| title | titleSuffix | description | ms.technology | ms.prod | ms.assetid | ms.manager | ms.author | author | ms.topic | monikerRange | ms.date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Use Agile tools to organize your backlog |
VSTS & TFS |
Map backlog items to features, and features to epics in Visual Studio Team Services or Team Foundation Server |
devops-agile |
devops |
C294ACBD-00A3-4FCF-8777-B354BC0CC1EF |
douge |
kaelli |
KathrynEE |
tutorial |
>= tfs-2013 |
03/20/2018 |
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After you've added features or epics to your portfolio backlog, you can quickly organize your backlog by mapping backlog items to them. With features and epics, you can quickly add and group items into a hierarchy, drill up or down within the hierarchy, reorder and reparent items, and filter hierarchical views.
In this topic you'll learn:
::: moniker range="vsts || >= tfs-2018"
[!div class="checklist"]
- How to view the tree hierarchy
- How to group backlog items using the Mapping pane
- How to reparent items using drag-and-drop or the Change parent option
::: moniker-end
::: moniker range=">= tfs-2013 <= tfs-2017"
[!div class="checklist"]
- How to view the tree hierarchy
- How to group backlog items using the Mapping pane
- How to reparent items using drag-and-drop
::: moniker-end
::: moniker range="tfs-2013"
Note
The epic portfolio backlog is supported in TFS 2015 and later versions.
::: moniker-end
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From the product backlog page, set Parents to Show when you want to drill up or down within the hierarchy. You can also drag and drop items to reparent items from this view.
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Use the expand 
and collapse 
icons to expand or collapse one level of the hierarchy.
If you've already created your backlog, and now you want to organize it, you can do that most easily by mapping them.
To map a backlog item under a feature, you first turn mapping on from your backlog (Backlog items, Stories, or Requirements). Next, find the Unparented backlog items group by turning the Parents control to Show. Unparented backlog items will appear at the end of the parented set of backlog items.
Drag items that are currently unparented to the feature under which they belong. Also, you can drag a backlog item to a different feature to change its parent. This mapping creates parent-child links from feature to user stories, which is captured in the 
(links) tab.
::: moniker range="vsts || >= tfs-2017 <= tfs-2018"
You can multi-selectwork items on the backlog and sprint backlogs in the same way as multi-select works within query results.
::: moniker-end
::: moniker range="tfs-2015"
Multi-select of work items on the backlog and sprint backlogs requires TFS 2015.1 or later versions. This feature works in the same way as multi-select works within query results.
::: moniker-end
::: moniker range="vsts || >= tfs-2015 <= tfs-2018" It's the same process to map features to epics. From the Features backlog, drag features to an epic listed under the mapping pane.
When you need to change the order or grouping, simply drag the item to its new location.
You can re-parent an item using the mapping pane, or simply drag it within the hierarchy to change its parent.
You can only re-parent backlog items under other features, and features under other epics.
Also, to change an item's priority within a group, you can drag the item up or down within its hierarchical group. This works the same as when you moved items into priority order on your product backlog.
::: moniker-end
::: moniker range="vsts || >= tfs-2018"
From the product backlog you can multi-select several work items and choose Change parent… to link the items to a parent work item item.
::: moniker-end