Importing

How to get data from your backlog tool into Avion.

If you need to pull existing stories from your backlog tool, you can use the import function. Importing stories will pull them into Avion and sync them. As far as syncing is concerned, the final result is the same as if you'd pushed the story from Avion.

We don't recommend consistent importing as a long-term workflow. Instead, importing is a way to get started with story mapping or pull a few stories that someone created unknowingly in the wrong tool.

When you run an import, Avion will scan the integrated project or board and pull in all the stories that match your import options. Some integrations have granular import controls and some have quite general controls.

For example, our Azure DevOps integration allow you to refine the import criteria using a query language for work items called WIQL.

Ignore done states

All integrations have the option to ignore "done" stories when importing. We calculate "done" as an item that is in a state that has been mapped to an Avion story state within the Done state category (see Workflow to understand state categories).

For example, in the following setup, any Azure DevOps work items in the Removed or Resolved state would not be imported. This is because both Done and Deployed are in the Done state category.