What it does
Azure Boards is the work-planning service in Azure DevOps. It covers work items, Kanban boards, backlogs, sprints, queries, Delivery Plans, and Analytics views, and links work to repositories, pull requests, builds, and releases.
Teams can start with work-item types such as features, stories, bugs, and tasks, order a backlog, and move items into a sprint. Boards show work by state; Delivery Plans show deliverables and dependencies across teams. Microsoft documents dashboards and Analytics views for Power BI, and work items can link to GitHub commits and pull requests.
The official guide documents a free starter plan for up to five users and unlimited stakeholders. The service supports multiple agile methods, so teams should allow for process configuration.
Strengths
- Backlogs, sprints, boards, queries, and Delivery Plans cover team and cross-team work.
- Work items link to code and release artifacts.
Watch out for
- Several planning hubs require teams to choose and configure their views.
Best for
- Software teams planning sprints alongside Azure DevOps code
- Program leads tracking dependencies across teams
Sources
- What is Azure Boards - Microsoft Learn (Oct 25, 2026)
- Azure DevOps Services Pricing | Microsoft Azure (Oct 25, 2026)