Microsoft Azure DevOps Reviews

Agile scrum project management of a software product in a start-up company. We are a team of 11 people located in different countries.

We have team members in different locations of the world. Azure DevOps is the main communication tool between the product owners, UX designers, and developers.

Its configurable dashboard offers various display options for the stakeholders of the project.

• Dashboard
• Query
• Sub-tasks configuration
• Extensions library
• Visual Studio and other MS product integrations.

• It would be better to have a free-text query editor. 
• Product management/roadmap planning features are missing.
• Parent Column is added in listings and we expect to see it in queries as well

Refreshing the browser is needed when a data is updated. I am expecting Microsoft to prepare an Azure DevOps application running on PC and downloaded from the MS app store.

It is easy to use if you are already familiar with Microsoft products. 

We are an application development company, so DevOps helps us manage the work our developers and software engineers do on-site. It's convenient for customers because everybody works from home due to COVID.

DevOps is used within our organization and we also encourage some of our clients who are interested in a development platform to use Azure DevOps, but we have other clients that actually prefer Red Hat or other platforms. We like Azure DevOps, but our cloud environment is AWS. We've done three implementations on AWS without any problem.

Our technical sales staff and business development people need to know how far the developers are on any product that we're developing. DevOps makes it easier for you to see how far along they are with the work because they have a repository where they store everything. There is a portal where you can see what has been done, what has been tested, what is working, and what isn't. I have a huge dashboard with an overview of what the development team is doing from an executive point of view.

I know exactly what they're working on. If the team is falling behind on a project, there's a project management module where I can see exactly what was supposed to be delivered and what hasn't been. 

I can't think of any specific things at the moment, but I've run into things that I didn't like. I came across something that I wanted to be changed in DevOps, but I can't remember what it was. It was a particular feature I was looking for that I couldn't find.

I'm happy with DevOps' stability. I've had problems with the Red Hat environment, but I think it also boils down still to implementation skills. We're a big Microsoft implementer, so we find Azure DevOps to be highly stable.

DevOps is highly scalable. Before one of our clients decided to move to the cloud version of DevOps, they decided to try it in a small environment to see if they liked it. Previously, they had Team Foundation Server running on-premises, and we encouraged them to switch to DevOps. We set up a minimal environment and used it as a typical development environment. It wasn't for testing or anything. It was just a mini development environment that replicated their internal chassis.

Before we started using DevOps, we were using Microsoft Team Foundation Server, which allowed the whole team to share work and collaborate. DevOps does that and a little more.

Most of the time we just leave it on the cloud instead of deploying it on-prem, unless a client requests on-prem. In that case, we just replicate the cloud environment in the on-prem environment. There's no real difference, and we've had some clients who change and say they now prefer to have it on the cloud. 

After the subscription, which took about a day, we had our B environment up and running, and everything was transferred from on-prem to the cloud. In the older days, it would take you about a month. But now, to move, it actually took us, I think, almost a week, because the biggest challenge was moving the data more than the environment. Moving the environment, it took about, I think, a day or two. But the data was a bit of a problem.

The cost of Azure DevOps is manageable. You have the option to purchase a license that is per user. You can choose based on the size of your team. For example, you can opt for a volume enterprise license or go for user-based licensing if you don't have a huge number of users. 

You can start with a smaller package and then scale up as needed. Let's say, for instance, you are a smaller company with about only 10 users of the environment. Then, two months later, you win the Powerball, and you get a billion dollars and bring in a thousand developers.

You have the flexibility to move from a small-team subscription to a big subscription easily. So you don't necessarily have to take the volume. The licensing model covers all three tiers, whereby you can have a volume license, individual users, or groups. 

We are using groups, and we've found it affordable because you cancel their license if someone leaves. When we get a new person, we repurchase the license. We pay a monthly subscription, but the annual licenses are cheaper because of the commitment. 

I rate Azure DevOps seven out of 10. I would give it a higher rating, but there are a couple of things that tick me off.

We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for our source control, change request management, and a small amount of Wiki.

Microsoft Azure DevOps has helped our organization from having completely automated builds. The developers can send their own code to QA without needing a release manager or lead or IT person moving the code over.

The dashboards need bigger with better extensions and layouts. There isn't a workflow related to the statuses on the dashboard. It only lists the statuses. You can have one started, and once done, but everything in between is only in progress and could be in any order you want, it lacks flow.

I have used Microsoft Azure DevOps for approximately one year.

Last week the builds did stop working for some unknown reason, and then started again. Most of the time the stability is fine, but there are occasions when there's a problem on Microsoft's side, where it creates problems for us.

The solution is scalable but you have to pay for it.

We have approximately 40 people using this solution consisting of developers, QAs, and product owners. We are extensively using this solution in our organization.

I wish the dashboards and the release process were integrated better. The use of Kanban dashboards could be a lot better. They don't have a Kanban dashboard. They have a dashboard with one sprint but it's not exactly the same as a Kanban dashboard. You are not able to do much with them. 

We have not needed to contact the support.

The installation is straightforward. We can create a whole new organization in less than a day.

We did the implementation ourselves. I do most of the maintenance but it is mostly maintenance-free.

There are additional costs for some functionality, such as increased scalability.

My advice to others is for them to do their research before implementing this solution.

I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a seven out of ten.

All the artifacts are tightly integrated into the repository where you have changed tracking, and you can enforce policies. You can improve the quality of your deliverables. You can actually see the progress you're making towards your goal, and you can even forecast how soon a feature can be completed in the future. So, it's that tight integration of bringing all the parties together right from the project managers to the developers, to the system admin who does the deployment that helps achieve the goal of DevOps. That is, the ease of realization of this DevOps ideal is possible.

Most developers and project managers choose the Microsoft tools to begin with because of familiarity, and these new tools are almost an extension of the tools you're already familiar with. There's a lot of knowledge transfer, which helps, rather than bringing in a new product line.

Also, with Azure DevOps there is tight integration to Excel and Office tools so that you can actually even use Excel to do Azure DevOps type tasks. Excel will automatically update the Azure board, your tasks, your company boards, etc. So, there is that condition and familiarity for users.

What I like about it mostly is the tools. You don't need a degree to use them. Also, there's not too heavy a reliance on the CLI.

Right now, they tend to have a limit of 1,000 tasks per sprint, and some of their web-based boards, such as the Kanban boards, no longer display tasks. Once you hit over a certain number of task limits, you need to increase those limits. Depending on how big the sprints you're running are, once you hit that 1,000 limit, you now have to start grouping tasks together. It doesn't allow you to track granularly. When you go to the boards and you are rendering the task board, it gets slower to go over that 1,000 limit. If they could improve that to, maybe, 10,000 and still have good performance, that'd be great.

I've been using it for eight years.

The version we use right now is the 2020 version, but usually, we try and keep within the last two versions.

Depending on the organization, it can be deployed on-premises or as a cloud solution, usually with Microsoft Azure as the cloud provider.

It's very, very stable.

I've used it in organizations with multiple departments using the same installation, and it's scalable. We have about 20 users in multiple departments.

Microsoft support is excellent. Even when you don't have support for some lines, you can call them, and a lot of times, they'll give you what's called a grace case. This means that although you don't have a support contract on a product, they'll help you for free.

Normally, when you call and don't have a support agreement, Microsoft will still charge you an hourly rate to give you an engineer to work with you.

Microsoft Azure DevOps just provides better integration than Jenkins does. I've been in this industry for 27 years. The whole ecosystem and the fact that most of the developers are already using Visual Studio make Microsoft Azure DevOps a good option, along with the entire integration from the project management side, to the development side, to the repository side, and to the deployment side.

Installing Microsoft Azure DevOps is straightforward. You can have everything set up in three or four hours. It's pretty simple.

I've used Jenkins in the past and a group of source repository. I've also used SourceSafe and GitLab.

To run it, to use the tool the way it's designed, you need someone who understands Scrum or Agile project management.

I have used GitLab and other pipeline tools like Jenkins. Azure DevOps combines all of them together, and it beats all of them at everything they do.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate this solution at nine and advise others to go for it.

I primarily use the solution for more of an end-to-end pipeline. 

The integration with the full end-to-end suite is great. The integration between the Kanban all the way through, including the traceability all the way through to the other end is very useful. You're able to test and you have your repositories and the ability to integrate with pipelines. 

There are great automation tools. 

The solution is very stable.

The scalability is quite good.

Individually, the components and not quite as good as others in the market. For example, the DevOps test plan isn't quite as good as a Micro Focus ALM QC. That said, when you integrate it into that entire pipeline, it's better.

Microsoft initiates changes so quickly, it's hard to keep up. It would be helpful if there was more documentation and more training to go with all of the changes. Chris:

With Microsoft, I would prefer to have more test plans. It's very difficult to find individual test plan module training.

The solution is quite stable. It's pretty reliable. there aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The solution is very scalable. It's easy to expand.

I've had no problems with technical support, however, I'll get put in the fast-track programs. I always get very fast responses. 

I also use Micro Focus. For older style waterfall projects, it's best to go with Micro Focus probably, barring pricing and other consideration. However, in an agile environment, a Microsoft Azure-based product such as DevOps is great due to the pipeline and the whole integration end-to-end is just better.

I'm also familiar with Jira, which has better features in various areas. The problem is it moves so fast and new versions are always coming out and it can be hard to keep up.

I'm an implementor. I work with a variety of clients. 

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. It's great for agile and we've been pretty happy with it as an end-to-end solution. 

If you're moving into an agile CI/CD, DevOps is the way to go. If you're still thinking about old manual start testing, Micro Focus is probably the way to go. That said, more standalone manual testing is better supported by Micro Focus.

The Repos, Wikis, and pipelines are all excellent features.

The solution could work to improve their reporting.

The stability of the solution is good.

The scalability of the solution is good. I would give it a four or five-star rating. We have plans to increase usage. Right now we have about 100 users on the solution.

Technical support has been excellent. On that side, Microsoft is very good. The customer support of Microsoft has really improved this past year. On the cloud side also we are very satisfied because it offers very good support.

We did not previously use a different solution.

The initial setup is straightforward. We just implement it from the cloud. We took it and configured it with our local website infrastructure, so there was nothing much to do.

There is a licensing fee of $6/user per month. That's not too much money for us. There aren't really any additional costs beyond that.

We considered using Jenkins, but we decided to use Azure DevOps because we have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft. It was much easier.

We are using the public cloud deployment model.

Potential users should not hesitate to move to Azure DevOps. It keeps on progressing and keeps on adding new features all of the time, so it's a solution that I would highly recommend people use.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

We use the solution for performance testing in general.

One of the main features is the user interface is very good.

The user management in the solution could improve.

I have been using it for four years.

The support for this solution has been fine.

The price is reasonable for the solution.

I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a nine out of ten.

There are two versions of Azure DevOps: the cloud version and the on-premises version. We use the cloud version in very few situations, but most of our software is based on Azure DevOps on-premises.

We are a software house, and we develop software. We use it to store our source code; that is, it is the repository for our source code.

We have different teams working on different products, and each one uses a different methodology and a different process. Azure DevOps helps with that. For instance, one group may be using Scrum as a methodology to develop their software. The other group could also be using Scrum but with CDCI (continuous development, continuous integration), which helps a lot when you have to develop, test, and deploy the solution.

I think the most usable thing is that you can follow the whole progress of the development process. This makes it very useful for us.

As for improvement, the first one is pricing. For us, luckily because we are partners, it's free. Microsoft gold partners do not have to pay, but if you're not a partner, the product is very expensive.

The second would be that the tool should integrate with some of the competitors. It doesn't matter if it's a big market; it's difficult when you have to integrate with other competitor's tools, like JIRA, for instance.

If you look at the competitor's tools, they integrate easily with Microsoft, but on Microsoft's side, it's not as easy. They have been changing, but still, there are a number of gaps there.

I've got teams that want to use Microsoft Project, not only to control the whole process of the development but also to control the whole project and software. I think Project should be integrated with DevOps.

We have been using this solution for 10 years.

It is very stable. I think the system is down only a couple of hours per year, so it's very stable.

It's very scalable. We started using this solution 10 years ago, and it has evolved, We also have grown our software production, and so far, we have scope with all these situations.

We haven't had any problems with the product, but every time we had some questions, technical support staff answered pretty fast, in less than 24 hours.

The initial setup is pretty easy.

For the deployment, I think we had two people: one person from infrastructure and one who was a specialist in Azure DevOps. For maintenance, because we have about 80 people using this software, we only have one and a half people taking care of the software. That is, the infrastructure person does this part-time. He doesn't spend the whole day taking care of DevOps.

The ROI is very positive for us, but it's difficult to say how it would be if we had to pay for the solution. It's a very worthwhile product, but again, we don't have any comparisons because we don't pay anything for it.

Microsoft Azure DevOps is an expensive solution.

Get to know the product because it is complex and has many different possibilities.

It is worth having it, but you have to have an in-depth understanding and know what it is capable of doing. Otherwise, you're going to install it, and then it will be like having a very nice car in your garage that you don't know how to drive.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps at eight.