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Manage problems or impediments in Azure Boards

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server | Azure DevOps Server 2022

Track unplanned activities that block your team's progress by using the impediment (Scrum) or problem (Agile or CMMI) work item type. These work items represent blockers that require extra effort beyond what's planned for actual requirements. Use them to track and manage problems until you resolve and close them.

Don't confuse impediments with bugs. Impediments track broader blockers that affect delivery of one or more requirements, such as:

  • Feature ambiguity or unclear specifications
  • Personnel or resource constraints
  • Environment or infrastructure problems
  • Risks that affect scope, quality, or schedule
  • Decisions that require input from multiple stakeholders or product teams

Important

Problems and impediments in this article apply to 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 uses the Basic process, which tracks work with Epics, Problems, and Tasks, you track Problems on the product backlog. For more information, see Track problems and tasks.

Prerequisites

Category Requirements
Permissions - To view, follow, and edit work items: View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has these permissions. For more information, see Set work tracking permissions.
- To add tags to work items: Project-level Create new tag definition permission set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission.
Access levels - Project member.
- To add new tags to work items or to view or follow pull requests: At least Basic access.
- To view or follow work items: At least Stakeholder access. For more information, see About access levels.
- All project members, including members in the Readers group, can send emails containing work items.

Note

  • Provide Stakeholder access to members who want to contribute to the discussion and review progress. These members typically don't contribute to code, but want to view work items, backlogs, boards, and dashboards.
  • By default, all Contributors and Stakeholders in public projects can add new and existing tags. In private projects, Stakeholders can only add existing tags. To control the ability to create new tags, set the Create tag definition permission at the project level. For more information, see Change project-level permissions.

Note

  • Provide Stakeholder access to members who want to contribute to the discussion and review progress. These are typically members who don't contribute to code, but want to view work items, backlogs, boards, and dashboards.

Tip

You can use AI to help with this task later in this article, or see Enable AI assistance with Azure DevOps MCP Server to get started.

Use a Related link type to connect issues or impediments to user stories or other work items they block.

You can also define tasks that relate to the blocker:

  • Create a checklist of tasks to track resolution steps.
  • If you use Scrum methods, track effort with the Remaining Work field.
  • Link requirement work item types to tasks with the Parent-Child link type so tasks appear on the taskboard for each linked user story.

Note

If your project collection uses the On-premises XML process model, you can enable work item types added to the Task Category to appear as a checklist on your product board.

Add a problem or impediment

  1. Go to Boards > Work Items and select the plus icon.

  2. From the New work item menu, select the work item type for your process — Impediment (Scrum), Issue (Agile), or Problem (CMMI).

    Screenshot to add an Impediment from the New Work Item list.

  3. (Optional) Select the pin icon to pin the work item type to the add dropdown menu for quick access.

Customize problem and impediment tracking

For most work item types, you can add fields, change the workflow, add custom rules, and add custom pages to the work item form. You can also add custom work item types. For more information, see Customize an inheritance process.

For most work item types, you can add fields, change the workflow, add custom rules, and add custom pages to the work item form. You can also add custom work item types. For more information, see Customize an inheritance process or Customize the On-premises XML process model, depending on the process model your project uses.

By default, problems and impediments don't appear on your backlog. Use queries to track them, or add them to your backlog by customizing your process. For more information, see Add problems or impediments to your product backlog.

By default, problems and impediments don't appear on your backlog. Use queries to track them. To show them on your backlog, customize your project with the On-premises XML process model. For more information, see Customize the On-premises XML process model.

Add problems or impediments to your product backlog

To display problems or impediments alongside your requirements or on a portfolio backlog, add the work item type to your custom Inherited process. For step-by-step instructions, see Customize your backlogs or boards (Inheritance process).

To display problems or impediments alongside your requirements or on a portfolio backlog, customize your project's process:

Use AI to manage problems and blockers

If you connect the Azure Boards MCP Server to your AI agent in agent mode, you can use natural language prompts to create and manage problems or blockers.

Task Example prompt
Create a blocker Create a new blocker titled 'Test environment unavailable' with priority 1 and assign it to <me>
List active blockers List all active blockers in the current sprint for my team
Create a problem Create a problem to track the decision about the API versioning strategy and assign it to <Jamal>
Resolve a blocker Update blocker 456 to the Resolved state and add a comment that the environment issue is fixed
Find recurring blockers Show blockers in <Contoso> that were created in the last 3 sprints with similar titles or tags
Track blocker age List active blockers in <Contoso> sorted by how long they've been open
Link blocker to blocked items Show all work items in the current sprint for <Contoso> that are linked to active blockers
Escalate unresolved problems List problems in <Contoso> with priority 1 that have been active for more than 7 days
Categorize blockers Show active blockers in <Contoso> grouped by tag
Sprint retrospective prep List all blockers that were resolved during the current sprint in <Contoso> with their resolution comments

Note

Agent mode and the MCP Server use natural language, so you can adjust these prompts or ask follow-up questions to refine the results.

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