Build Roadmaps in Azure Boards!
Create a single page Portfolio view that shows the status of related Epics and Features across Projects.
Take advantage of built-in Epic Status quality checks that flag missing backlog items, items without points or hours, and other insights!
Portfolio++ is built for Program Managers, Product Owners, and Development Teams who use Azure Boards.
We built it for our own client engagement teams to help them plans, develop, deliver, and communicate clearly with our clients. It’s been a game changer for us, and we hope it is useful for your teams too.
Major Features
- Cross-Project Epic/Feature Roadmaps (Gantt, by Date)
- Project Epic/Feature Timelines (Gantt, by Iteration Path)
- Roadmaps and Timelines Configurable through Settings and Filters
- All views "drill-through" and/or "drill-down" capable
- Roadmap Mode Selectable: Manual (for Planning) and Generated (for Actuals)
- Context sensitive error messages
- Epic Status supports Quality Assurance efforts across Team Backlogs
- Roadmaps and Timelines can be printed through .png file snapshots
NEW: Supports Agile, Scrum Process Templates and custom work items at the Portfolio Backlog Level
Create a Roadmap
Click ‘Add Roadmap’ to get started.
Define your Roadmap
Add Projects and Epics to your Roadmap. Create as many Roadmap views as your teams need. Select which Projects and Epics show up to provide project visibility without clutter.
Show Epics, Filter Dates, and Print
Show Progress Metrics
You can change which progress metrics show on your Roadmap. Show Story Counts and use the Roadmap view for high-level discussions of team progress. Or Story Points, Effort and Task Counts for daily stand-ups. This view shows all three selected.
Enhanced Epic/Feature Timeline
Access the Team's Epic/Feature Timeline view directly from the Backlog Tab. Use filters to reduce the width of long running Iteration Paths. Choose which metrics to display on progress bars.
Quality Check
Stop clicking through each Project Area's Backlog to make sure Stories or Product Backlog Items have Story Points or Effort, are decomposed into Tasks, and that Tasks have hours. The Epic Status view highlights these challenges and gives you a “drill-through” button click to the show the Stories and Tasks of concern, so teams can fix issues quickly.
Configuration Details
- Requirements
- Project Organization Administrator is required to install Portfolio++
- Portfolio++ requires Azure DevOps Services or Azure Devops Server 2020
- Users need Analytics permissions; please refer to this document
- Azure DevOps Organization settings for Boards/Process should be Agile or Scrum
- Constraints
- Roadmaps cannot cross Project Organizations.
- Roadmap permissions are managed through Azure DevOps Organization Settings, User Roles, Team affiliations, and Project Area access, i.e., if you have access to all the Project Areas that feed a Roadmap, then you can see it.
- In the Settings dialog, selecting ‘Manual’ requires that each Epic and Feature’s Start Date and Target Dates be defined, or be in an Itertion Path.
- In the Settings dialog, ‘Generated’ requires that at least one Epic or Feature’s backlog work items have been pulled into an Iteration.
- Recommendations (Roadmaps work better when...)
- All work items are “parented” up to a Portfolio level work item, e.g. Epic or Feature, or Equivalent Custom Work Item)
- Refrain from type "nesting"; i.e. Epics that are children of Epics
- Backlog items should have Points or Hours (as appropriate) estimated when pulled into an Iteration Path
Documentation and Help
Watch demo videos and learn about best practices with Portfolio++ on the iTrellis product page
Release Notes and new Feature requests
We are actively iterating on this project, and we greatly appreciate the feedback we have received from this community. We continue to release new features, and your feedback helps us prioritize our work. Please help us by submitting bug and feature requests. We have received some great suggestion for improvements from this community, many of which are reflected in the updates below.
Please reach out to us here.
2/15/2021
- Fixed an issue where searching for Epics in the Roadmap Settings panel was causing duplicate Epics to be displayed in the list
2/11/2021
- Refactoring: View Framework and Query Parsing / Performance improvements for large Projects
- 3274: As a user I would like to see Portfolio++ in the Hub Groups in the side navigation so I do not have to open my Boards Hub to view Portfolio++
- 3139 - As a user I want to be able to add custom Epic types to my Roadmap
- 3144 - As a user I want to be able to view custom Epics and Feature types in my Roadmaps
- 3505: Show Features in Generated View Mode if they are in an Iteration Path. No longer required to have subordinate work items in Iteration Paths to be visible
12/29/2020
- Fixed an issue where Epics are not filtering by Project under Project Settings
- Improved error handling for Work Items where Title is empty in Project Settings
12/09/2020
- 2370: As a user I want to be able to print roadmaps, epic status, feature timelines from Portfolio++
- 2797: As a user I want to filter what is shown in my timeline by setting a date range
- 3094: As a user I want Portfolio++ to add support for virtual directory
11/6/2020
- 3045: As a user, I want to be able to view the Epic/Feature timeline as a tab in the Team's backlogs view
10/16/2020
- 3023: As a user I want to be able to use Portfolio++ with the Scrum Process Template
10/9/2020
- 3015: As a user, I want Portfolio++ to add support for Azure Devops Server 2019
- 3028: As a user, I want Portfolio++ to add browser support for Edge 44 and later releases
9/25/2020
- 2731: As a user, I want the Roadmap Directory to use familiar Azure Devops Projects page layout and behavior
- 2738: As a user, I want to mark Roadmaps I created as private so only I can see them
- 2671: As a user, I want to understand the EULA and Privacy Statement for Portfolio++
- 2662: As a user, I want to use standard forward and backward browser navigation in the extension
- 2765: As a user, I don’t want to see cards behind the headers when scrolling vertically
- 2806: As a user, I want Roadmap views and Epic Status to load faster
- 2811: As a user, on the Epic Status tab, I do not want to see a green check indicator on “empty Epics”
9/8/2020 Release Notes
- 2806: As a user I want the Timeline and Epic Status views to load faster
- 2811: As a user I don't want to see a green check next to the Epic if there are no child work items defined
- 2765: As a user I don't want to see the cards in the Timelines behind the headers when scrolling vertically
- 2895: As a user, I want to see the User Story Modal utilize the maximum width of the screen.
- 2662: As a user I want to be able to use standard browser navigation in the extension
