We use Azure DevOps to coordinate our implementation of development changes and technical processes (configurations / setups) for Business Central. First we create a master document listing all the modifications / extensions from a functional standpoint (master), then have individual tasks with tech design and hours assigned. Each time code with Git is sync'd and merged between one or more developers for the monolith extension app, it is tracked with the task assigned. Finally, as each task is worked through the status is updated and sync'd with the time keeping system (F&O) with PowerAutomate. This gives insight into the progress vs. hours consumed vs. original estimate in real time.
Pros
Utilize Git as a repository to share work between multiple users
Ability to configure Pipelines to build containers to run virtual deployments and testing scripts.
Split individual tasks and relate to master documents for quick navigation and ability to see overall picture of project.
Track status of each task
Integrate with Git to utilize branches, merging, approvals, history, etc.
Cons
Have better project management to also be used with functional implementation rather than just development
Have the ability to integrate with a customer facing interface to give visibility into the project status and components.
Smoother integration into time keeping systems such as F&O or Business Central for overall project management reporting / accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
DevOps is much more user friendly than Git itself. There is a more GUI-centric interface, tighter integration with the Azure / Entra architecture. For those of use in the Microsoft-sphere, it really is excellent for code-centric project management. I rate this as an 8 because it does not seem quite as well suited for fully functional / non-code project aspects in implementation. Nor does it have customer / end-user portal / front end for easy reporting and insight.
Alternatives
Atlassian Jira
Jira is fantastic for project management and customer facing portal. It is not good for pure development (no integration with Git, pipeline management, automated testing features). If DevOps were to integrate and adopt the project features of Jira as well as the customer facing interfaces, I feel it would be a complete project management system.
The application has provided the most suitable agile tools for managing projects in the organization. It tracks closely the task development infrastructure to enhance best implementation practices. My team has been depending on this platform for the last one year and the results have come out with positive ROI. Azure DevOps Services helps each department in performance modelling.
Pros
Monitoring web development process.
Building workflow pipeline.
Customization of dashboards.
Cons
Our goals have been implemented positively.
I have not experienced any missing feature.
Likelihood to Recommend
Our main projects have been developed under the excellent operations of this product. Deployment and testing of new applications has been great step ahead since we deployed this tool. Integration with other Azure services has been successful with top-notch results that have promoted faster production growth. It is easy to learn how this product operates even when you are fresher.
Alternatives
The moment I have been working with this tool everything has benn operating efficiently. The software development process has borne positive results under scalable environment. The cost of running Azure DevOps Services us much lower as compared to other tools in the market. It has customizable tools that can be modified to suit business demands. The customer support team can be reached at any time via call or live chat from the vendor website.
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.
Pros
Backlog management
Build / Release management
Code review and pull requests
Cons
Tracing where security rules are coming from
wiki management
Mass-editing values (adding tasks, etc...)
Likelihood to Recommend
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...)
Alternatives
AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Jira Software and monday.com
Jira is super clunky and doesn't behave in a modern fashion. monday.com is too flexible and doesn't provide enough feature set. AWS is the most competitive, but it's hard to wrap your brain around all of the features and offerings provided by amazon. ADO does a better job of making the 'main' elements visible...
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.
Pros
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
Cons
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
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Alternatives
Jenkins
The greatest strength of Azure DevOps Services (formerly VSTS) is that it's a one-stop solution for all agile project management instead of setting up bits of different software put together for each and every need. Azure DevOps Services (formerly VSTS) has a great ecosystem of products that are very well integrated and most of them are in use by my organization.
VU
Verified User
Team Lead in Information Technology (Computer Software company, 10,001+ employees)
It is being used Organization wide and helps us solve with our software development and deployment.
Pros
Azure DevOps is great at managing and securing git repos. Reviewing pull requests and seeing diffs is great. You can even communicate back and forth with your team members right there in the code review screen.
Pipelines is a powerful feature for allowing you to deploy to anywhere (cloud, on prem, etc.) You can secure your pipelines and track your artifacts with ease.
Boards is a great tool for managing your work task as well as associating your commits with the work item.
Cons
I love Azure DevOps. I can't think of anything that requires improvement.
Likelihood to Recommend
It is well suited for managing software development. Code management, deployment, work item tracking. It allows remote teams to work together easily.
Alternatives
GitHub, Jenkins and Bitbucket
I prefer Azure Devops over all other code repository / ci/cd systems that I've used in the past. All features are integrated into a single service (back log, repo mgmt, deployment pipelines, artifacts, etc.). The tools are easy to use and super powerful.
VU
Verified User
Partner in Information Technology (Computer Software company, 1-10 employees)
We use Azure DevOps internally to manage some of our hardware projects, leveraging the project management and resource sharing features of the platform. With various clients, we leverage the code repository and pipeline features in addition to project management to provide a full fledged CI/CD development workflow for new and continued work.
Pros
Full project pipeline service.
Good story/task management.
Robust pipeline.
Cons
Pipeline configuration.
Multiple-repository management per project.
Permissions management.
Likelihood to Recommend
Azure DevOps provide a great resource when you want a "soup to nuts" approach to building software and tracking its deployments and updates. Using the project board to create stories and tasks, you can easily create code branches in which to do the work, which provides a great audit trail to when bugs were fixed or features completed. By using the pipelines, you can allow automation to deploy completed work, track its history, and easily roll back if needs be.
Alternatives
GitLab and Bitbucket
While GitLab has the same features as Azure DevOps, and a potentially more competitive price, its project management features are a bit more primitive. It could be helpful for small projects, but ultimately for our larger projects we went with Azure DevOps. Bitbucket has good code management, but the pipelines tool is far more limited compared to Azure DevOps. Similarly, integrating with project management requires a JIRA license.
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.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Alternatives
AWS CodePipeline, Gitlab, Jenkins and Bamboo
Azure DevOps required the least amount of up front knowledge to get a pipeline up and running. Because of the built in activities, when I initially started working with this tool I didn't have to know anything other than where my code was stored. The rest was easy enough to figure out as I went. It didn't require me to build up any images to work, all of that was in an easy to use interface that was prebuilt and ready to go.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Engineering (Information Services company, 501-1000 employees)
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.
Pros
Unified environment for all DevOps tasks and procedures
Amazing User Experience within a beautiful UI
Great marketplace extensions collection
Cons
Code merging has room for improvement
Such a broad set of features can become confusing for the novice user
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Alternatives
Azure DevOps is a complete DevOps suite with such a broad feature set it's very hard to find a competent competitor that does the same job in a similar fashion.
We use Microsoft VSTS, now Azure DevOps, in the IT department for our software development management. In the past, we used TFS coupled with other items. Since we're a Microsoft shop, it made complete sense to make the jump to VSTS.
The automated features are great; we especially enjoy the build and deploy automation. We also like the board capabilities, better query option, and increased visibility Microsoft VSTS has given us over TFS. Microsoft is always adding new features as well, which helps us streamline or automate our processes even further.
Pros
Board view of the work we're doing. Project management has found this to be especially helpful and has enjoyed how configurable it is to our needs.
Automation: From testing to the publishing process, there are plenty of options to automate workflows and processes. This has freed up resources and time for our teams to get more meaningful work done.
Collaboration: Since we came from TFS, it's the small things that have enabled greater collaboration within the team and with other departments/stakeholders like the ability to tag individuals in comments, following an item and receive email updates, etc.
Cons
It would be nice to have a master board to see everything going on across all projects. This is more of a management view, I would think. For me, I'm having to jump back and forth between our projects. I would like to be able to projects on the master board if this view were available.
Likelihood to Recommend
For us, as a Microsoft shop, it fits very well into what we're doing. This is especially true since we had used TFS for years. In fact, we wish we had made the transition sooner. Like all tools, there is a learning curve for everyone involved in the transition. It's taken our team time to learn the ins and out. And it's been a great leap forward for us. Microsoft VSTS may not be as friendly depending on the technologies you use. We've found it works well, even with non-Microsoft technologies. We're excited to see further tie-ins with GitHub and other technologies in the future.
Alternatives
Team Foundation Server, Trello and Asana
Compared to other tools we have used, Microsoft STS has been a much more complete tool. Communication, collaboration, tracking, management, automation, testing, speed to production—all these areas have been improved since we started using Microsoft STS. We have been looking for ways to be more transparent as a department too and Microsoft VSTS has helped in that journey.
VU
Verified User
Executive in Information Technology (Computer Software company, 51-200 employees)
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.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Alternatives
GitHub
Microsoft Visual Studio was on the market when there were no other providers for this type of service. So if a company was already working on this technology, it will always provide a better output than if they migrated to a new one. However, when comparing GitHub with Microsoft Team System, it's very close, but GitHub is leading in this, in my view.
