How to Create Your First QA Project in Azure DevOps (Step-by-Step)

Starting from zero in Azure DevOps can feel overwhelming — there are dozens of settings, and getting them wrong early means restructuring everything later. This guide walks through a complete, correct project setup for a QA team, in the right order.

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Step 1: Create the organisation

Navigate to dev.azure.com and sign in. Click New organisation.

• Organisation name: use your company name or team name (e.g., acme-corp). This appears in all your URLs.
• Region: choose the region closest to your team for lowest latency.

Your organisation URL: https://dev.azure.com/acme-corp

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Step 2: Create the project

From your organisation's home page, click + New project.

Project name:    ShopFlow-QA
Description:     QA project for ShopFlow e-commerce platform
Visibility:      Private
Version control: Git
Work item process: Scrum

Choose Scrum for the work item process — it gives you User Stories, Sprints, and Bugs in a configuration well-suited to QA work.

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Step 3: Configure area paths

Area paths organise work by team or product area. Go to Project Settings → Boards → Project Configuration → Areas.

Add a structure like:

ShopFlow-QA (root)
  ├── Frontend
  │     ├── Checkout
  │     └── Product Pages
  ├── Backend
  │     ├── API
  │     └── Database
  └── Mobile
        ├── iOS
        └── Android

Each team can own an area. QA items (test cases, bugs) assigned to the correct area path appear on the right board and in the right dashboard widgets.

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Step 4: Configure iterations (sprints)

Go to Project Settings → Boards → Project Configuration → Iterations.

Create a structure:

ShopFlow-QA
  ├── Sprint 1  (2025-07-01 to 2025-07-14)
  ├── Sprint 2  (2025-07-15 to 2025-07-28)
  ├── Sprint 3  (2025-07-29 to 2025-08-11)
  └── Sprint 4  (2025-08-12 to 2025-08-25)

Set start and end dates for each sprint. This enables the sprint burndown chart and makes @CurrentIteration queries work.

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Step 5: Create and configure your QA team

Go to Project Settings → General → Teams. Click + New team.

Team name:    QA Team
Description:  Quality assurance and testing team

In the team settings, configure:

• Area: select your team's area path (e.g., ShopFlow-QA)
• Iterations: select which sprints your team participates in

This ensures your team's board shows only work items in your area and current sprint.

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Step 6: Assign licences

Azure Test Plans requires a Basic + Test Plans licence. Go to Organisation Settings → Users.

For each QA engineer who needs to write and run test cases:

• Set licence to Basic + Test Plans ($$$)

For stakeholders who only view results:

• Set licence to Stakeholder (free)

For developers who need to see but not create test cases:

• Basic licence is sufficient for read access

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Step 7: Create your first test plan

Go to Test Plans in the left navigation. Click + New Test Plan.

Name:      Sprint 1 — Regression + New Features
Area:      ShopFlow-QA / Frontend
Iteration: ShopFlow-QA / Sprint 1

Inside the test plan, create test suites:

1. Click + → New Suite → Static suite
2. Name: User Authentication
3. Repeat for: Product Search, Checkout Flow, Order History

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Step 8: Create your first test cases

Inside the User Authentication suite, click + New Test Case.

Title: Login with valid credentials succeeds

Steps:
1. Action: Navigate to /login
   Expected: Login form displayed with email and password fields

2. Action: Enter valid email "test@example.com" and password "Password123!"
   Expected: Fields accept input without validation errors

3. Action: Click the "Sign In" button
   Expected: Redirected to /dashboard with user name displayed in header

4. Action: Check browser cookies
   Expected: Session cookie set with httpOnly and Secure flags

Save and add more test cases for: invalid credentials, forgot password, session timeout.

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Step 9: Link test cases to user stories

For traceability, link each test case to its corresponding user story.

1. Open a test case
2. Click Links → Add link
3. Link type: Tests
4. Search for the user story by ID

Now the traceability matrix in Test Plans → Progress Report will show which user stories have test coverage.

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Step 10: Configure your team dashboard

Go to Overview → Dashboards. Click + Add widget to build a QA-focused dashboard:

Widget	Purpose
Test Results Trend	Shows pass/fail rates over time
Bug by State	Donut chart of open vs closed bugs
Sprint Burndown	Team velocity
Query Results	Open high-priority bugs
Deployment Status	Last pipeline result

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Common errors and fixes

Error: Sprint burndown chart shows no data Fix: Ensure sprints have start and end dates set in Project Configuration, AND work items are assigned to the sprint (Iteration Path = the sprint path).

Error: Test cases not visible after creation Fix: Test cases must be explicitly added to a test suite. Creating the work item doesn't auto-add it. Either add them manually or create a Query-based suite that pulls them automatically.

Error: "You are not a team member" when viewing the team board Fix: Go to Project Settings → Teams → [Your team] and add yourself as a team member.

Error: Area paths not showing correct hierarchy on the board Fix: Each team must select which area paths they own in Team Settings → Working with bugs / Areas. A team only sees work items from their assigned area paths.

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Project setup checklist

☑ Organisation created in correct region
☑ Project created with Scrum process
☑ Area paths defined for product areas
☑ Iterations (sprints) created with date ranges
☑ QA team created and configured
☑ Licences assigned (Basic + Test Plans for test authors)
☑ First test plan created with suites
☑ Test cases created with detailed steps
☑ Test cases linked to user stories
☑ Team dashboard configured with QA widgets

With this foundation in place, every subsequent sprint follows the same structure — create a new test plan, add suites for the sprint's features, reuse regression test cases, and track execution through the dashboard.