Excel Round-Trip for Boards

Excel Round-Trip exports Azure Boards work items to an .xlsx file, lets you edit them in Excel, and applies the edits back to Azure DevOps after you review every change. It runs in the browser. There is no desktop add-in and no Office integration to install: the file is a standard .xlsx, so it can be edited in Excel on Windows, Excel for Mac or Excel for the web.

Open it from Boards > Excel Round-Trip, or from Export to Excel (Round-Trip) on a query, on query results, or on selected backlog items.

Export

• Pick a saved query, or open the menu on a query, on query results or on selected backlog items. Selected work items can also be typed in by ID.
• The columns start from the query's columns. Add, remove and reorder fields before downloading.
• Hierarchy layout: Title 1, Title 2, Title 3 columns show parents and children, like the classic Excel add-in. Moving a title to another level, or a row under another parent, changes the parent on import.
• Flat layout: one Title column, with an optional Parent column that takes a work item ID.
• In-cell dropdowns for State (per work item type), Priority, picklists, Area Path and Iteration Path.
• The file is built in the browser. Work item data does not pass through any LeDuc server.

Edit in Excel

Change values, fill in blank rows to create new work items (Work Item Type and Title are enough), and save. IDs link to the work items. Grey columns are read-only.

Import with a diff preview

Upload the saved file. Before anything is written, Excel Round-Trip shows:

• Field-level changes: the current value and the new value for each edited field.
• New work items, including children placed under a new parent in the same file.
• Conflicts: a field you edited that someone else also changed in Azure DevOps since the export. These rows are left out unless you pick them.
• Errors per row: values that are not allowed for the work item type, state changes the process does not allow, Area or Iteration paths that do not exist, text in a number or date column. Each remaining change is then checked by Azure DevOps itself (a validate-only call), so rule errors show before anything is saved.

Apply, with progress and undo

• Updates and new items are applied through the Azure DevOps REST API with a progress bar and a result on each row. A failed row does not stop the others.
• Each update carries the revision it was previewed at, so a work item changed in the meantime fails with a message instead of being overwritten.
• Every import keeps an undo log: the previous values of each updated field, the previous parent, and the items it created. Undo puts the values back and moves created items to the Recycle Bin. Items edited again after the import are skipped unless you choose to undo them anyway.
• Download updated workbook gives a fresh file with the new work item IDs filled in.

Pricing

Free during the early release: export any number of work items, and import up to 100 changed rows per import. Larger files can be applied in parts by unselecting rows.

Notes

• Rich text fields such as Description are plain text in the sheet. A cell you edit replaces that field's formatting in Azure DevOps; cells you leave alone are not touched.
• Rows deleted from the sheet are left as they are in Azure DevOps. Work items are never deleted by an import.
• Changing the Work Item Type of an existing item is not applied; change it in Azure DevOps.
• Permissions follow Azure DevOps: the import can only change what your account can change.

Support: https://leducsystems.com/excel-roundtrip/azure-devops/support/