cschleiden/azure-boards-estimate

Estimate - Planning Poker for Azure Boards

Update 3/26/2021: I am going to shut down this extension and deactive the backend in the near future.

I also have lost permissions to update the extension on the marketplace unfortunately, so I'm not able to accept any PRs or deploy changes.

Update 3/18/2020: As stated below, I do not work on the Azure Boards team anymore, and as of now I don't have time to maintain this extension.

Azure Boards Estimate

Contributing

Update 9/18/19: I don't work on the Azure Boards team anymore so I'll have less time to work on this extension. If you want to send a PR I'll gladly review and merge it.

Developing and Testing

To test your work, first follow these steps to set up a DevOps marketplace publisher account (if you already have an account move on).

1. Run npm run package-dev and upload the package as a private extension to your Azure DevOps publisher account

Note: You may need to add a directory called build to the project root when running the script. The output of the package-dev script is there.

• Be sure to update the manifest.json to use your publisher's ID before running the script.

2. Install the private extension on your Azure DevOps oragnization and test your changes.

Upgrading to current version

When upgrading from the first version, you need to approve additional OAuth scopes:

azure-boards-estimate's Issues

Allow adding new work items to an existing session

Only shows 100 teams

The "Team" drop down in "Create Session" only shows 100 teams, we have quite a few more than that so some teams are unable to use the tool.

Support OnPrem TFS

Mobile estimation?

It would be helpful to be able to estimate using a mobile device. Is mobile estimation possible with this extension? Thus far it seems that we'd have to switch to desktop mode on the mobile browser, which has difficulties.

If it's not built in, are there workarounds? For example, direct links to estimation sessions.

V2 Sessions are not project scoped

V2 : estimate session from a query limited to 200 work items

We tried to circumvent #19 by starting a session from a query but then ran into this limitation. Which is maybe alright in itself, but I would suggest to rather cut off at 200 work items and tell the user rather than doing nothing.

Why? -> There is no really good way to limit a query to a number of results, so You never know if estimate will let You use a certain query.

After committing a value to the story, no visual indicator is made for any member of the session to know it is done

Selecting the "Items" option for a new session does nothing and does not allow a new session to be created. No idea what it does.

Allow starting an estimate session from a query result

V2 : set of cards missing 100

Hi,

not that we are very fond of this card :-) But for some things this will be missed.
Maybe resolved when #11 is implemented.

Allow customization of cards

• Should support t-shirt sizes

V2 : Feature Request : More Info per work item in an estimate session

Right now we can see the description of a work item. This is often not enough to decide what to vote. This would be helpful:

• show also the acceptance criteria
• show the parent tree (especially needed when working with multiple epics having multiple features - developers frequently ask "to what does this belong?". So You end up opening the work item, which shows the feature... which You open to see the parent epic)

---

How do we work in V1? -> select from a query and start an estimate. In this query include epics and features together with the PBI/Bugs. Then at least the estimate list contains those in order and we are spared clicking too much. As for the Info on the PBI/Bug itselt: no solution but opening it in a new tab.
So basically V2 looks like a step into the right direction, being totally awesome if this suggestion finds Your fancy :-)

Items are included in the estimation list which are not "Requirement" type items (Tasks, etc.) Makes a mess

Show average again

In V1 there was a field showing the average vote, this was quite helpful.
Can you please add that back again?

Maybe you can round that value so that it can also be accepted as estimate?

V2: Sort the the Team drop down

The drop down for Team when creating a new session based on a Sprint doesn't appear to have any sort applied. It would be very nice to have it sort alphabetically for organizations that have a large number of teams.

Clicking on user story link seems to reset votes

Estimate work items in an iteration not populating

Since about 1-2 weeks we have a problem, that the dropdown "Estimate work items in an iteration" does no longer populate, though iterations exist.

In other projects of the same account, the dropdown is populated.

Any ideas ?

When coffee cup is selected, keep through subsequent estimates

We use the coffee symbol estimate to indicate when someone needs to step out for a few minutes.
If this was the intended use, can the tool auto fill the coffee cup estimate for every estimate? Until the individual returns and starts estimating again by selecting something besides the coffee cup.

V2: Add/move reveal button to bottom

With the V2 preview the reveal button is at the top with the backlog or bug title. For items with lengthy descriptions or screenshots, this means that after voting, I have to scroll back up top to reveal it and scroll back down to see the results. A second button or moving it to the bottom with the cards would be incredibly helpful.

V2.0.7 - IE11 users get Symbol is undefined error

Users who are using IE 11 are not able to participate in estimating sessions after the release of v2.0.7. They are getting the following error "Could not load session: 'Symbol' is undefined"

Add context menu option to start session from backlog/query result

V2 missed feature : start estimate from a selection of work items

Hi,

In V2 I can not start an estimate session from a selection of work items (from a query). I do not know if this is related to the very old #2 ?

Anyway, if this is a duplicate - sorry!

There is an empty/grey box over the top of the "Esimate: - " label with nothing in it...ever.

Ensure that selected queries don't contain any user specific filters

When you start a session using a query that contains a macro like @me participants will see different work items, this should be blocked.

Side cards should show Story Points once they've been applied to a work item

Currently after you do an estimate and apply Story Points to the work item, the card on the side of the screen is updated to show the newly assigned Story Points value, but only for the host; None of the other participants are able to see the value that was applied to the work item. Ideally as soon as the host applies the Story Points to the work item, it would refresh on all participants screens to show the estimate number on the work item card on the side.

Allow users to see old sessions

An embedded page at ms-devlabs.gallerycdn.vsassets.io says Could not connect to backend for real time communication

When tried to start new estimate session or join estimate session below shown popup appears with message "An embedded page at ms-devlabs.gallerycdn.vsassets.io says Could not connect to backend for real time communication" and redirects to Estimates page. Simply cannot start or join an estimate session. Checked with AAD backed organization account and with personal accounts of Azure DevOps. Behavior is same.

Image upload

V2 - Ability to enter comments on a work item whilst scoring

Our team has had many instances where the estimation session results in us wanting to make notes on a work item for future action/reference outside of the user story/acceptance criteria.
We then typically have to open a new window, enter the text and save the information.

It would be useful to have an option to add a comment on the selected work item, whilst scoring within the estimation session.

V2 : estimate from a query - sorting

Sorting of original query gets lost when creating an estimate from a query.

Recover already ended estimation

Is there a way to bring back already closed estimations?

Support OnPrem TFS without requiring connection to Azure server

Allow using only "card" values for the consensus estimate (rounded up)

The consensus estimate should come out at the same point values/levels defined for the session, not the straight numeric average (with decimals). Example: if 2 people selected 5 and a third estimated at a 3, the "consensus" effort should default to 5 (average rounded up to next highest "card" value). Having "cards" to pick from for the consensus estimate may also make this easier if automating/configuring the consensus value is too tricky.

V2 - Option to restrict item selection and card flip to organiser only

Previously in V1, only the organiser could change the selected work item , flip the cards and select an updated score.
In V2 all members scoring are able to carry out any action within the session, causing a number of issues. E.g. accidently clicking a different work item and resetting all scores.

Please could we have an option when the estimation session is created for the overall control to be with the organiser only on/off?

Show number of people who selected a card in summary

Story icons on the left "move" when clicked

Add ability to filter side cards to only show work items not estimated yet

It would be awesome if there was a checkbox or something that we could use to toggle only seeing work item cards that do not currently have Story Points assigned to them. Often times we end up with 30+ cards on the left side of the screen, where only a handful of them don't have estimates. We then have to hunt for the ones that we still need to estimate on. It would be great if we could easily hide cards (or grey them out so they are not as noticeable) that have Story Points assigned to them already.

Allow async estimating

A benefit would be if we can get estimates from various people without all having to be in the session at the same time. With a global team, it would be nice to be able to request estimates to the items by a certain date and the requesters can do the estimating on their own schedule.

Show toast notification when value is committed

No estimate number is populated into the Save box after picking a card

Support custom cards

Allow users to un-vote

After a user has voted, the user should be able to click on the same estimation card to remove their previous vote.

Use VSTS locale settings

When setting decimal values for story points, for example, the extension should honor the current locale settings from VSTS.

Example: different decimal separators in US and European locales.

Refresh button in overflow menu for session to reload the work items

Can't create an estimate from a query

In V1: We used to be able to select all the work items from a custom query, right click, and create an estimate session from the context menu "Estimate Work Item(s)" option. That option no longer appears in the context menu. We can still do this from the backlog, but it was very handy to be able to create the session from a query.

Create estimate from query context menu in V1

Hey there,

You addressed the issue of creating an estimate session from the query context menu in the preview version in issue #40, but there's still no option to create the query from the estimate session in the old version.

I think it's similarly just one additional attribute to the targets attribute on line 161 of azure-devops-extension.json (as of this date).

I have a work around to manually type the issues into the session creation URL, but having the context menu item would be a big help as we're not ready to enable the preview version yet.

Thanks!

Estimation Cards can get stuck in an up/down animation loop for certain cursor placements

Actual:
When running an estimation session, place the cursor near the bottom of a voting card.

1. When moving the cursor horizontally across the bottom of the card it creates an animation loop.

2. Adjust the cursor up and down until you find a spot where the animation gets stuck in an infinite up/down loop.
   

Expected:
No such infinite up/down loop is possible. The card animation is smooth, even when moving the cursor horizontally along the bottom of the card.

The label "Estimate: - " or "Estimate:5" is confusing for what it is. Should say "Current Estimate: -"

Clicking Hyperlinked Story ID Loads in Same Tab and Rejects CTRL-Click

When in an estimation session and clicking the hyperlinked User Story ID at the top of the current story in focus, it loads the story within the same tab and kicks you out of the estimation session.

It also does not allow the user to ctrl-click to open into a new tab (does nothing).

Current workaround is to right-click and select 'Open in New Tab' if you wish to view additional detail above and beyond the story description.

Provide option to show names under estimates

I really like the new look but I agree with much of the feedback from previous posts. Below is a summary:

1. Highlight the individual card when an estimate is done
2. Show names again instead of just initials (you'd be surprised how many JC initials we have)
3. The average was extremely useful (this was the main deal breaker for us turning off the beta)
4. Perhaps make the cards and the Reveal button show at the top and the bottom permanently making it easier to navigate to