Integrating work tracking
Design and implement integration for tracking work
Azure Boards with GitHub
Connecting Azure Boards to GitHub repositories links commits, pull requests and issues to work items, so a work item shows the code that implemented it.
Linking is driven by mention syntax in commit messages and pull requests: AB#123 references work item 123. The connection is made once at project level; after that the link is created by the person writing the commit message.
That last point is the practical weakness — traceability depends on a human remembering the syntax. Teams that care about it enforce it with a pull request template and a branch policy requiring a linked work item.
GitHub Projects
Projects organise issues and pull requests into boards and tables with custom fields. Where Azure Boards brings a full work item model — hierarchy, process templates, area and iteration paths — GitHub Projects is lighter and lives beside the code.
| Need | Choose |
|---|---|
| Rich hierarchy, process templates, portfolio views | Azure Boards |
| Lightweight tracking next to the code | GitHub Projects |
| Code in GitHub, work tracking in Azure Boards | The connection — both, linked |
The third row is the one to remember: these are not mutually exclusive, and the integration exists precisely so an organisation can keep Boards' planning model while developers work in GitHub.
Primary sources