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Project Manager at Shell Exploration & Production Co.
Real User
Good organization and structure, and the scheduling works well
Pros and Cons
  • "What I like the most is the DevOps Boards. It's easy to create a hierarchical project structure, assign tasks to people, and to track their tasks."
  • "I would like to automate notifications on sprint planning. When we are getting to the end of sprint planning, we would be automatically notified."

What is most valuable?

What I like the most is the DevOps Boards. It's easy to create a hierarchical project structure, assign tasks to people, and then track their tasks.

I also like the scheduling functionality.

What needs improvement?

I would like to automate notifications on sprint planning. When we are getting to the end of sprint planning, we would be automatically notified. 

Also, it would be nice to have a percentage complete. For example, if a task is in progress, how much of it is complete, how much is left outstanding. I'd like that to be something that the assignee fills in and that automatically reports back to me.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure DevOps
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure DevOps. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure DevOps is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I used Microsoft Project. We chose to use Microsoft Azure DevOps because I needed something that my stakeholders could access.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward.

The time it takes to deploy is dependent on the type of deployment. Deployment of software, or deployment of the project into the software? 

It took me a week to deploy the project into the software. It's approximately 800 PBIs.

What other advice do I have?

Before implementing Microsoft Azure DevOps, I would suggest doing your research on how to configure it. It is a product that I recommend

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Mohammad Alyounis - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps engineer at Q-pros
Real User
Top 10
Significantly enhances our project management capabilities and simplifies package management
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature in automating our build and release processes with Azure DevOps is the scheduling capability."
  • "Azure DevOps could be improved with more security plugins, especially for SaaS scanning and vulnerability scans."

What is our primary use case?

With Azure DevOps, I plan and track my project using Azure Boards, manage my code with Azure Repos, and automate build, test, and deployment processes using Azure Pipelines. This streamlines my development workflow and ensures efficient collaboration and project management.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature in automating our build and release processes with Azure DevOps is the scheduling capability. At the end of each sprint, we schedule automatic releases to QA and development environments, ensuring our latest code gets deployed without manual intervention. Additionally, triggering pipelines upon code upload to the main repository adds significant value to our development workflow.

What needs improvement?

Azure DevOps could be improved with more security plugins, especially for SaaS scanning and vulnerability scans.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Azure DevOps for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability of Azure DevOps as a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of Azure DevOps as a ten out of ten. At our company, it is used daily.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support from Microsoft is very helpful, especially when I need assistance with tasks like migrating work items between Azure DevOps and other platforms. I would rate the support as a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. Deployment typically takes around ten minutes at most. We have set up an automated process that recreates everything, so even if there is damage to the VM or target machine, we can quickly retrieve and redeploy everything ourselves.

We require about two DevOps engineers to maintain Azure DevOps for our company, which has around 400 users in total.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would rate the costliness of Azure DevOps at a seven out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

We ensure the security of our company's source code uploaded to Azure Repos by using a SonarQube Plugin and then automate its deployment to various environments like development and QA. Once approved by QA, we deploy to the production environment, passing through our firewall for protection. This streamlined process ensures efficient and secure CI/CD pipelines with Azure DevOps.

Azure Boards has significantly improved our project tracking and adjustability. It is a powerful tool where we can easily trace work items and monitor the progress of our projects.

Azure Boards is a powerful tool for tracing work items and project progress. It simplifies uploading and versioning of project assets and tools, enabling easy refreshes or benchmarks.

Overall, I would rate Azure DevOps as a nine out of ten. I would recommend it to others.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure DevOps
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure DevOps. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
CT DDS ENC at SGRE
Real User
Has many valuable features including dashboards, sprints, queries, pipelines, artifacts, and the cover repository
Pros and Cons
  • "If someone is considering developing and deploying the infrastructure in this solution, then using this tool is perfect because it's fully integrated with the pipelines and with a server core repository."
  • "I would like to see improvement in the metrics and the dependencies."

What is most valuable?

There are many valuable features including dashboards, sprints, queries, pipelines, artifacts, and the cover repository.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see improvement in the metrics and the dependencies. I would also like to see the option to define the dependencies within all teams in the same project. We have a team level, a program level, and a portfolio level. For the metrics portion, I would like to see some drag-and-drop features for the dashboards that would make it possible to aggregate data from the different teams.

The plugin for the iteration walls can also use improvement as it does not work well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable. Whenever there has been an issue the solution slowed down but there was never any data loss.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution appears to be scalable.

How was the initial setup?

I am not familiar with the initial setup.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was done in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost is reasonable. For the basic license, it is around five euros per month. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution nine out of ten.

If someone is considering developing and deploying the infrastructure in this solution, then using this tool is perfect because it's fully integrated with the pipelines and with a server core repository. When you are building infrastructure, then you are able to use the same tool to deploy the server, deploy infrastructure, and all within a few minutes. This gives you access to the same tool, task management, dashboards, pipelines, and the server core repository. So everything you need to develop a server is integrated into the same tool.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Eli Harush - PeerSpot reviewer
Customer Solution Manager at DXC
Real User
It's a good tool for managing the CI/CD process
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a great product for the CI/CD process."
  • "Compared to JIRA, I think Azure DevOps is missing some management elements, like some reporting features. It would be helpful if some things were clearer when we're adding attributes. For instance, sometimes we want to add some categories or attributes, and it's not so easy."

What is our primary use case?

We manage the full scope of all our projects on Azure DevOps, including all of our kits, bags, and user storage. DevOps encompasses the CI/CD process of every build as well as the customer requirements, QA, and deployment.

What needs improvement?

Compared to JIRA, I think Azure DevOps is missing some management elements, like some reporting features. It would be helpful if some things were clearer when we're adding attributes. For instance, sometimes we want to add some categories or attributes, and it's not so easy.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using DevOps for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure DevOps is mostly stable.

How are customer service and support?

We've used Microsoft support but for .NET Core or Azure DevOps.

How was the initial setup?

Installing Azure DevOps is pretty straightforward at the installation or admin stage. Deployment time depends on the service on my side, so it's mostly very fast.

What other advice do I have?

It's a great product for the CI/CD process, but DevOps lacks some features for project management, guide, user story, etc., so it's far from perfect. Compared to monday.com, JIRA, or others, they have some work to do.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Test Advisory, Management & Implementation at a energy/utilities company with 51-200 employees
Real User
A complete package with good stability and scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "In Microsoft Azure DevOps, you have a one shop to get everything."
  • "If they could build up requirement traceability metrics, then it would be great."

What is our primary use case?

The purpose is for development and testing from the vendor side. Our company works as a vendor, client, and implementation partner. The vendor provides the product, and we make sure that it's implemented correctly for the client. The vendor uses it for the development and tracking of the requirement and the test cases, executions, and building storage.

My access to these tools is very limited because the DevOps pipeline and DevOps is mainly used by the engineering team of development, but the QA is also part of it. Once those people are established, then we are the extended hands or extended part of that for usage. Once they have the stories and features, they start the test cases and link on it. From that point, we just take it forward and once they have a code pull, then we would pull it and build it and deploy it into some QA enrollment.

There are around 20 people using DevOps in my company.

What is most valuable?

The best tool would be Azure DevOps. There are other tools with AWS and Google, but since Microsoft has solutions for everything, it's easier because it's all their tools. We may be using different tools in order to achieve all those things because they may not have an operating system or a pipeline, so maybe we are using some of the bill tools. In order to achieve DevOps, you may be using a set of different tools and connecting it. In Microsoft Azure DevOps, you have a one shop to get everything.

What needs improvement?

There isn't a requirement traceability matrix format. In ALM, we have a centralized repository of all the requirements in one place. But in DevOps, it works like a product requirement. In ALM we have the centralized repository of requirements where you can go and see the requirement coverage and discovery and so forth. But in DevOps, it has stories and test cases. Once that project is over, nobody is going back into that requirement. It's a good tool for development activity, tracking and getting all those metrics. If they can build up a requirement traceability matrix, then it would be great.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't seen any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of DevOps is good.

How are customer service and support?

We haven't had any issues with technical support. Whatever issues we've had, they were solved.

How was the initial setup?

I didn't see any complexity in the setup because everything is from Microsoft. The development tools and operation tools are coming from one shop, Microsoft, so it's easy to connect, plug in, and establish all those things. For Google Cloud or AWS, it's different because they use different tools in order to achieve what Microsoft is trying to achieve. For example, the CI/CD Pipeline.

Even in ALM or in the DevOps tool, it's initially a one-time setup.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't know the pricing of DevOps. It would be much cheaper than ALM because ALM came out as a software product initially. Now they are moving into a cloud and subscription model. In that case, Microsoft is coming from Azure and the cloud and DevOps and software as a service, so it would be much cheaper, but the catch would be that they are trying to get money on all sides, like an operating system, Microsoft Office, or Microsoft Azure DevOps. 

The good part is that it's a complete package, but at the same time, once you've gone with them, you don't have much leverage to split out into some other activities because everything is interconnected and entwined by that time, and it would be like a monopoly. It won't be good if you try to split out at a later point in time because everything is connected—all our Microsoft products like operating systems, OfficeSuite, MS Teams, Azure DevOps, etc.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 9 out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Technical Engineer (Retail Group) at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
MSP
A comprehensive, easy-to-use, stable, and well-integrated solution that does everything in the development life cycle
Pros and Cons
  • "All features are good. Pipelines feature is great, and Boards and Artifacts features are also really good. It is really good at what it does. It is very comprehensive, and it has some really great aspects to it. It is very easy. It is probably one of the easiest to use DevOps tools in the industry, and it is well integrated."
  • "The administrative capabilities of the tool need a huge improvement. Its Wiki and reporting also need a lot of improvement. Their support can also be better."

What is our primary use case?

It is used for development and life cycle management within the company. We use the SaaS version. It is called Azure DevOps services.

How has it helped my organization?

It has absolutely improved the way our organization functions from a development lifecycle point of view. It has enabled teams to be more Agile and flexible.

What is most valuable?

All features are good. Pipelines module is comprehensive, Boards and Artifacts modules are also really extensive.

It is really good at what it does. It is very comprehensive, and it has some really great aspects to it. It has a easy to use UI. It is probably one of the easiest to use DevOps tools in the industry, and it is well integrated.

What needs improvement?

The administrative capabilities of the tool need a huge improvement. Its Wiki and Reporting functions also need a lot of improvement. Their support can also be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it ever since it was created in 2012

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable because it is on the cloud. We have a very large user base and they're all IT-related. The users are engineers, product managers, and management. It is the entire IT organization.

How are customer service and technical support?

We use their technical support a lot. We have internal support, but we will also reach out to Microsoft to resolve problems. Their support is very good, but there is always room for improvement. It depends on the subject area. Sometimes, they have people who are not as well versed as others.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We've been pretty much on the Microsoft products. We used to use Team Foundation Server, which was a Microsoft product. Before that, it used to be Visual Source Safe. We also used to be on PVCS, SVN and CVS.

How was the initial setup?

Being a SaaS solution, there is no setup.

What about the implementation team?

It was implemented in-house as we have a high level of in-house expertise in the ALM space.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This area is very different for each and every organization and I would recommend that they research cost and pricing for their situation.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No, we did not evaluate any other options since we are heavily tied to the Microsoft stack. However over time, we have adopted other platforms (Java, Node, Python and others) since Azure DevOps is cross platform compatible with Linux, Windows, iOS and Andriod.

What other advice do I have?

If you're looking for a cross-platform solution that end-to-end does everything in the development life cycle, this would be a very good solution for you. If you're looking for a more siloed product that is specifically focused on one particular area of the lifecycle, this is definitely still an option, but you should also evaluate other options as well (Atlassian, IBM Rational,  MIcro Focus ALM, GitHub etc) for completeness.

I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a solid eight out of ten. It is really good at what it does, but it also has some solid areas of improvement that are needed. Once they have addressed those, it could be hard to beat.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1282677 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Operating Officer Executive at a cloud solution provider with 11-50 employees
Real User
Allows you to create a bridge for maintenance and support, directly to the client
Pros and Cons
  • "We can forecast tasks and the number of hours a task will take and can compare it with how long a task actually takes."
  • "The communication could work better, especially for the development team."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to manage the project. We create the product backlog, and we put our tasks into the DevOps schedule.

How has it helped my organization?

Azure DevOps allow you to create a bridge for maintenance and support, directly to the client. We can forecast tasks and the number of hours a task will take and can compare it with how long a task actually takes. The Timetracker function allows us to put all this together. Before Azure DevOps, we had difficulty predicting how long tasks would take, considering all the parts that must work together.

What is most valuable?

We have a component server, which is basically a tracker. This is very useful for us to itemise the start and end of tasks to evaluate the resources required, based on price. So it's very valuable. It is important to be able to inspect the items required in a project.

What needs improvement?

The communication could work better, especially for the development team. The important thing is that the tracker tools provide adequate communication, as do other tools. It seems to be lacking in DevOps and is an area which could be improved. We also need to improve publishing in production. In the future, we would like Azure DevOps to work with automated tasks regarding publishing. Better integration with existing source code is another area, which would benefit from improvement. The search repository could be more comprehensive, and visualisations could be optimised, further.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Azure DevOps for around two years. We are a Microsoft partner, so we use Azure DevOps as part of that partnership.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is excellent. Initially, we had some problems with performance, but nowadays it's okay. Maybe they improved the server.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's good scalability, but we need to improve the process by understanding it a lot more.

How are customer service and technical support?

We never actually contacted support. The best plan is to read through all the documentation, but getting the right documentation for your specific project is not always easy to find, as there is so much to go through.

How was the initial setup?

It's average, because we need to research what we are trying to achieve, and the platform has rich functionality. This is a good thing, but it can also mean setup is very complicated. However, we usually find that after testing more, we find our way around what we are trying to achieve.

What about the implementation team?

Our deployment took about three months, as we tracked it. Following that period, we needed another month to integrate a new component into the setup. We implemented it ourselves, with one of our team. We have about 10 users using Azure DevOps, but we have 2 people to provide the deployment out of those. These are developers. We have a small team for DevOps, including the manager. We need our staff to be flexible and agile in our team to take on various DevOps tasks.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

As a Microsoft Partner, you get a discount on the pricing. Licensing costs are around $80 a month for DevOps, but for Azure, it is about $200 a month.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We tried other tools, but Azure DevOps has a richer toolset, and it fits in better with our process. To some extent, as we are a Microsoft partner, we didn't seriously consider other options. However, we did look at Jira and Gitlab as potential alternatives.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Azure DevOps as an 8 out of 10. I would ensure that DevOps' use is planned, in detail, including the implementation before using the software. I would also ensure you have a thorough knowledge of the main components of the system. This will ultimately save hours of work.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user1101249 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Project Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Moving our automation and testing to a cloud-based solution has made it easier to work with and maintain
Pros and Cons
  • "It's graphical representation and tools are easy to use."
  • "Non-functional testing such as security testing, log testing, and performance testing can be improved with a better visualization."

What is most valuable?

The two most valuable features are Azure Pipelines for DevOps automation, and Azure Test Plan for test management.

It is quite easy to create a pipeline, from continuous integration to automated testing, to continuous delivery, performance testing, and continuous deployment. It's graphical representation and tools are easy to use.

The automated testing in DevTest is the big advantage of Azure DevOps.

What needs improvement?

Non-functional testing such as security testing, penetration testing, and performance testing could be improved. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This Cloud solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately one hundred users, the majority of which are developers. There are some project managers and team leads, as well as different levels of management who present to stakeholders.

Currently, two or three of our development teams use Azure DevOps. In the future, we plan to include five more teams. This will grow the number of active users from one hundred to two or three hundred.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not used Microsoft support directly. We have an internal support team that is dedicated to Office 365, Azure DevOps, and other Microsoft solutions.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to this, we used Team Foundation Server versions 2017 and 2018 on-premise, and it was a stable solution.

We also used the Atlassian stack, including Jira, Bamboo, and Confluence, all on-premise. The problem is that the on-premise version has an expiry. We moved to a cloud solution because it is easy to support, easy to upgrade, and easy to stage our products. It is distributed between our offices, as we have development teams split into different locations around the country. The cloud-based solution is the best way to integrate our development effort.

I have also worked with HP ALM/Quality Center in the past.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for this solution is quite easy.

What about the implementation team?

Our internal DevOps team handled the implementation.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have worked with other products, and this is the best solution in the market in 2019.

What other advice do I have?

Deployment of solutions on Azure DevOps is a perfect way to provide Disaster Recovery and High Availability. This is a straightforward solution, and I would suggest not wasting any time looking at others.

Right now, this is the best solution.

I would rate this solution ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure DevOps Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure DevOps Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.