diff --git a/tools/devops/automation/scripts/VSTS.psm1 b/tools/devops/automation/scripts/VSTS.psm1
index 0ebebd5a7887..f7c43f276c47 100644
--- a/tools/devops/automation/scripts/VSTS.psm1
+++ b/tools/devops/automation/scripts/VSTS.psm1
@@ -332,6 +332,35 @@ class BuildConfiguration {
         }
     }
 
+    <#
+        .SYNOPSIS
+            Retrieve the change id and export it as an enviroment variable.
+    #>
+    [string] ExportChangeId ([object] $configuration) {
+        # This is an interesting step, we do know we are dealing with a PR, but we need the PR id to
+        # be able to get the labels, the buildSourceBranch follows the pattern: refs/pull/{ChangeId}/merge
+        # we could use a regexp but then we would have two problems instead of one
+        $changeId = $null
+        if ($configuration.PARENT_BUILD_BUILD_SOURCEBRANCH) {
+            # use the source branch information from the configuration object
+            $changeId = $configuration.PARENT_BUILD_BUILD_SOURCEBRANCH.Replace("refs/pull/", "").Replace("/merge", "")
+        } else {
+            Write-Debug "Retrieving change id from the environment since it could not be found in the config."
+            # retrieve the change ide form the BUILD_SOURCEBRANCH enviroment variable. 
+            $changeId = "$Env:BUILD_SOURCEBRANCH".Replace("refs/pull/", "").Replace("/merge", "")
+        }
+
+        # we can always fail (regexp error or not env varaible)
+        if ($changeId) {
+            # add a var with the change id, which can be later consumed by some of the old scripts from
+            # jenkins
+            Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=pr_number;isOutput=true]$changeId"
+        } else {
+            Write-Debug "Not setting the change id because it could not be calculated."
+        }
+        return $changeId
+    }
+
     [PSCustomObject] Import([string] $configFile) {
         if (-not (Test-Path -Path $configFile -PathType Leaf)) {
           throw [System.InvalidOperationException]::new("Configuration file $configFile is missing")
@@ -468,15 +497,9 @@ class BuildConfiguration {
 
         if ($configuration.BuildReason -eq "PullRequest" -or (($configuration.BuildReason -eq "Manual") -and ($configuration.PARENT_BUILD_BUILD_SOURCEBRANCH -eq "merge")) ) {
           Write-Host "Configuring build from PR."
-          # This is an interesting step, we do know we are dealing with a PR, but we need the PR id to
-          # be able to get the labels, the buildSourceBranch follows the pattern: refs/pull/{ChangeId}/merge
-          # we could use a regexp but then we would have two problems instead of one
-          $changeId = $configuration.PARENT_BUILD_BUILD_SOURCEBRANCH.Replace("refs/pull/", "").Replace("/merge", "")
-
-          # add a var with the change id, which can be later consumed by some of the old scripts from
-          # jenkins
-          Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=pr_number;isOutput=true]$changeId"
 
+          # retrieve the PR data to be able to fwd the labels from github
+          $changeId = $this.ExportChangeId($configuration)
           $prInfo = Get-GitHubPRInfo -ChangeId $changeId
           Write-Host $prInfo