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Azure DevOps Services

Azure DevOps Services
Formerly VSTS

Overview

What is Azure DevOps Services?

Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System) is an agile development product that is an extension of the Microsoft Visual Studio architecture. Azure DevOps includes software development, collaboration, and reporting capabilities.

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Recent Reviews

Azure DevOps with SAFe

10 out of 10
January 09, 2024
We are following SAFe practices by using Azure DevOps starting from PI planning to retrospective. We are using all features starting from …
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ADO - an all encompassing tool.

8 out of 10
June 06, 2023
We use ADO for a wide range of things. We create work items in there, essentially being a unique number that we can associate with a …
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DevOps for the Win

10 out of 10
May 20, 2023
Incentivized
We use Azure DevOps to host our code repository. This has helped make it easy to integrate with Visual Studio to be able to write code and …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Azure Artifacts

$2

Cloud
per GB (first 2GB free)

Basic Plan

$6

Cloud
per user per month (first 5 users free)

Azure Pipelines - Self-Hosted

$15

Cloud
per extra parallel job (1 free parallel job with unlimited minutes)

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Azure Pipeline Tutorial | Azure Pipeline Deployment | Azure DevOps Tutorial | Edureka Rewind - 3

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Azure DevOps Services?

Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System) is an agile development product that is an extension of the Microsoft Visual Studio architecture. Azure DevOps includes software development, collaboration, and reporting capabilities, along with the basic plan which includes:
  • Azure Pipelines: automatically builds and tests code, combines continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD)
  • Azure Boards: Work item tracking and Kanban boards
  • Azure Repos: Unlimited private Git repos
  • Azure Artifacts: 2 GB free per organization
The Basic + Azure Test Plans bundle can be used to allow users to test and ship with confidence using manual and exploratory testing tools.

Azure DevOps Services Video

Introduction to Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps Services Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System) is an agile development product that is an extension of the Microsoft Visual Studio architecture. Azure DevOps includes software development, collaboration, and reporting capabilities.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.1.

The most common users of Azure DevOps Services are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(451)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 34)
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January 09, 2024

Azure DevOps with SAFe

Harsh Shukla | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are following SAFe practices by using Azure DevOps starting from PI planning to retrospective. We are using all features starting from Work items, Dashboards, Repo, CI/CD pipelines etc..
  • Product Management
  • Delivery Plans
  • CI/CD
  • Integrate GitHub with Azure DevOps and have just one product
  • Automatic set Start and Target Date for Delivery Plan based on user story sprint assignment
For small enterprises to big, it applies to all for efficient and effective product management with full traceability in built.
Ben Friedberg | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use ADO to manage our entire pipeline of work. Backlog items, tasks, and bugs, code repositories and pull requests, code reviews, pipeline management, releases and CI/CD, testing, deployment, and oversight. Overall, our whole process depends on the capabilities that DevOps brings to the table and wouldn't be the same, otherwise.
  • Backlog management
  • Build / Release management
  • Code review and pull requests
  • Tracing where security rules are coming from
  • wiki management
  • Mass-editing values (adding tasks, etc...)
Definitely great for developing .net applications and keeping track of a backlog in a SCRUM environment. I think managing a backlog and the associated schedule are also very strong.

I would think that managing an application with a non-microsoft environment would be less appropriate (ie: a node.js back-end application with a react front end, for instance...)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Earlier, we used the traditional whiteboard method to track our 2-week sprint activities, but now with Azure, we have so much evolved as it is a cloud service, and everyone can update their tasks on the board from anywhere. Azure Is used for Sprint planning, Test, and Defect management, As it offers a complete solution from task creation until defect closure.
  • Manage features and tasks seamlessly.
  • Defect management is customizable.
  • CI/CD pipeline support.
  • Test Automation integration with open-source tools and technology.
  • Integration to Service Now.
  • More reporting capabilities.
Azure DevOps was a one-stop solution for sprint planning, Test planning Pipeline integration as we have dev, test, and sandbox env and wanted to have the latest/clean code in all env. It was also helpful in creating dashboards showing daily progress by developing charts, burn-down graphs, defect tracking, and follow-ups.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As an IT Service Manager, I use Azure DevOps Services to improve on our existing software development and IT service management processes. We mostly use the built-in source control, work tracking, build automation, and release management functions of Azure DevOps. Our use case involves several software development projects and focuses mainly on Source Control and Collaboration to allow our dev teams to securely store and collaborate on their code, Work item tracking to track the progress of bug fixes and enhancements, as well as user stories, Build Automation to reduce errors and speed up the dev cycle Automating deployments using the built-in release management functions.
  • Tracking of user stories, bugs, and dev tasks, which allows our devs and business analysts to collaborate.
  • Automated and better-controlled software deployments.
  • DevOps has improved how our devs handle version control of their code (fewer conflicts).
  • The sheer number of features can be overwhelming for new users!
  • Better integration with external tools such as our service management platform.
  • Setting up build configs and pipelines can be tricky for first-timers.
Azure DevOps is great for agile software development with larger teams as the included features for managing user stories, sprints, and backlogs allow larger dev teams to more easily plan, track, and deliver software releases. It is also great for CI/CD because of the options for automating build, testing, and deployment processes. The integration with various Azure services makes it easy to deploy in cloud environments, and therefore it is an ideal tool for us as we use Microsoft Azure extensively for hosting our business applications. It's less useful for smaller projects or individual developers as many of the features will simply never be used, and there are more lightweight tools available. There are also better tools available for task tracking in non-software development projects or if your organization relies heavily on non-Microsoft products.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Azure DevOps offers a wide variety of tools for a CI/CD environment and it's really useful. We are moving from a static build model to an automated one and so VSTS has the tools we need to continue growing in the future. We started using VSTS, now Azure DevOps, as a code repository only and that's the main use within our organization.
  • Private repositories
  • User management
  • Security
  • Extensions
  • Some integration with 3rd party tools or services could be better
  • Has a lot of options, but sometimes are hard to find
  • Non standard build/test workflows could be problematic
Azure DevOps Services is a great service. Its function as a code repository is great, and its integration with Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code lets you work in a natural way from these tools. MS Teams integration exists as far as we test it requires an Azure subscription, so it does not apply to the free 5 user tier.

We have been using it for at least 5 years and it's rock-solid in its function and always adds new options and features. We started using it because of its free 5 user private repositories function. Now GitHub does the same (and it's also from Microsoft) but Azure DevOps Services offers more options and tools, so we will stick with this service.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Azure DevOps Services (formerly VSTS) is our entire enterprise deployment strategic platform. Coming from a VSTS/TFS background, it's a natural choice. Azure DevOps Services (formerly VSTS) is used for scrum product backlog management, task assignment, test case management, bug tracking, source version management, change review, and continuous integration and deployment. It's a great ecosystem and with git hub acquisition, the product is very versatile and future proof.
  • Microsoft ecosystem with one-stop solution for Agile/CICD
  • Easier integration with IDE
  • UI-based/YAML both pipeline formats supported
  • Very flexible and supports all kind of deployment
  • Should support non-Microsoft and open-source ecosystems in an easier way
  • License costs
  • Scrum boards and sprint analytics can be improved to be on par with the market
  • Notification and workflow customization should be flexible
All Microsoft ecosystem products are well integrated and support easier build automation. Especially if you use TFS and Visual Studio, this is very well suited. They are flexible in bringing open-source software build supports and have a great marketplace with lots of Azure DevOps Services (formerly VSTS) extensions available.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Azure DevOps or ADO (as we call it) is used by the IT department in developing and also transforming multiple legacy applications to Modern Microservices based applications and architecture. It enables seamless development by offering multiple tools that are required to develop modern applications in Agile-based methodologies. It enables seamless Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) process, and everything is bundled in a user-friendly manner.
  • Azure DevOps bundles all the useful tools together in a seamless way.
  • Sprint boards, Code repositories, Pipelines etc. all can be managed from a single application.
  • Facilitates easy collaboration between technical members and business or product owners.
  • Facilitates parity between different environments by providing a single source of truth for all pipelines.
  • Azure DevOps Sprint boards can be improved, similar to Jira (this can be my bias).
  • Teams and Azure DevOps integration can be improved in-terms of updates of stories or tasks.
  • Pipeline job logs and their web console views can be improved.
It is well suited for large and distributed teams, developing cloud-native applications in a fast fail-fast approach. It will enable seamless development and support different platforms in integrations. It is of less value if the teams are small and located together and also in cases where the application runs on legacy software.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Azure DevOps/VSTS for the entire agile approach to software development at the organization I work for. We use Azure Boards for managing work in sprints, providing us with live features for planning & retrospectives. We use the Azure Repos feature for Git version control of our code and for PR processes, and pipelines & releases for building, linting, and testing code & deploying code to multiple environments via a continuous integration approach. We use Azure Artifacts to host our NuGet packages to be used by multiple projects for code reusability.
  • Git repositories feature is fully featured with a friendly web interface.
  • Azure pipelines & releases are very flexible for CI/CD practices.
  • Azure Boards allows linking work items to code and for a closer relationship between code & the sprint rather than using a secondary piece of software like JIRA/Trello.
  • User interface looks nice but it can often be quite hard to find things that you need.
  • Many features are now being ported over to GitHub, in a more fleshed-out way (e.g. GitHub Actions), after the Microsoft acquisition.
  • Documentation can be limited.
Primarily best for Microsoft dev houses (C#/.NET, TypeScript/JavaScript). Provides all the features you'd expect for an agile development workflow all in one package.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Azure DevOps across most teams, leveraging both Kanban and Scrum methodologies. The tool is used for SDLC workflow, source control, and documentation.
  • Source control integration.
  • Templates for multiple Agile types.
  • Document management (implement something similar to Sharepoint libraries).
  • Streamlined permissions structure.
Azure DevOps, on the whole, is very easy to set up and use if you have any experience with Agile processes. The initial barriers to entry are extremely low as the first 5 users can leverage the tool for free. I found the overall feature/functionality easier to use and more approachable than similar tools. It is also leaps and bounds better than TFS if you haven't looked at it in a while. If you are already a git user, this is directly integrated with git repos, making the transition easy. The tool is also integrated with many other Microsoft products, so if you are a Microsoft-centric shop, you can leverage the broader ecosystem.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Azure DevOps is being used by our development department. It addresses the problem of not having a central source code storage location with team collaboration. It is used to store and collaborate on development projects. All team members are checking in/out their source code and pipelines/team collaboration is in use.
  • Ease of use/integration with Visual Studio.
  • Very responsive and easy to maintain a site.
  • Has full Git capabilities.
  • Capability to store unlimited numbers of projects.
  • The price/license per user could be a little less than many of the open-source type source code platforms on the market.
  • Ease of integration with other development IDE's than Visual Studio.
No matter how many developers you have within the company, a robust source code control/DevOps pipeline is a must. When a new software development project is needed it can be initiated within DevOps by any team member/manager. The project can be tracked from start to finish with alerts and message ability directly in the product. The QA team can also monitor and provide feedback directly within the product.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Azure DevOps is a common tool used by technical teams. In my capacity I used Azure DevOps to create a Chef Cookbook pipeline for delivering tested code. In doing this, I used it in conjunction with the built in version control system provided by Azure DevOps, but it also integrates well with GitHub and other systems.I also helped others set up pipelines and implement the use of Azure DevOps in this capacity as well.
  • Usability: The usability of Azure DevOps is great! Being a new user, it was easy to pick up and go with this tool with very little requirement to seek external documentation.
  • Integration: This tool integrates well with other systems (ie. GitHub, Chef, etc).
  • Built in activities: Azure DevOps has a ton of prebuilt activities that allow you to basically build whatever you need without writing any extensive code.
  • While usability is great, it did take me a few times to find "hidden areas" (like the visual designer link for creating pipelines). Having these in more defined noticeable areas will only improve on the already great usability.
  • As with other Microsoft tools, the Microsoft login get's a little crazy when you have multiple accounts. In my case, I have several accounts (personal, university, and work) and getting into Azure DevOps with the appropriate account could sometimes be an act of futility.
Azure DevOps is well suited for any platform you are running. In my case, it was a great Chef cookbook pipeline solution that required no overhead or setup, cost nothing, and worked great. It works well with on-prem systems, systems in Azure, systems in AWS, and even systems in Google Cloud. Honestly, it's a really great multi-platform tool in my opinion.
Kyle Kochtan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Azure DevOps is currently used across the organization. Currently not all groups and departments are utilizing it however we are in the process of rolling out to these groups. Azure DevOps has become our go to application for development. We are using it for full development life cycle, code repository, testing, deployment and verification.
  • Once set up it makes deployments to various environments a breeze
  • YAML backend is a huge plus
  • Large groups can work on the same solution seamlessly
  • More streamlined set up of CI/CD
  • Better error messaging to explain why sometimes a build is successful and sometimes not
  • Easier set up of deployment tools
Azure DevOps is by far the leader out there. If you are a Microsoft shop there is no need to look elsewhere. This will handle everything you have with ease and then some. If you have older code then you may need to build some customizations to make it work but anything recent is seamless.
Maria Sousa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We're implementing entire product workflows with Azure DevOps: building, testing, staging and deploying. It's the perfect companion for Visual Studio and Git, so everyone just loves using it. It's a dream come true not having to switch to different front-ends to get our job done throughout the day, while keeping an amazing user experience.
  • Unified environment for all DevOps tasks and procedures
  • Amazing User Experience within a beautiful UI
  • Great marketplace extensions collection
  • Code merging has room for improvement
  • Such a broad set of features can become confusing for the novice user
It's a great way to normalize DevOps wokflows, allowing you to replace lots of different tools and get the job done with a unified package. Testing support is second to none. If you're just focusing on development with version control, than Visual Studio packed with Git will probably cover all your needs.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Azure DevOps is the standard at my company for software source code management and project/requirements management. The cloud-hosted software is being used across all teams to coordinate and track development activities, align release planning, and track work items for testing and verification. Previously we used tools such as Rally and Perforce to serve these needs, but we have standardized on Azure DevOps going forward.
  • Flexible Requirements Hierarchy Management: AZDO makes it easy to track items such as features or epics as a flat list, or as a hierarchy in which you can track the parent-child relationship.
  • Fast Data Entry: AZDO was designed to facilitate quick data entry to capture work items quickly, while still enabling detailed capture of acceptance criteria and item properties.
  • Excel Integration: AZDO stands out for its integration with MS Excel, which enables quick updates for bulk items.
  • Central Dashboard of Development Metrics: AZDO nests its dashboards in workflow-specific tracks, which is useful. Still, I'd like to see a home page personalized for each user which provides relevant updates on the most recent work items (updates to features, etc.) and work progress.
  • Complex Queries: AZDO is great for simple queries, but complex queries and the display of results doesn't always produce intuitive results. For example, sorting and drag/drop can be unreliable in some views. I suspect the AZDO team will work out these issues over the next few releases.
  • Lack of Themes: AZDO allows for the tracking of Epics and Initiatives, but there doesn't seem to be a structured interface for tracking product investment themes.
For development teams with a history of Microsoft tools alignment, Azure DevOps provides familiar patterns and interfaces. And for product management / product marketing users, the use of use of data entry and the Excel integration provide for easy on-ramps for learning and proficiency development. For teams that have used tools such as FogBugz, the boards and case layouts may take a little getting used to.
Agenor Roris Filho | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used by the IT Department to manage all steps of the main software development project, and the improvement and integration of the internal TMS (Transportation Management System). Consultants, analysts, developers, the Scrum Master, and the product owner can collaborate and control all their activities, with high visibility of the progress and particular issues. Enabling the Scrum work item template allowed the use of agile techniques and control over a highly demanded product backlog.
  • It offers an easy relationship between product backlog items, development tasks, and the source code changes.
  • No overhead management tasks, people keep focused on product development and it reduces work time.
  • Dashboards show the summary of the most important indicators, and offer different views for distinct professional roles, keeping people in touch with entire progress.
  • Full support for Scrum artifacts and processes.
Team System is the best solution if you use Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise as your main development platform, especially if you have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. Even though it can be used with any development project management framework it is better in an informal environment using Scrum.
Rahul Kumar Singh | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System is being used by the dev team in the organization. As every developer is a part of a project, every developer has to access the TFS (team foundation server) in order to contribute to the project. MVSTS is solving some major business problems. For example, it allows version control of a file as the whole team is working on the project. TFS provides each developer a local copy of the file, as well as the server version. Developers can make the changes to their local file and test it and if everything goes well, then they can update it on the server for the customer.
  • Version control of the files: each developer has access to the server and regularly gets the latest server changes in his local box. The local file is maintained and also remains updated with the server version. The program also provides a different copy of a file so that it can be recovered in case of a failure from any individual developer box.
  • Some features like shelveset creation, work item monitoring, and publishing the project database.
  • I can access any developer's local box and see what changes he is doing if he has shared the shelveset with me.
  • Applying any new changes and undoing them using the pending changes feature.
  • Once, I added a PDF file to my shelveset so that I could share my changes with my team, but they were unable to unshelve my changes. This is because PDFs cannot be opened in more than one box, and it was locked on my box. So, I had to undo it from my box, and even then it was only accessible to one person at a time. It was problematic. They should at least be able to open it in read-only mode.
  • Lots of settings are necessary. However, if you accidentally uninstall one, instead of having to install it again, there should be a backup kind of thing for my profile settings in Visual Studio.
  • The default compare and merge tool provided by Visual Studio does not fill our needs, and we need to install other products like Delta Walker or Araxis Merge.
For large project or a large team, the product is well suited when this technology is already implemented, because nowadays for version control there are products like GitHub. For a company who is concerned about security, this is a way to make their projects accessible from their TFS, and no one can use it for personal use. This is also useful for maintaining a site that a group of developers are working on, where their work items need to change, like peer test, peer review etc.
Carlos Alberto Pedron Espinett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VSTS is being used in our organization as the IDE standard of the development team, allowed thanks to its provision team foundation a better organization and delegation of functions in the work team. Visual Studio has allowed an efficient and effective organization and delegation of the work assigned to the development department, which has triggered a significant diversification in the market occupied by the company I represent.
  • It allows you to incorporate different languages, or written code in different encoding to the workflow without affecting the development to which it is oriented
  • By using the Entity Framework you can establish the database design of the system in a correctly standardized and highly efficient way
  • The debugging options allow you to have control of the code that is being made, in addition to having a large amount of plugins that allow to use this feature in different languages
  • There are few things that we can say in a negative way because a pending issue was the license and Visual Studio has a lite option that although it does not have all the features of the full version, allows you to fulfill the work planned
  • The download size of the full version is usually very long and can take a long time to get it
  • In case of applying the entity framework in non-standardized tables (already existing projects) it generates inconveniences in the creation of the entities
VSTS is a software that can be used by advanced programmers, and it is also an excellent option in a team of developers that begin to train and become familiar with an IDE. It can be used in large development teams or in particular developments is perfectly adapted to the needs of the developer.
Glenn Jones | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VSTS is currently being used by one department at work but was I brought it into the company about six years ago. We currently use VSTS as a building and testing tool. We set up the builds and create tests to run after a build is successful. When I first started with VSTS I set it up to run on a daily basis and then had the developers correct the problems that were shown by the tests. This works very well and the developers like using it since they did not have to keep on integrating their changes together.
  • VSTS has a wonderful integration with Team Foundation Source control and Git. This is good because these were two source control systems that we used.
  • VSTS can be scheduled to run its builds and test at various times of the day. This means it can in the middle of the night and be ready for the developers when they get in in the morning.
  • VSTS handles Microsoft builds very easily. Building a .Net application can be set up with almost no work. You just have to use the Visual Studio solution that was used by the developers to create the application.
  • VSTS is very Microsoft centric. If the application you want to build is not based on Microsoft items such as C#, or Visual Basic it is very difficult to use.
  • If you are using the latest version of VSTS then you will find a documentation problem. It can be very hard to find methods and help trying to get something running.
  • Passing data between VSTS build steps is not easy. It can be done, but it is not a normal thing that you would Microsoft would have put into their product.
If you are building a build system for a Microsoft product that doesn't have a lot of steps, VSTS is something that should be looked at. If you want to deploy your application to Azure it is even better. Running Visual Studio to build, run tests and perform load and performance tests works very well. Just be prepared to have your initial setup take some time.
Gordon Lo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) is being used currently only by IT and a few select people in the business unit. The main goal of using VSTS from the business perspective was to improve communication, work item management, improve planning and increase visibility into product management. For the developers in IT, it was imperative to have more integration between business requirement and code, moreover, it also expedited development workflow (code reviews, etc).
  • Work item management is fantastic and easy to use. It can be used as simply just tracking tasks, or as complex as tracing work items from multiple projects being assigned to a single developer. Work items can be customized easily to meet the needs of your organization as well, and it isn't difficult to manage the customization.
  • Source code management is excellent and tied directly into VSTS. You have a choice of TFVC or GIT management options - we've switched to git and have not looked back. It is fully featured and commits can be tied directly to a work item using # tags.
  • Metrics/dashboard - being able to write simple queries and move them to a dashboard in a few minutes is great. It enables team managers a quick board to review the status of a project and quickly act on any issues cropping up.
  • Build and release management - if you don't have this... you'll want it. The integration is magic, the interface is easy, and to setup an automated build using the hosted agent was a breeze. We did have to purchase an additional license because of the number of builds we had, but it was worth it.
  • VSTS has a log of flexibility... almost too much. It's hard to actually decide how best to use it until you just set it up and try it out.
  • Currently getting a list of work items on the main home page is messy. There's no hierarchy so it can sometimes be just a blast of work without any sorting or prioritization settings. There's a simple work-around to simply create a query for yourself and enable "search across multiple projects". That works alright, but it would be a better experience if the home page had this already covered.
  • Teams management could be better. It's a little confusing, and not easy to setup. Our specific use case of having some teams able to only see their backlog and nothing else was not achievable in the current implementation of VSTS. As a result, whenever we have to contract out work, we end up creating a new Team Project. It's not all bad, because team project contents can be easily migrated to another project, but it's still a bit annoying.
Anyone who is currently using TFS should migrate to VSTS immediately. Having maintained TFS servers in the past, this is substantially easier. Additionally, the web interface has gotten easier to use and features to move work items between projects has improved greatly. We're also in the process of migrating away from our Atlassian toolset - so it gives you an idea of how versatile the product really is.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is being used by our client's organization, therefore, we didn't pick it ourselves. It is used by our project manager to manage the project and the various features we are developing. With VSTS, it is easy to implement the software development lifecycle using agile principles. Our client is huge on agile and VSTS is a good solution for that method of project management.
  • It's easy to see the work that you are assigned. VSTS also encourages the use of its additional details so features don't get confusing
  • You can track progress of a particular sprint so you can see how far ahead or behind you are during a certain sprint
  • Integration with git is excellent so viewing difference in files, previous commits, etc. are easy with VSTS
  • The Query functionality is hard to use. I understand that its supposed to let users get more control of what they want to see, but its not easy
  • It's hard to see total hours spent on a project. I mentioned in the pro that you can track progress, but it's hard to track how much effort was already spent
  • Build scripts can be confusing to use. Sometimes builds fail for random reasons, but to re-run a build can be confusing
VSTS is best used in an environment or company where everyone is sold on the idea of agile. In a highly competitive landscape, agile is important and VSTS is a tool that aids this ideology. If your organization is still using waterfall and doesn't plan on changing, I would look elsewhere.
Andy Turner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Using VSTS in an agile fashion, we are using the change management features like view history, view changesets, compare, create shelvesets, and to create work items. We optionally could use VSTS for continuous integration/delivery to Azure, but the expense far outweighs AWS. VSTS has made us into a .net shop that is useful for checking in artifacts from Example Author, Microsoft Office/365, or other third party vendors.
  • Change management
  • Continuous integration/delivery, automate application deployment
  • Code reviews, conduct a design review
  • VSTS online code editor
  • Complete Azure integration
  • Distributed workflow
  • Cost
  • More robust API
  • More straightforward comparison tool
Well suited for .net shops, distributed/offshore outsourcing, or small scale development. Less suitable for isolated or modular component development. Although the API is suitable, the licensing cost may be prohibitive for open source projects. VSTS is an end to end change management and collaboration tool that has a robust feature set for the enterprise. A VS Code-like analog companion similar to VSTS for no charge would be excellent.
Fred Sookiasian | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System is being used in our organization for development and testing activities across multiple domains and multiple architectures of multiple products. The biggest business problem it addresses is disparity in branches and trunks of the applications that are being developed. Since the company is merging two vast platforms into one coming from TFS, the independent units working on shared libraries of the framework will eventually migrate everything to one unified WPF framework. Couple this with segregated API automation libraries, the global availability of shared resources with very good version controlling solves endless issues that can result in haphazard application delivery.
  • Global availability as opposed to having everything done in silos when teams are dispersed all over the world.
  • Configuration and administration that reaches out to more people and has overall less impact than having to do spotted administration.
  • Agile project management is easier to deal with in conjunction with some third-party SCRUM/Agile tools.
  • Test Automation endeavors can be quickly ramped up as opposed to using other third party solutions that require greater technical resource overhead.
  • Possibly some test management and ALM desires that are left out.
  • Some performance issues not related directly to internal network performance bottlenecks.
  • It may be pricey from an initial outlook (for larger distributed teams) and that may throw off some companies with challenged budgets.
In larger distributed teams or even smaller local teams, MVST is a big contender in application/architecture delivery. In areas where there might be a finite amount of resources or the development can be done more out of a "shrink wrapped" solution, without the need for large configuration of an IDE, it may be suited to stay simpler and do something else besides MVST.
January 15, 2018

All under one umbrella

Swagata Bhattacharyya | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used across the organization. We use it for tracking tasks as well as for CICD.
  • Task management
  • Capacity Management
  • CICD
  • Once you add a new sprint, it does not automatically reflect in the left panel of work items. You have to select the iteration under default teams settings. This is a bit confusing and difficult to figure out if you don't know.
  • When a task is marked as Resolved, the remaining time does not become 0 like it happens when you close the task. It may be a good idea to reset it to 0 for resolved tasks as well.
  • The system allows you to close a user story which has open tasks under it. A warning mentioning this while closing the user story will be good.
I believe it can be used in all projects, big or small. All projects are broken down into subtasks and VSTS is a great tool to manage subtasks and capacity.
Mauro Bennici | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use VSTS as source repository for all the web projects. We also manage and assign the tasks of the development team.
The continuous integration and the continuous deployment are provided with a mix of on premise installations and Azure instances.
The project management monitor the projects advancement with customized reports.
  • Easy to install.
  • Full integrated: source control, task management, report tools.
  • Plugin for VS, Eclipse, Rider and many others.
  • Backup and restore is really slow.
VSTS is recommended in a scenario where a very lot of projects have to be managed on premise. The possibility to mix the on premise version with the online version allows to create customized scenario to easily adapt to every teams and technologies.
The task management integrated in the IDE is a plus.
Carl Law | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VSTS is our ALM tool of choice, we use it to plan, collaborate and test. Over the years we have slowly rolled access out further to stakeholders and developers alike to ensure everyone is working from one tool which has ultimately resulted in shipping products much faster than before.
  • Source control - this is the primary reason we moved from in-house TFS to the online offering. It's fast and robust.
  • Feature rich - there are a lot of useful features in VSTS that have become our go to tools. Test manager for bug reporting being a key one outside of the source control functionality.
  • User Interface isn't that intuitive - I think more could be done to make the User Experience much better. We have lost countless hours trying to do the simplest of things such as creating new iterations and making them visible in the UI.
VSTS has grown at a rate of knots over the years and it truly is becoming a one stop solution for full Application Lifetime Management.
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