- Article
Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019 | TFS 2018
If you have known issues you want to track, you can do so by defining an impediment (Scrum) or issue (Agile or CMMI). Impediments and issues represent unplanned activities. Resolving them requires more work beyond what's tracked for actual requirements. Use the impediment work item type to help you track and manage these issues until you can resolve and close them.
Don't confuse impediments with bugs. You track impediments that may cause problems with delivering one or more requirements. For example, you may have to fix feature ambiguity, personnel or resource issues, problems with environments, or other risks that influence scope, quality, or schedule. Other issues that deserve tracking are decisions that require several stakeholders or product teams to weigh in on.
Important
Issues and Impediments discussed in this article are defined for projects created with the Agile, Scrum, or CMMI process. By default, these work item types don't appear on the product backlog or taskboard.
If your project was created using the Basic process, which tracks work using Epics, Issues, and Tasks, then you track Issues using the product backlog. To learn more, see Track issues and tasks.
Important
Issues and Impediments discussed in this article are defined for projects created with the Agile, Scrum, or CMMI process. By default, these work item types don't appear on the product backlog or taskboard.
In this article you'll learn:
- When to use issues versus tasks
- How to capture issues or impediments as a work item
- Add issues or impediments to your product backlog
- When to use issues versus tasks
- How to capture issues or impediments as a work item
Prerequisites
- You must connect to a project. If you don't have a project yet, create one.
- You must be added to a project. To get added, Add users to a project or team.
- To view or modify work items, you must have your View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. To learn more, see Set permissions and access for work tracking.
- To add new tags to add to work items, you must have Basic access or higher and have the project-level Create new tag definition permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. Even if the permission is explicitly set for a Stakeholder, they won't have permission to add new tags, as they are prohibited through their access level. To learn more, see Stakeholder access quick reference.
- All project members, even those who belong to the Readers group, can email work items.
- You must connect to a project. If you don't have a project yet, create one.
- You must be added to a project. To get added, Add users to a project or team.
- To view or modify work items, you must have your View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. To learn more, see Set permissions and access for work tracking.
- To add new tags to add to work items, you must have Basic access or higher and have the project-level Create new tag definition permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. Even if the permission is explicitly set for a Stakeholder, they won't have permission to add new tags, as they are prohibited through their access level. To learn more, see Stakeholder access quick reference.
- All project members, even those who belong to the Readers group, can email work items.
Note
The images you see from your web portal may differ from the images you see in this article. These differences result from updates made to your web app, options that you or your admin have enabled, and which process was chosen when creating your project—Agile, Basic, Scrum, or CMMI. The Basic process is available with Azure DevOps Server 2019 Update 1 and later versions.
Define a task
You use issues or impediments to track items that may block work from getting done. In general, you link these items to user stories or other work items using a Related link type.
Define tasks when you want to create a checklist of tasks. You can also define tasks if you use Scrum methods and track work using the Remaining Work field. By linking requirement work item types to tasks using the Parent-Child link type, the tasks appear on the taskboard for each linked user story.
Note
If your project collection uses the On-premises XML process model to customize work tracking, you can enable work item types that you add to the Task Category to appear as a checklist on your product Kanban board. To learn how, see Set up your backlogs and boards, Customize your Kanban Board checklist items.
If you want to add these work item types to a backlog, see Customize your backlogs or boards.
Add an issue or impediment
Open Boards>Work Items, and choose the 
plus icon, and then select from the New work item menu of options.
Choose the 
pin icon to have it show up within the add drop down menu.
From Work, choose Impediment from the New Work Item list of options. Choose the pin icon to have it show up within Work drop down menu.
Customize issue tracking
You can add fields, change the workflow, add custom rules, and add custom pages to the work item form of most work item types. You can also add custom work item types. For details, see Customize an inheritance process.
You can add fields, change the workflow, add custom rules, and add custom pages to the work item form of most work item types. You can also add custom work item types. For details, see Customize an inheritance process or Customize the On-premises XML process model depending on the process model used by your project.
You can add fields, change the workflow, add custom rules, and add custom pages to the work item form of most work item types. You can also add custom work item types. For details, see Customize the On-premises XML process model.
Issues and impediments don't appear on your backlog by default. Instead, you track them using queries. To track them on a backlog, see the next section, Add issues or impediments to your product backlog.
Impediments and issues don't appear on your backlog. Instead, you track them using queries. They only appear on your backlog if your project is customized using the On-premises XML process model. To learn more, see Customize the On-premises XML process model.
Impediments and issues don't appear on your backlog. Instead, you track them using queries. If you want them to appear on your backlog, or you want to track other work item types on your backlog, see Add a work item type to a backlog and board.
Add issues or impediments to your product backlog
If you want to track issues or impediments along with your requirements or a portfolio backlog, you can track them by adding them to your custom Inherited process. For details, see Customize your backlogs or boards (Inheritance process).
If you want to track issues or impediments along with your requirements or a portfolio backlog, you can track them by customizing your project's process. For details, see the following:
- For the Inherited process: Customize your backlogs or boards (Inheritance process).
- For the On-premise XML process: Process configuration XML element reference).
If you want to track issues or impediments along with your requirements or a portfolio backlog, you can track them by adding them to your On-premise XML process. For details, see Process configuration XML element reference).
Related articles
- Add work items
- Work item form controls
- Manage bugs or code defects
- Create your backlog