Work Item Twins is an extension that helps you synchronize work items between two different project boards within the same Azure DevOps organization. This is particularly useful for teams that need to track the same work in multiple projects.
Features
Create twins: Clone a work item from one project to another with a single click.
Parent Linking: Optionally select a parent work item in the target project when creating a twin.
Manual Bidirectional Sync: Manually synchronize changes between twin work items using the "Manual Sync" button. The sync direction is automatically determined based on the last updated time.
Field Selection (on Creation): Choose which fields to copy when initially creating the twin work item.
Relationship Tracking: Uses tags (WITwin:{unique-id}) and work item relations (System.LinkTypes.Related) to maintain the connection between twins.
Navigate to Twin: Easily jump to the twin work item from the panel.
How to Use
Open a work item in Azure DevOps.
Click the "Work Item Twins" button in the work item toolbar.
Select the target project.
Optionally, search for and select a parent work item in the target project.
Choose which fields to synchronize for the initial creation.
Click "Create Twin Work Item".
Once a twin exists, use the "Manual Sync" button to synchronize changes based on the last update time.
Synchronization Details
Work items are linked with a special tag in the format WITwin:{unique-id} and a "Related" link type.
Automatic Sync (Future): Automatic synchronization triggered by work item updates is planned for a future version but is not included in the current release.
Manual Sync: The "Manual Sync" button compares the System.ChangedDate of both twins and copies field values from the more recently updated item to the older one. Only fields with different values are updated.
System fields specific to each project (like ID, Project, Area Path, Iteration Path, etc.) are preserved during sync.
Use Cases
Cross-project tracking of features or tasks.
Maintaining synchronized backlogs across multiple teams.
Supporting shared services teams that work with multiple product teams.
