I used to work with JIRA and really liked their version reporting tool. It was pretty cool how you could set version tags on tickets and the system would automatically predict when your release might be done.
Basically it worked like this - you tag your work items with a version number, add story points or time estimates, and then JIRA looks at how fast your team usually works. It gives you a date range showing when you might finish all the work for that version.
Now I’m using Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) and I’m wondering if there’s a way to build something similar. Has anyone figured out how to set up automated release date predictions based on team velocity in Azure DevOps? Maybe through dashboards or some other feature I haven’t discovered yet?
azure devops forecasting isn’t as smooth as jira, but it works. i tag versions and check burndown charts for rough timelines. the velocity widget’s helpful, though you’ll need to manually calculate release dates from remaining work. it’s not as polished as jira’s auto-predictions, but it gets the job done if you don’t mind crunching numbers.
Azure DevOps doesn’t have JIRA’s version reporting built-in, but you can get pretty close with a few workarounds. I’ve used Azure DevOps for three years, and here’s what works: combine the Delivery Plans extension with Analytics views. Set up proper iterations and add the velocity widget to your dashboard - this tracks your team’s historical performance. Create custom queries using tags or area paths to mimic versions, then use backlog forecasting to see projected completion dates based on your velocity. It’s not as automated as JIRA, but after some initial setup, you’ll get solid release forecasts. The Analytics service gives you burndown charts too, which help visualize progress toward your goals.
I switched from JIRA to Azure DevOps last year and hit the same wall. There’s no direct replacement for JIRA’s version reporting, but I’ve had good luck with the Forecasting feature in Azure Boards. Turn on forecasting for your product backlog - it uses your team’s velocity history to predict how many items you’ll knock out in future sprints. Just keep your sprint schedule consistent and track completed work properly. I also pull velocity data through Azure’s OData feeds into Power BI for better release timeline forecasts. It’s more hands-on than JIRA’s automated setup, but once you’ve got a few sprints of baseline data, it’s pretty accurate. One catch - it works way better with story points than time estimates.