Change a project process from Agile to Scrum

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

You can change a project that uses the Agile process to use an inherited Scrum process. This article provides the steps needed to make this change.

Before you make this change, familiarize yourself with the process you're changing to. The Task, Bug, Feature, and Epic work item types are the same for both Scrum and Agile processes. Some State and Reason field values, however, are different.

Process	Work item types	Workflow
Agile
Scrum

For more information, see About processes and process templates.

Reasons you might want to change your process from Agile to Scrum include:

• You want to use Product Backlog Item and Effort instead of User Story and Story Points.
• Your organization requires everyone to standardize their tracking with a customized inherited process based on the Scrum process.

Prerequisites

Open Settings>Process

Create and customize a Scrum inherited process

First, create an inherited process that you can customize. You can't customize the default, system processes.

1. From the Process page, choose the actions icon of the Scrum system process, and then select Create inherited process. Name the process "Scrum - Inherited".

2. If your current project uses the User Story and Issue work item types, add these work item types to the "Scrum - Inherited" process.

   You don't need to add any details to these work item types because you'll change them later to Product Backlog Item and Impediment. However, if you captured details within a field - such as Story Points, Priority, or other field - add those fields to the work item types.

3. When you finish, your work item types list should appear as follows.

   

Change the project process

1. Choose the process that contains the project you want to change. To change from Agile to Scrum, choose Agile or the custom process based on Agile. Here, choose Agile.

   

2. Choose Projects, and then choose the actions icon for the project you want to change. Select Change process. Here, choose the MyAgile project.

   

   Follow the steps in the wizard.

3. Choose the Scrum - Inherited process that you created earlier and then choose Save.

   

   If you skipped step 2 of Create and customize a Scrum inherited process, you receive the following message to add the missing work item types.

   

   Close the wizard dialog and add the missing work item types now. See Add and manage work item types.

4. Upon successful completion, the wizard displays the following information. Make a note of the steps to follow and then choose Close.

   

Steps to manually update your work items and board settings:

• Update the column to state mapping for each team board.
• Update existing work items by using the work item types set by the target process.
• Update existing work items by using the correct state model of the target process.

Update board column-to-state settings

You can customize boards to display intermediate columns. For each column you add, choose a valid workflow state for the work item types displayed on the board. For more information, see Workflow states & state categories.

1. For each team, open your board.

2. Choose the Correct this now link or the gear icon to configure the board settings.

   The Settings dialog opens. Those tabs that display a required icon need correction.

   

   Rename each column and choose the correct state for each column so that the column-to-state mapping is correct. Add one or more columns as needed. When done, choose Save and close.

   

Update work items

Next, bulk update work items. Follow this sequence:

• Create a work item query that displays all work items that need updating.
• Perform a bulk update to change the work item type of User Story work items to Product Backlog Items.
• Perform a bulk update on all States to change from Agile states - Active, Resolved, and Closed - to Scrum process states - Approved, Committed, and Done.

1. Create a query to get a list of all User Stories, Issues, Features, Tasks, and Epics. You need to change the work item type of the first two work item types, and the State and Reason fields for all items.

   

2. Choose the actions icon and then select Column options. Choose to show the State and Reason fields. Choose the Sort tab, and set it to sort the list by work item type and state value.

   

3. Choose Results to show only the list of work items.

4. Highlight all User Stories, choose the actions icon, select Change type, and change the type to Product Backlog Item.

   

   For more details, see Move, change, or delete work items, Change the work item type.

   You might receive errors where the work item type and the state don't match. In that case, you can't save your changes until you update the state as described in the next step.

   

5. Highlight all work items of the same State, such as Resolved, choose the actions icon, and then select Edit. Add the State field and select Committed or a valid value for the Product Backlog Item. You might also need to update the Reason field. For details, see Bulk edit work items.

   

   This update removes the errors.

   

6. To save your changes, choose the actions icon and select Save items.

7. Repeat the preceding steps to change the work item type for Issue to Impediment, and update the states to valid states for the work item types.

8. When done, make sure you choose the actions icon and select Save items.

Verify your changes

1. Go to your team backlog and review the user stories.

   

2. Go to your team board and verify that the column settings are valid.

   

   To add columns or change column names, see Add columns to your board.

Optional updates

After changing the process, you might want to make the following updates:

• Change the project name.
• Update your project summary or vision.
• Disable or delete the work item types that you won't use going forward. See Customize a work item type for an inherited process.

Related content

• Bulk modify work items
• Change the process used by a project
• Create an inherited process
• Add and manage work item types
• Show bugs on backlogs and boards
• Customize your boards
• Create and saved managed queries with the query editor