This article explains the main use case and out-of-box capabilities for the Wicresoft integration between Project Online & Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS): Team Projects, using the OneConnect integration platform.
About
OneConnect for Visual Studio Online offers a seamless approach to exchange critical information between development teams and project teams using Project Online and Visual Studio.
This integration specifically synchronizes projects from Project Online to VSTS as TeamProjects. VSTS work items (typically tasks & bugs) synchronize back to ProjectOnline as project Tasks.
Key Capabilities
Agile Project Visibility in Project Online
Synchronize key data between Project Online and Visual Studio to establish enterprise level portfolio level visibility. Regardless of team execution methodology (i.e. waterfall or agile), projects are centrally visible for analysis & reporting.
Resource Management
Build better forecasts and gain greater insight into capacity & demand, taking into account all types of projects when optimizing your portfolio of projects. See all work assigned (project online workload and VSTS workload).
Resources are mapped via same email address in both Project Online & VSTS, typically their Active Directory (AD) account.
Timesheets / Actual Work
Completed hours entered into VSTS sync back to Project Online Timesheets. Users don't need to do double entry of time/actual work hours.
Process
This is the high level process flow for using the integration.
- Projects are usually created in Project Online. Teams may use their normal process for project approval, portfolio analysis, etc.
- When a project is active & ready to execute using VSTS with an agile methodology, the PM synchronizes the project to VSTS by clicking on the synchronize button.
- A project is created in VSTS as a 'Team Project' with the same project name.
- The PM builds out the project's agile plan (epics, features, user stories, task & bugs).
- The PM put work items (tasks & bugs) into an iteration. This is important, as only items noted into an iteration will sync back to Project Online.
- Team members work using VSTS as usual. They update status on work items (tasks & bugs), enter hours (remaining, etc).
- Updates sync back to Project Online. The data that syncs back is based on the configuration settings mapped fields. This can be done on a scheduled timed-basis or on-demand. The schedule is part of the configuration settings (hourly, daily, etc.). If syncing on-demand, go to the Dashboard page in VSTS and click "Project Online". Then, click the "Push" button to sync.
- Back in Project Online, the project is updated with the VSTS work items as Tasks in the project schedule. Note: the tasks come in flat rather than with a WBS (work breakdown structure) hierarchy.
Important Notes
- If project exists first in VSTS but not Project Online, when publishing/syncing from VSTS, a new project will be created in Project Online & will be mapped to the VSTS project.
- The integration is also supported on Team Foundation Services (On-Premise), but only for the following versions: 2015, 2017, & 2018.
- Must have full admin privileges/accounts in both Project Online & VSTS to configure the integration.
- Field mapping - there are only a few available VSTS project level fields. VSTS does not allow for custom project level fields. Custom task level fields can be created and mapped to Project Online fields.
- The default VSTS Work Item types are Tasks and Bugs. These sync to the Project Online Tasks list. Other types can be configured, such as Epics, User Stories, etc.