Azure DevOps–Set default access level

Something that I always have to explain when someone uses Azure DevOps for the first time is that there are 2 levels that needs to be configured to give someone access to Azure DevOps.

The first level is the security level. By adding a user to a specific security group at the project level, the user is able to access specific features and execute specific actions

However there is also a second level, the access level. This level is related to the acquired license and also defines which features are available to you.

So only if the 2 levels align, you can use a specific feature inside Azure DevOps

A typical situation:

A project administrator adds a new user to a team inside Azure DevOps. By adding a user to a team, he is added to the Contributor group and should be able to access most features at the project level. However because he is new in Azure DevOps, the user gets a default access level assigned. If you didn’t change this default, this will be the Stakeholder access level which gives access to a rather limited set of features.

If you want to assign a different access level by default, this can be done through the following steps:

Go to your Azure DevOps Organization
Click on Organization settings in the bottom left corner
Go to the Billing tab under General.
Go to Settings and change the Access level through the dropdown. Don’t forget to click on Save to apply the changes.