Add users to a project or team
Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2020 | Azure DevOps Server 2019 | TFS 2018 - TFS 2013
Learn how to add users to a project or specific team. For anyone to access a project, they must be added to one of the default security groups or a custom group. Usually you add them to the Contributors group. For a quick look at what permissions are assigned to the default groups, see Permissions and access.
The easiest way to add a number of users to a project is to add groups defined in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) or Active Directory (AD).
Important
If you're adding users to an organization in Azure DevOps Services and you don't use Azure AD, then you need to first add their "personal" Microsoft accounts to your organization or project.
Once you've added a user to an organization or project, their user identity becomes searchable from an identity field, such as the Assigned To field, or from the security and permission dialogs. After you've added them to one project or team, you can add them to additional projects or teams using the procedures provided in this article. For more information about managing users and organization access, see About permissions, access, and security groups, Active Directory and Azure Active Directory security groups.
Important
On-premises Azure DevOps instances automatically reference user identities defined in the Active Directory or Windows workgroup of the local network. You can add security groups defined in Active Directory or a workgroup to a collection. For more information, About permissions, access, and security groups, Active Directory and Azure Active Directory security groups.
Once you've added security groups to a collection or project, user identities defined with that group become searchable from an identity field, such as the Assigned To field, or from the security and permission dialogs. After you've added them to one project, you can add them to additional projects and teams using the procedures provided in this article.
Prerequisites
You can add users to a project or team, add projects to organizations, and add teams to projects.
- You must have an organization and project. If you don't have a project yet, create one.
- To add users to an organization, you must be a member of the Project Collection Administrators group. Organization owners are automatically members of this group.
- To add users to a project, you must be a member of the Project Administrators or Project Collection Administrators groups. Any new users added to a project are automatically added to the organization.
- To add users to a team, you must be a Team Administrator, or you must be a member of one of the administrative groups. Any new users added to a team are automatically added to the organization.
Note
When the organization policy, Allow team and project administrators to invite new users, is disabled, Team and Project Administrators can't add users who are not already in the organization to a team or project. Project Collection Administrators can add users whether this policy is on or off. For more information, see Restrict invitations from Project and Team Administrators. For an overview of the methods supported for adding users to an organization, see About organization management, Add and manage user access.
You add users to a project or team. You add projects to project collections, and you add teams to projects.
- If you don't have a project yet, create one.
- To add users to a project, you must be a member of the Project Administrators or Project Collection Administrators groups.
- To add users to a team, you must be added as a team administrator, or you must be a member of one of the administrative groups.
Once users have been added to a project, you can browse for their display name or user name (email alias). Also, you can add them to a specific team. To add a team, see Add a team.
Add users to a project
If you're adding a user to Azure DevOps for the first time, see Add account users for Azure DevOps.
Note
To enable the new user interface for the Project Permissions Settings Page, see Enable preview features.
Open the web portal and choose the project where you want to add users or groups. To choose another project, see Switch project, repository, team.
Choose Project settings, and then Permissions.
Under Groups, choose one of the following options:
- Readers: To add users who require read-only access to the project, choose.
- Contributors: To add users who contribute fully to this project or who have been granted Stakeholder access.
- Project Administrators: To add users who need to administrate the project. To learn more, see Set permissions at the project-level or project collection-level.
Here we choose the Contributors group.
Next, choose the Members tab.
The default team group, and any other teams you add to the project, get included as members of the Contributors group. Add a new user as a member of a team instead, and the user automatically inherits Contributor permissions.
Tip
Managing users is much easier using groups, not individual users.
Choose Add to add a user or a user group.
Enter the name of the user account into the text box. You can enter several identities into the text box, separated by commas. The system automatically searches for matches. Choose the match(es) that meets your requirements.
Note
The first time you add a user or group to Azure DevOps, you can't browse to it or check the friendly name. After the identity has been added, you can just enter the friendly name.
Choose Save when done.
You may customize user permissions for other functionality in the project. For example, in areas and iterations or shared queries.
Note
Users that have limited access, such as Stakeholders, won't be able to access select features even if granted permissions to those features. To learn more, see Permissions and access.
Choose the Current page tab for information on adding a user to a project.
Open the web portal and choose the project where you want to add users or groups. To choose another project, see Switch project, repository, team.
Choose Project Settings and then Security.
To see the full image, select to expand.
Under Groups, choose one of the following options:
- Readers: To add users who require read-only access to the project, choose.
- Contributors: To add users who contribute fully to this project or who have been granted Stakeholder access.
- Project Administrators: To add users who need to administrate the project. To learn more, see Set permissions at the project-level or project collection-level.
Next, choose the Members tab.
Here we choose the Contributors group.
The default team group, and any other teams you add to the project, get included as members of the Contributors group. Add a new user as a member of a team instead, and the user automatically inherits Contributor permissions.
Tip
Managing users is much easier using groups, not individual users.
Choose
Add to add a user or a user group.Enter the name of the user account into the text box. You can enter several identities into the text box, separated by commas. The system automatically searches for matches. choose the match(es) that meets your requirements.
Note
The first time you add a user or group to Azure DevOps, you can't browse to it or check the friendly name. After the identity has been added, you can just enter the friendly name.
Choose Save changes when complete.
(Optional) You can customize a user's permission for other functionality in the project. For example, in areas and iterations or shared queries.
Note
Users that have limited access, such as Stakeholders, won't be able to access select features even if granted permissions to those features. To learn more, see Permissions and access.
Open the web portal and choose the project where you want to add users or groups. To choose another project, see Switch project, repository, team.
Choose the
gear icon to open the administrative context.
Choose Security and under Groups, choose one of the following options:
- Readers: To add users who require read-only access to the project, choose.
- Contributors: To add users who contribute fully to this project or who have been granted Stakeholder access.
- Project Administrators: To add users who need to administrate the project. To learn more, see Set permissions at the project-level or project collection-level.
Next, choose the Members tab.
Here we choose the Contributors group.
Tip
Managing users is much easier using groups, not individual users.
By default, the default team group and any other teams you add to the project, are included as members of the Contributors group. Add a new user as a member of a team instead, and the user automatically inherits Contributor permissions.
Choose
Add to add a user or a user group.Enter the name of the user account into the text box. You can enter several identities into the text box, separated by commas. The system automatically searches for matches.
Note
The first time you add a user or group to Azure DevOps, you can't browse to it or check the friendly name. After the identity has been added, you can just enter the friendly name.
(Optional) You can customize user permissions for other functionality within the project, such as areas and iterations or shared queries.
Note
Users that have limited access, such as Stakeholders, won't be able to access select features even if granted permissions to those features. To learn more, see Permissions and access.
Add users to a team
Several Agile tools, like capacity planning, team alerts, and dashboard widgets are team-scoped. That is, they automatically reference the user accounts added as members of a team to support planning activities or sending alerts. To learn more, see About teams and Agile tools.
Note
To enable the preview feature, New Teams Page, see Enable preview features.
Open a backlog or board for a team and choose the
team profile icon. Then choose Team Settings.Here we open the Board for the Web team and from there the team profile.
If you need to switch the team context, use the team selector within the breadcrumbs.
Choose Add.
Enter the sign-in addresses or display name for each account you want to add. Add them one at a time or all at the same time. You can enter several identities into the text box, separated by commas.
Tip
You must enter user and group names one at a time. However, after entering a name, the account is added to the list, and you can enter another name in the Identities text box before choosing to save your changes.
You may need to choose the
refresh icon to see your updates.To remove members, return to this page, highlight the user name and choose Remove.
Note
To remove a team administrator as a team member, you must first remove them as an administrator.
To add an account as a team administrator, choose Add located in the Team Profile page. For details, see Add a team administrator
Choose the Current page tab for information on adding a user to a team.
Add users or groups to an access level
For on-premises deployments, you may need to set the access level for a user or group, particularly if those groups don't belong to the default access level. To learn more, see Change access levels.
Add users or groups to SQL Server Reports
If your on-premises deployment is integrated with SQL Server Reports, you need to manage membership for those products separately from their websites. See Grant permissions to view or create SQL Server reports in Azure DevOps.
Add users or groups to SharePoint or SQL Server Reports
If your on-premises deployment is integrated with a SharePoint product or SQL Server Reports, you need to manage membership for those products separately from their websites.
Next steps
Related articles
- To view permissions for yourself or another user, see View permissions.
- Set Git or TFVC repository permissions
- Set Git branch permissions
- Set build and release permissions
- Set permissions and access for work tracking