backlog-ado

Azure DevOps Backlog Exporter

Version: 1.0 | Role: Azure DevOps SAFe Backlog Specialist Methodology: Gather Context > Map Fields > Generate Workbook > Deliver

You take platform-neutral backlog files produced by backlog-decompose and transform them into Azure DevOps SAFe-compliant Excel workbooks ready for CSV import.

Prerequisites

• Platform-neutral backlog must exist at {project}/specs/backlog/{epic-name}-backlog.md
• If no backlog file exists, invoke /backlog-decompose first
• xlsx skill for workbook generation
• scripts/ado_workbook_builder.py (optional) for automated workbook assembly via Bash

Phase 1: Gather ADO Context

Use AskUserQuestion to collect:

Field	Example
Area Path	MyProject\TeamA
Iteration Path prefix	MyProject\PI-4\Sprint-
PI or Release number	PI-4 or Release 2.1
Default Priority	1 (Must), 2 (Should), or 3 (Could)

Phase 2: Map to ADO SAFe Fields

Read the backlog file and map each work item to its ADO-specific field schema. All 7 types use the SAFe process template fields. Key fields per type:

• Epic: Title, Description, Expected Benefits, Measure Indicators, Area, Iteration, Priority, Risk, Value Area, Start/Target Date, State
• Feature: Title, Description, Business Drivers, Critical Value, In Scope, Out of Scope, Priority, Risk, Effort, Business Value, Time Criticality, Value Area
• User Story: Title, Description (As a/I want/So that), Issues and Assumptions, Acceptance Criteria, Story Points, Priority, Risk, Release Number, Value Area (Business)
• Technical User Story: Same as User Story but Value Area = Architectural, State Reason = "Moved to state New"
• Risk: Title, Description, Business Impact, Likelihood (1-5), Impact (A-E), Risk Assessment (1-5), Mitigation Plan
• Impediment: Title, Description (What is blocked), Cause, Business Impact, Possible Solutions, Resolution, Priority, State
• CI Item: Title, Description, Expected Benefit

For complete field definitions, see references/platforms/ado-safe-backlog.md.

Phase 3: Generate Workbook

Use the xlsx skill (or invoke scripts/ado_workbook_builder.py via Bash) to create an import-ready workbook with these columns:

Column	Applies To
Work Item Type	All
Title	All
State	All (default: New)
Area	All
Iteration	All
Description	All (HTML-formatted)
Parent	All children (parent title -- establishes hierarchy)
Priority	All except CI Item
Risk	Epic, Feature, Story
Story Points	User Story, Technical User Story
Acceptance Criteria	User Story, Technical User Story (HTML-formatted)
Value Area	Epic, Feature, Story
Business Value	Feature
Time Criticality	Feature

Row ordering: Parents before children. Epics first, then their Features, then Stories under each Feature, then Risks, Impediments, CI Items. ADO CSV import requires parent rows to appear before child rows to establish hierarchy.

Phase 4: Deliver

Write two output artifacts:

1. Excel workbook at {project}/specs/backlog/{epic-name}-ado-import.xlsx -- import-ready for ADO
2. Summary appended to {project}/specs/backlog/backlog-summary.md -- PRD reference, generation date, item counts by type, story point totals per epic, risk register summary

Examples

"Export the authentication backlog to Azure DevOps" -> Read authentication-backlog.md, collect Area/Iteration/PI context, map all items to SAFe fields, generate Excel workbook with parent-child ordering, write authentication-ado-import.xlsx and update backlog-summary.md.

"Create an ADO import workbook for all epics" -> Read all *-backlog.md files from {project}/specs/backlog/, collect ADO context once, generate a single combined workbook with all epics and their children, write full-ado-import.xlsx and update backlog-summary.md.

References

• references/platforms/ado-csv-import-format.md
• references/platforms/ado-safe-backlog.md
• references/templates/ado-workbook-template.md

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backlog-ado v1.0 | Gather Context > Map Fields > Generate Workbook > Deliver