Azure DevOps Best Practice Template Project
I wanna show you how you can take an existing Azure DevOps project and use this as a template for any new project within Azure DevOps. So let’s say you create a brand new project within Azure DevOps and set up a default Wiki and add a dashboard etc. (think of your ideal DevOps project setup).
Ok, now that you have this in place you can actually export the entire project – why might you want to do that I hear you ask?
This is so we can effectively clone this best practice project and use, again and again, heck you can even source control the template if you so wish.
So how do you export your best practice website template with you lovely custom process flow, wiki, etc in place? – this is where the following link comes in handy.
From this above link check the part that says Building a new custom template and you’ll see a link that is basically this:-
https://azuredevopsdemogenerator.azurewebsites.net/?enableextractor=true
Log in and then look for the link top right that says Build your own template
Now select the Organization you want to use and select the project you wish to use as the best practice template project.
Ignore the error about query items, seems to be a bug, Click Generate Artifacts and you should now have a zip file containing several JSON files.
So now we have the project template JSON files exported how do we create a new project based on this zip file? – well, unfortunately, you need to use the AzureDevopsDemoGenerator tool again.
Log back into the AzureDevopsGenerator and click on the ‘choose template‘ button as seen below:-
and then click Private and then choose your zip file which is the file you exported.
Now fill in the last screen like the screen below and boom!
You now have a new Azure DevOps project which is based on your best practice project like so.
Please give this a try and let me know your thoughts on how useful this is for ya – enjoy!
Gregor
[…] Azure DevOps Best Practice Template Project (Gregor Suttie) […]
Hi there – to confirm, it does not transfer over work items (epics, features, stories)?
Also interested in this question – is there a way to not only create a project from a template but an actual customizable clone that maintains existing tasks, user stories, dependencies, durations, etc for projects that are essentially repeatable so I don’t have to build everything from scratch each time.
Interested in this question also – Is there a way to not only create a template for a project (settings) but to also create a customizable clone of a project that includes and maintains stories, tasks, dependencies, durations, etc so I don’t have to build all that out for every similar, repeatable project?