects you have access to.  |
Next, pick the Nested Area Paths that you would like to use.
Lastly, choose whether you want to apply filters that limit your data to items Created After and/or Resolved After a chosen date.
Once you've settled on the parameters for the data you want to load, go ahead and click "Next."
Step Two: Add Fields
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We automatically bring in these Default Fields: ID, Issue Link, Title, date, Work Item Type, Priority, Value Area, Area Path, Iteration Path, Blocked Days, Blocked, Tags, Reason, Lane, Removed From |
From the list of available fields on the left-hand side, choose the field(s) you wish to bring into your data set.
Please note you can select (and deselect) multiple fields in one go.
Once you have chosen your fields, select the top arrow to add them to your data set.
Your chosen fields will now appear in the right-hand column.
To remove any fields from your data set, simply select the desired fields and click the bottom arrow to remove them.
Once you have selected your preferred fields for the data set, click “Next.”
Step Two: Add Fields
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We automatically bring in these Default Fields: ID, Issue Link, Title, date, Work Item Type, Priority, Value Area, Area Path, Iteration Path, Blocked Days, Blocked, Tags, Reason, Lane, Removed From |
From the list of available fields on the left-hand side, choose the field(s) you wish to bring into your data set.
Please note you can select (and deselect) multiple fields in one go.
Once you have chosen your fields, select the top arrow to add them to your data set.
Your chosen fields will now appear in the right-hand column.
To remove any fields from your data set, simply select the desired fields and click the bottom arrow to remove them.
Once you have selected your preferred fields for the data set, click “Next.”
Step Three: Map Workflow Stages
Begin by mapping your columns or states to the workflow stages.
Where the data is mapped will determine how your data is visualised in ActionableAgile.
Unmapped columns or states need to be mapped in your workflow.
Each column or state contains transition dates for your work items, so it’s best to map them to your workflow to ensure all work items have their journey through your workflow plotted correctly.
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Don’t recognise some columns or states? ActionableAgile goes through the entire history of your work items to grab all the transition dates. This includes workflows from which your item may have been migrated and columns or states that may have been deleted or renamed. |
You can customise your workflow to visualise your data how you want by renaming, merging, and creating new workflow stages to map your data to.
Once you have mapped your data and organised your workflow, click “Finish.” Your data set will now be loaded into ActionableAgile Analytics and you’ll be able to view the saved version in Find or Manage A Data Set.
Find or Manage A Data Set
To view your saved data sets in ActionableAgile for Azure DevOps, navigate to the data set drop-down menu and select Find Or Manage A Data Set.
After you have selected this, a window will appear with all the data sets you have saved, their names, the last date they were updated, and actions you can take (view, edit, and delete).
Selecting the name of your data set will load your data set.
Selecting 📝 will allow you to rename your data set.
Selecting ⚙️ will allow you to edit your data set.
Selecting 🗑️ will allow you to delete your data set.
To load your Azure data, click on the folder icon and choose the dropdown option labeled “Load Azure data.”
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Load Team Board (by Column) is now our legacy loader. You can find it under the folder drop-down menu. |
You can pull data from two options: Board History and Work Item History.
Loading by Board History
Create a data set:
Step 1: Select your team
Step 2: Choose which Board you want to load.
Step 3: Choose whether to include items in nested area paths or not.
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Remember to choose to either include all area paths or the default area paths if you wish to load the nested items. |
Step 4: Filter by creation date (optional)
Once you have selected the box to only load issues created after, click on the calendar to choose the date.
Once you are satisfied with your selection you can press
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Loading by Work Item History:
You can now see data from your issues' entire history and not just that of what is on the current board.
You are no longer forced to lose historical data when you make changes to your board design.
You can measure flow for multiple teams at once allowing a higher-level view of flow.
Loading by Work Item History was our Load Team Data (by State)
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Create a data set:
Step 1: Select your team or teams
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You can now look at data from multiple teams at once! |
Step 2: Choose whether to include items in nested area paths or not.
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Remember to choose to either include all area paths or the default area paths if you wish to load the nested items. |
Step 3: Filter by creation date (optional)
Once you have selected the box to only load issues created after, click on the calendar to choose the date.
Once you are satisfied with your selection you can press
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Choose Additional Fields:
Here is the list of fields we pull automatically
You can also add fields that might be relevant to your analysis.
Once you have selected all the needed fields, press
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You will then see the list of all the default fields and the one you just added
Once you are satisfied with your selection you can press
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Check Workflow Mapping:
Our workflow mapper creates a workflow stage (aka column) for each status (item in the column). You should order the columns to model the lifecycle of work. If you see the image below, Releasing should come before Resolved so you would drag the column and drop it between Active and Resolved. This is very much like configuring your board, except that you cannot reuse statuses in multiple workflow stages.
Accurately modeling your workflow is the most critical part of measuring flow as it defines the workflow that we’re measuring work through. You want the stages of the lifecycle to be in linear order from left to right. Need to manage cyclical work or want other tips? Read our blog post.
Why is this step important?
We are now pulling the historical states from all the work items and not just their current states. This gives us more accurate data and less data loss. A work item can now have moved through different boards, we will be able to follow how it moved through your workflow. Until now, we would have lost everything that happened outside of the current board the item is in. Same if you changed your board and deleted a column, all the time spent in this column would have been deleted. But not anymore!
How does it work?
Each column represents an ActionableAgile workflow stage.
Each column contains one or more workflow states.
Even though Azure doesn’t allow you to map more than one state to your board columns, you can override that here. For instance, in your closed column you can have every state that represents closed such as Closed, Done, Cancelled, and/or Abandoned
Unmapped states are states found in your work items' history that are not currently mapped to your board.
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We recommend to always map these states as they carry data and will give you more accurate information on your flow. You can create new columns if needed! |
You can change the configuration of the board by:
Deleting a column:
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Remember to relocate the workflow state to a different column before deleting the column |
Creating a new column
Merging columns
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To move workflow stages or workflow states around, you can simply drag and drop them! |
Once you are satisfied with the mapping, you can press
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At this point, ActionableAgile should load your data and present you with the Cycle Time Scatterplot chart.
Your data are now loaded! 🥳
If you have any questions about this process, please submit them to our help desk.