TFS Reviews

Name: TFS
Brand: Microsoft
Rating: 4.0 (97 reviews)

Vendor: Microsoft

4.0 out of 5

97 reviews
88% willing to recommend

4,684 followers

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What is TFS?

Visual Studio’s Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a powerful application development lifecycle management solution. It aids developers in managing every aspect of their DevOps and application creation. TFS combines many different types of solutions into a single powerful platform.

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TFS is the #3 ranked solution in top Quality Management Tools and #4 ranked solution in top Application Lifecycle Management Suites. PeerSpot users give TFS an average rating of 8.0 out of 10. Based on the analysis of the 97 most recent TFS reviews, the overall sentiment is positive, with a sentiment score of 7.2. TFS is most commonly compared to OpenText ALM / Quality Center: TFS vs OpenText ALM / Quality Center. TFS is popular among the midsize enterprise segment, accounting for 65% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a educational organization, accounting for 61% of all views.

Helped 816,406 peers since 2012

Featured reviews

Pmurki@Micron.Com Praveen

VP & GM, Client Storage at Micron Technology

I've worked with TFS for source control and Agile project management. We also used TFS for seamless team collaboration and tracking. I used TFS for a couple of years. Now, we use Azure DevOps. It's a wonderful tool for source control and CI/CD pipelines It's a really valuable tool for…

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CarlBrown

Vice President Engineering at Vertex Downhole Ltd

So far, so good. We've had one external developer consultant that had to come in and access it as well, and that went well. I don't have any gauge about how it would be for a team of 50 developers. The hardware we're running on it right now probably wouldn't be enough, but I don't feel that it wouldn't be able to scale to a larger number of developers. From a security model perspective and from a functionality perspective, it seems to have all the features to be scalable. I just don't know about the performance. That's all. Currently, there are five of us who work with this solution. We have one project manager and four developers. We have one firmware developer who does not work in the Visual Studio environment. This firmware developer works in a microchip MPLAB X environment. All other developers work in the Visual Studio development world. So, it's more integrated, but both roles work. The same people also take care of its maintenance. From a source code management perspective, it is being used very extensively. From a build server perspective, it is used extensively. We don't do release management with it, and we don't have integrated automated testing turned on in it as well. Those are two fairly large areas of functionality that we don't use currently. We may in the future, but we're not using them right now. We're using about 60% of the functionality.

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Ashish-Kamat

Principal Consultant at Wipro

I have found almost all of the features valuable because it integrates well with your Microsoft products. If a client is using the entire Microsoft platform, then TFS would be definitely preferable. It integrates with the digital studio development environment as well. So, almost all the features for TFS are useful. The good thing is, unlike other products, you get a complete suite of features. Many of the other vendors don't have an entire suite of features available. If you take Jira for example, the requirements might be captured in a different tool. Or maybe there are other features in the lifecycle development environment and different tools might be used, but TFS offers a consolidated package. You don't have to go to other tools to capture your requirements, or maybe even if you're doing build and release planning.

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TFS mindshare

Product category:

As of November 2024, the mindshare of TFS in the Test Management Tools category stands at 8.6%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Test Management Tools

Key learnings from peers

Last updated Nov 16, 2024

Valuable Features

TFS offers end-to-end lifecycle management, version control, collaboration, and integration with Visual Studio. Agile project management, traceability, code management, and seamless branching are notable features. TFS supports customizable workflows, test management without extensive licensing, and integration with other Microsoft tools. Traceability links build processes to work items, enabling efficient project tracking. It supports Git and TFVC repositories, enhancing flexibility in source control. TFS is user-friendly and supports comprehensive build and release options.

"A notable feature of TFS is its ease of creating user stories and tasks, which simplifies the process of adding and editing them."
"A notable feature of TFS is its ease of creating user stories and tasks, which simplifies the process of adding and editing them."
"Once TFS is installed, there are no major issues."

Room for Improvement

TFS needs better stability, user interface improvements, and enhanced integration with third-party tools such as Jira. Managing permissions and testing features can be complex and costly. It requires simpler and more effective build, merge, and branching functionalities. Agile and project management capabilities could use enhancements. Users find the interface less intuitive compared to competitors, and they seek better support, more dashboard flexibility, and easier access to historical data.

"There might be some complexity in its off-cloud versions."
"TFS should have capabilities similar to Git, like storing all types of artifacts in the repository."
"The product access management features and connectivity need improvement. Rights management is also complex and could be simplified."

ROI

Users report TFS significantly boosts productivity and efficiency. It reduces the learning curve due to its integration with other Microsoft platforms and improves time efficiency in critical operations, such as in the oil and gas sector. Deployment and validation artifact processes see substantial time savings. The tool enhances cost efficiency and offers seamless integration with Visual Studio and Azure Cloud, leading to fewer errors and more effective project management. Overall, users find its investment worthwhile.

Pricing

TFS pricing is perceived as reasonable but can be complex, with costs depending on configurations and licensing models. Many organizations appreciate its integration with Microsoft products, finding value in enterprise agreements. Costs may include server and user licenses, with discounts for using MSDN or Visual Studio subscriptions. While it offers competitive pricing compared to some tools, users note it can be expensive without integrations, especially when needing more than the free version allows.

"There is a yearly licensing fee that needs to be paid."
"TFS is expensive, and the licensing costs are yearly. I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

Popular Use Cases

Organizations primarily utilize TFS for version control, code repository management, and project management. It supports ALM, integrating with Microsoft technologies like .NET and C# for seamless development processes. TFS is employed for task assignment, bug tracking, backlog management, and collaboration within Agile and CI/CD frameworks. Additionally, it is used for test management, requirement handling, and managing development workflows, contributing to efficient software development and deployment.

Service and Support

Many users did not need to contact support, relying on online resources. Those who did found Microsoft's support generally good, with quick responses, especially for Premier support. Communication delays and improvement needs were noted by some. Ratings varied, with several giving high scores. Users appreciated the available documentation and community support for troubleshooting.

Deployment

Many users found the initial setup of TFS straightforward and well-documented, often completing it easily. Some required external help or faced challenges due to complex configurations. Experience varied with organizational size and expertise level. Larger teams took longer due to additional complexities like permissions. Smooth deployments were noted, benefiting from Microsoft's guidance and resources. While some found aspects complex, the setup improved significantly in recent versions, simplifying earlier challenges.

Scalability

TFS demonstrates good scalability for many users but can face limitations in large organizations. Some users experience seamless scaling, while others encounter challenges managing large projects and branches. Most appreciate TFS's integration with Microsoft tools, enabling efficient implementation. A few mention TFS's scalability can be tricky against competitors like Jira. Those using TFS in high-availability environments report positive scaling experiences, although some users prefer other solutions due to specific limitations with branch management.

Stability

Users find TFS mostly stable with few issues. Occasional minor problems include stability under heavy load, hardware requirements, and tool visibility in browsers. Performance generally meets expectations, though some rate stability lower due to initial setup challenges or environmental factors. Updates often resolve concerns, and proper setup minimizes disruptions. Users often rate its stability high, appreciating its reliability for daily operations, although some prefer alternatives like Jira for agility.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our TFS Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

61%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Healthcare Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Insurance Company

University

Real Estate/Law Firm

Retailer

Media Company

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Logistics Company

Non Profit

Compare TFS with alternative products

Learn more about TFS

Visual Studio TFS Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy TFS include:

Build automation. TFS enables users to create definitions that can easily automate any and all tasks that are critical to the development of their applications. Businesses can utilize features that are built into TFS to accomplish preset tasks that can help them create the application of their choice. This can include enabling them to run automated tests when the need arises. Additionally, users can create custom tasks that will run automatically and allow users to focus their attention on the areas that most demand their focus.

Security. TFS is designed with the security of a user’s DevOps in mind. It enables an organization to restrict user permissions so that only developers that are meant to have access to particular parts of the development process can perform tasks related to those sections. It segments the development process to reduce the possibility of sensitive data being stolen.

Enables product rollbacks. TFS keeps copies of past versions of the organization’s application. Users can sift through the different versions that are available and can redeploy the version that best fits their needs should it ever become necessary to do so.

Visual Studio TFS Features

Source code management. TFS comes with all of the tools that developers need to completely manage their source code. They can share their code so that multiple developers can work on the same project. Additionally, TFS enables them to do things like review the history of a particular piece of source code.
Project management. Organizations can leverage the wealth of project management features that TFS offers and ensure that their projects run as smoothly as possible. Project managers are able to use TFS to control every aspect of their project, from the planning stage until the application’s development has reached its conclusion.

Reporting. TFS enables users to generate reports that leverage critical metrics and provide them with important insights into the applications that they are creating. These comprehensive reports can be secured so that only users with the proper level of clearance can access them.

Reviews from Real Users

TFS is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its source code management capabilities and its powerful integration suite.

Carl B., the vice president of engineering at Vertex Downhole Ltd, writes, “The most valuable features are related to source code management. Using TFS for source code management and being able to branch and have multiple developers work on the same projects is valuable. We can also branch and merge code back together.”

Ashish K., the principal consultant at Wipro, says, “I have found almost all of the features valuable because it integrates well with your Microsoft products. If a client is using the entire Microsoft platform, then TFS would be definitely preferable. It integrates with the digital studio development environment as well.”

TFS was previously known as Team Foundation Server.