Integrating with VSTS for Kanban Projects

[NicoleMo2]

Hello Workfront community! I'm hoping someone has experience integrating Workfront with Microsoft TFS or VSTS and could provide some best practice advice. I'd also be interested in any best practices in using Workfront for kanban projects. Our background: Our IT Dept currently uses TFS and we've utilized it for user stories and task management on a couple of scrum projects in the past. We haven't used Workfront's agile capabilities at all, instead we create bucket tasks on the project for resource management and time tracking. Task management for those projects would be done in TFS or with sticky notes on a board. We're working on moving to VSTS and utilizing kanban instead of scrum. We're trying to picture how task management and resource management will be done using the two systems. Should they be integrated, and what would that integration look like? Any advice is appreciated, thanks! Nicole Moritz Modern Woodmen of America

[VicAl]

Welllllll... We also used TFS in the past for IT, but part of the reason we bought Workfront was to have one system to contain everything. We were using MS Project for Projects, ITSM for Helpdesk, Asana for our Infrastructure teams, and TFS for our Development teams. So we were copying a duplicating data everywhere and obviously losing stuff. So we ditched everything and migrated to Workfront. We were even able to download the records from TFS and load them into Workfront so we didn't lose that data. Workfront performs the same functionality for Agile and Kan Ban as TFS. It's probably better at it too. So personally I would prefer to use one tool, instead of two and avoid an integration headache. But I understand that might not be plausible for your organization. So the other option would be to integrate them as you mentioned. I haven't had experience with that particular integration, but I know that Workfront makes it relatively easy to create integration jobs if you have a decent IT Developer at your disposable. And as I mentioned we were able to download the fields from TFS to import into Workfront, so I know the fields are pretty easily mapped. So I guess in summary I'd say maybe think about ditching TFS to have everything in WF. But if not you should be able to integrate the two with moderate ease. �� Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT | Sr. IT Project Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

[DavidAl1]

Hi Nicole, I agree with Vic about using a single tool if possible. But... We use TFS for our Scrum/Kanban work because of Build, Test, Release Automation and Source Control features in TFS. So, what we did was have one of our developers build integration that synchronizes the stories in TFS to the project plan in Workfront. It's only one way, from TFS to Workfront capturing TFS stories because that is where Product Owners and Teams create, split, and modify features and stories. The stories and their story points, assignments, estimates, status, and actual hours are copied into the project plan under an execution parent task. The stories maintain parent/child relationships. This synchronization happens every morning at 2:00 AM. Its not the most elegant solution but it gives the PMO and Project Managers an idea of what is in the backlog, in progress, and has been completed. It also populates our workers Workfront time sheets. All our projects have a unique sequential number ID prefix. All user stories in a project have the same prefix. Our developer's program searches TFS for any newly modified user story, matches the prefix with the project prefix, and inserts the story in the next available line under the execution patent task. There is room for improvement in the integration but it meets our requirements. Hope that gives you some ideas. David Allingham Project Manager Reed Tech®, a LexisNexis® Company dallingham@reedtech.com

[AllisonLi1]

Nicole, We offer 2 Agile classes in Workfront Ascent that might be helpful to check out. The first is Introduction to Agile Work Management. This just introduces you to the Scrum and Kanban methods of Agile, so if you're already familiar with those, you could skip this course. The other course is Scrum and Kanban in Workfront. This course will walk you through the setups needed for using each Agile methodology, plus walk you through how to use each in Workfront. As you're decided whether to integrate with current systems or use just Workfront, the course information might help you make more informed decisions. If you're coming to Leap in Nashville, the Training team is offering both of those classes live. There are also some "Agile 2.0" sessions being offered in the Advanced Product track. Allison Lippert Training Manager Workfront allisonlippert@workfront.com