How to Integrate Smartsheet and Azure DevOps in 12 Minutes or Less

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Here’s everything you need to know about setting up an integration between Smartsheet sheets and Azure DevOps projects with an automated 2-way sync using Unito. Since Unito is a simple, no-code platform, you don’t need a technical background to set up your first secure integration without troubleshooting scripts or consulting third-party experts. Here’s how it works.

This integration from Unito has two goals:

• Automatically create new work items in Azure DevOps to match Smartsheet rows and vice versa.
• Set up a live, 2-way sync between both tools so everyone can get visibility on development work in real-time without having to manually copy information back and forth — or book another meeting.

In this article:

• Why sync Smartsheet and Azure DevOps?
• Step 1. Connect Smartsheet and Azure DevOps to Unito
• Step 2. Choose a flow direction for new tasks and work items
• Step 3. Set rules to exclude tasks or items from syncing
• Step 4. Configure Smartsheet and Azure DevOps fields
• Step 5. Launch your Smartsheet-Azure DevOps integration

Why sync Smartsheet and Azure DevOps?

Azure DevOps is a favorite of software development teams for keeping their essential work organized while moving quickly and breaking things. But the interface, technical features, and aspects of ADO don’t make it as suited for other kinds of work. That’s why few organizations use ADO as their base of operations for workflows outside of these technical teams. Smartsheet is a popular option for this, because of its advanced reporting features, flexibility, and ease-of-use.

Keeping technical and non-technical teams in sync

While product, IT, and software development teams might use different tools, they still need to collaborate with less-technical teams. Think of support tickets that need to be escalated to a developer, support documentation that needs input from the support team, or even marketing initiatives that rely on product updates in ADO.

With an integration powered by Unito, you can bring these teams together by syncing data back and forth, aligning them without any copying and pasting of information.

Enhanced oversight and visibility in real-time

Product and software development workflows can have a large impact on your bottom line. But for too many organizations, visibility on these workflows is severely lacking. This is often caused by too many intermediary steps between the actual work and the stakeholders who need visibility on it. With a smooth integration between Azure DevOps and Smartsheet, you can eliminate these steps and bring a live view on that work to the people who need it.

Automated reporting

Many organizations still use spreadsheets as their primary reporting tools, either built and updated manually or relying on fragile, intricate automation chains. With a Unito integration, you can leverage Smartsheet’s strong reporting features and feed them with data from ADO. Go beyond just getting visibility on development work and create dedicated reports to track your organization’s important product goals.

Step 1. Connect Azure DevOps and Smartsheet to Unito

• Sign up for Unito if you haven’t already!
• Navigate to the Unito App and click +Create Flow.
• Click Start Here to connect Azure DevOps and Smartsheet.
• Then click +Choose account for each tool and complete the authorization process.
• Click Confirm.

When you’re ready, click Confirm.

First time connecting tools to Unito and need extra help? Check out this guide.

Authorizing ADO to sync with

Before you sync any data, you may want to create a new Smartsheet sheet to serve as a workspace for anything you’ll sync from Azure DevOps. In ADO, make sure Third-party application access via OAuth is on.

To adjust this setting, go to Organization Settings in Azure DevOps and click on Policies. Then, make sure the toggle for Third-party application access via OAuth is turned on. Without this, you won’t be able to connect Azure DevOps to Unito.

Step 2. Choose flow direction for new work items

When you create new Smartsheet rows or ADO work items, Unito creates synced versions in the other tool automatically. Flow direction tells Unito where to do that, according to one of these three settings:

• 2-way, which creates new Smartsheet rows and ADO work items to match items created in either tool.
• 1-way from Smartsheet to ADO, which creates new ADO work items to match Smartsheet rows you create manually. Creating ADO items manually won’t create new Smartsheet rows.
• 1-way from ADO to Smartsheet, which creates new Smartsheet rows to match ADO work items you create manually. Creating Smartsheet rows manually won’t create new ADO work items.

Note that this only affects the creation of new work items, not the direction of updates for individual fields (e.g. due dates, versions, assignees). Even if you create a 1-way flow, you can tailor flow direction of individual fields in the last few steps of this guide.

Step 3. Set rules to sync specific Smartsheet rows and ADO work items

Think of rules like filters that allow you to tailor Unito flows so only some work items get synced between Smartsheet and ADO. For example, you could decide to filter out Smartsheet rows with a specific option selected in a dropdown, or ADO issues with a specific assignee.

To start creating a rule, click Add a new rule. From there you can choose what will trigger that rule and what happens when it’s triggered.

First time setting up a rule? Check out our full guide to rules here.

Step 4. Map fields between Smartsheet and ADO

Next, you can set individual relationships between rows and work items. Most fields can be assigned their own update direction to determine how real-time updates occur.

In most situations, Unito can map your fields automatically, and you’ll be asked if you want to do that or map your fields from scratch.

How to manually add field mappings in Unito

1. Click +Add mapping to add new pairs of fields.
2. Click Select a field for each tool, and pick the field you want to map.

A blue question mark icon indicates a custom field created in that tool.

Most fields are automatically mapped for two-way updates, but you can still adjust them as needed. With a one-way sync between fields, only the destination field will update automatically.

Fields with cog icons can be customized further (e.g. linking specific labels between apps).

Step 5. Launch your flow

That’s it! You’ve built your first flow and you’re ready to launch. Once you do, Unito will automatically sync ADO work items with Smartsheet rows, keeping all fields you mapped updated automatically. Any questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team by clicking the chat bubble below!

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