ADO Board Setup — Action Plan &ZeroWidthSpace;

Status: setup COMPLETE. The Heritage Community Hub ADO project is provisioned — area paths, iterations, columns, and the work-item backlog all exist. This guide is retained as a reference runbook for re-creating the project (e.g. a new tenant) and to document how the board was set up. The area-path array and seed examples below reflect the actual provisioned state (six area paths; decisions already locked in ADRs 0001-0024).

This guide walks through the one-time setup of the Heritage Community Hub ADO project: area paths, iterations, work item types, and board columns. All operations use the Azure CLI (az boards / az devops). Run these steps once when provisioning the project; they do not need to be repeated for normal sprint work.

Prerequisites &ZeroWidthSpace;

Azure CLI installed and authenticated:
powershell
```
az login
```
Azure DevOps CLI extension installed:
powershell
```
az extension add --name azure-devops
```
AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT set in your session (loaded via Load-HCSEnvironment.ps1).

Set defaults for the session:

powershell

az devops configure --defaults organization=https://dev.azure.com/hybridcloudsolutions project="Heritage Community Hub"

Step 1 — Verify the ADO project exists (5 minutes) &ZeroWidthSpace;

powershell

# List projects in the org — confirm "Heritage Community Hub" appears
az devops project list --output table

If the project does not exist, create it:

powershell

az devops project create `
  --name "Heritage Community Hub" `
  --description "Faith-centered community management platform for Heritage Virginia" `
  --process Agile `
  --visibility private

Step 2 — Create area paths (10 minutes) &ZeroWidthSpace;

Area paths reflect the platform's internal structure. Create each path below. The format is <project>\<area> — the project root is created automatically.

powershell

$areas = @(
  "Platform",
  "Web",
  "Mobile",
  "Homeschool",
  "Marketplace",
  "Media"
)

foreach ($area in $areas) {
  az boards area project create --name $area
}

Verify:

powershell

az boards area project list --depth 2 --output table

Expected output — each area should appear under the Heritage Community Hub root:

Heritage Community Hub
├── Platform
├── Web
├── Mobile
├── Homeschool
├── Marketplace
└── Media

Calendar, Announcements, Messaging, project-management, and documentation work attach to \Platform (or the most specific feature area) plus the relevant tag — there is no separate \Calendar, \Project Management, or \Documentation area path. Keep depth ≤ 2.

Step 3 — Create iterations (sprints) (10 minutes) &ZeroWidthSpace;

Iterations follow the naming pattern YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>. Each sprint is 2 weeks; 6 sprints per quarter. Create a full year of iterations at project start.

powershell

# Create top-level quarter nodes first, then sprint children

$quarters = @("2026-Q3", "2026-Q4", "2027-Q1", "2027-Q2")

foreach ($q in $quarters) {
  az boards iteration project create --name $q
}

# Create sprint nodes under each quarter
# Adjust start/finish dates to your actual calendar

$sprints = @(
  @{ path="2026-Q3"; name="S1"; start="2026-07-07"; finish="2026-07-20" },
  @{ path="2026-Q3"; name="S2"; start="2026-07-21"; finish="2026-08-03" },
  @{ path="2026-Q3"; name="S3"; start="2026-08-04"; finish="2026-08-17" },
  @{ path="2026-Q3"; name="S4"; start="2026-08-18"; finish="2026-08-31" },
  @{ path="2026-Q3"; name="S5"; start="2026-09-01"; finish="2026-09-14" },
  @{ path="2026-Q3"; name="S6"; start="2026-09-15"; finish="2026-09-28" },
  @{ path="2026-Q4"; name="S1"; start="2026-10-05"; finish="2026-10-18" },
  @{ path="2026-Q4"; name="S2"; start="2026-10-19"; finish="2026-11-01" },
  @{ path="2026-Q4"; name="S3"; start="2026-11-02"; finish="2026-11-15" },
  @{ path="2026-Q4"; name="S4"; start="2026-11-16"; finish="2026-11-29" },
  @{ path="2026-Q4"; name="S5"; start="2026-11-30"; finish="2026-12-13" },
  @{ path="2026-Q4"; name="S6"; start="2026-12-14"; finish="2026-12-27" }
)

foreach ($s in $sprints) {
  az boards iteration project create `
    --name $s.name `
    --path "Heritage Community Hub\$($s.path)" `
    --start-date $s.start `
    --finish-date $s.finish
}

Verify:

powershell

az boards iteration project list --depth 3 --output table

Step 4 — Configure board columns (5 minutes) &ZeroWidthSpace;

The default Agile board columns map work item states. The recommended column set for this project is:

New  →  Active  →  Resolved  →  Closed

For visual clarity, rename the columns in the ADO web UI:

Open dev.azure.com/hybridcloudsolutions/Heritage Community Hub.
Go to Boards > Settings > Columns.
Rename to match the flow below:

Column	Maps to ADO state	WIP limit
Backlog	New	—
In Progress	Active	5
In Review	Active (sub-state)	3
Done	Closed	—

WIP limits enforce focus — adjust to actual team capacity.

Step 5 — Create the standard tag vocabulary &ZeroWidthSpace;

Tags cannot be pre-seeded via the CLI; they are created on first use. Apply these tags when creating the first work items in each area so they appear in the tag picker:

Tag	First use on
`platform`	Build Platform Epic (AB#3074)
`identity`	Platform auth/RBAC User Story
`pipeline`	Platform CI/CD User Story
`infrastructure`	Any Bicep / IaC work
`mobile`	iOS App Epic (AB#3077)
`calendar`	Calendar & Announcements Epic (AB#3075)
`homeschool`	Homeschool work under Additional Features (AB#3076)
`marketplace`	Marketplace work under Additional Features (AB#3076)
`docs`	Any documentation / ADR work item
`security`	Any security work
`breaking`	Any change breaking an existing interface
`cross-repo`	Any item spanning repos

Step 6 — Seed the delivery Epics (20 minutes) &ZeroWidthSpace;

Already done in the live project. Phase 0 is complete (ADRs 0001-0024 all Accepted; the ADR Epic AB#3154 is Closed). The delivery Epics below already exist. This step is retained for re-provisioning; create the Epics, then decompose Features → User Stories → Tasks per the work-items standard.

Create the delivery Epics (revised priority order) to populate the board.

powershell

# Example: create the platform Epic
az boards work-item create `
  --type Epic `
  --title "Build Platform" `
  --area "Heritage Community Hub\Platform" `
  --fields "Priority=2" "Tags=platform;identity;infrastructure"

Note the returned id — use it as --parent when creating child Features.

powershell

# Example child Feature
az boards work-item create `
  --type Feature `
  --title "Configure GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline" `
  --parent <epic-id> `
  --area "Heritage Community Hub\Platform" `
  --fields "Priority=2" "Tags=pipeline;infrastructure"

Delivery Epics (these exist in the live project; AB# ids shown for reference):

Epic title	AB#	Area path	Tags
Build Platform	AB#3074	Platform	`platform;identity;infrastructure`
Deliver iOS (Apple) App	AB#3077	Mobile	`mobile`
Deliver Sermons and Music Hub	AB#3137	Media	`platform`
Deliver Community Calendar and Announcements	AB#3075	Platform	`calendar`
Deliver Messaging and Notifications	AB#3138	Platform	`platform`
Deliver Android (Google) App	AB#3139	Mobile	`mobile`
Deliver Additional Features	AB#3076	Platform	`homeschool;marketplace`
Deliver Signature Features	AB#3078	Platform	`platform`

Architectural decisions are already locked (ADRs 0001-0024). When re-provisioning, the ADR Epic "Author detailed ADRs (platform and per-feature)" (AB#3154) is recreated as Closed/historical — the stack is GitHub Actions + Azure Container Apps + PostgreSQL + Clerk auth, not an open research fork.

Step 7 — Verify the board &ZeroWidthSpace;

Open the ADO board in your browser and confirm:

[ ] Project Heritage Community Hub exists at dev.azure.com/hybridcloudsolutions
[ ] All 6 area paths appear under the project root (Platform, Web, Mobile, Homeschool, Marketplace, Media)
[ ] Iterations are created for at least Q3 + Q4 of 2026
[ ] Board columns are named (Backlog / In Progress / In Review / Done)
[ ] The delivery Epics (AB#3074-3078, AB#3137-3139) are visible in the backlog
[ ] Work items carry correct area paths and priority

Step 8 — Configure GitHub Issues sync labels &ZeroWidthSpace;

Apply the 6 standard labels to the GitHub repo so the ADO sync automation can apply them. Run from a session with GITHUB_TOKEN set:

powershell

$labels = @(
  @{ name="ado-tracked";  color="0075ca"; description="Issue has a linked ADO work item" },
  @{ name="in-progress";  color="e4e669"; description="ADO item is actively being worked" },
  @{ name="resolved";     color="0e8a16"; description="ADO item resolved — pending close" },
  @{ name="wont-fix";     color="ffffff"; description="ADO item closed as won't fix" },
  @{ name="needs-triage"; color="e11d48"; description="Issue received, ADO item not yet created" },
  @{ name="cross-repo";   color="7c3aed"; description="Affects more than one repo" }
)

foreach ($label in $labels) {
  gh label create $label.name `
    --color $label.color `
    --description $label.description `
    --repo Heritage-Virginia/heritage-community-hub `
    --force
}

Verification checklist &ZeroWidthSpace;

[ ] ADO project Heritage Community Hub created at dev.azure.com/hybridcloudsolutions
[ ] 6 area paths created (Platform, Web, Mobile, Homeschool, Marketplace, Media)
[ ] Iterations created for 2026-Q3 through 2026-Q4 (12 sprints minimum)
[ ] Board columns renamed (Backlog / In Progress / In Review / Done) with WIP limits
[ ] Delivery Epics and their Features seeded in the backlog with correct area paths and priority
[ ] 6 standard GitHub labels created on the Heritage-Virginia/heritage-community-hub repo
[ ] az devops configure --defaults set for this project in your dev session