TFS Reviews

We use the solution to store all the code and designs for software version control.

The solution helps us store multiple software versions as it evolves and develops.

All the essential functions of the solution perform well.

The solution's pricing and setup process needs improvement.

I have been using the solution for a couple of years.

The solution is stable. I rate its stability as an eight.

The solution's scalability is a six or seven.

The solution's setup process is quite complex. It keeps updating for new versions, and thus, it becomes complicated to maintain them.

The solution generates an average ROI.

The solution is expensive.

I rate the solution as a seven. I advise others to prefer Azure DevOps as it has better features than TFS.

1. SCM functionalities
2. ALM Features
3. Build capabilities
4. Deploy options
5. Web portal
6. Release management
7. Support for multiple languages
8. Plugins for open source tools, like Sonar and Jenkins
9. Very good user-friendly UI
10. Test management - capturing/creating defects
11. Reports
12. TFS community, APIs, and support

• We have set up a centralized TFS server.
• All the delivery projects are clients for this TFS.
• They are using it for code repository, ALMs, and for DevOps implementation.

1. Customization of build templates - better tools
2. Tracking
3. More friendly on test lab setup (TFS 2013, I did not verify on TFS 2017).
4. More user-friendly on SharePoint integration (TFS 2013, I did not verify on TFS 2017).

We having been using this product for more than three years.

All for my entire development project, the major SCM tool has only been TFS.

Nope. Installation was very easy. We set up a 'multi-node' installation:

• Application tier
• Build server
• Database server
• Reports server

No, stability is fine.

We encountered some issues with the report server part when the service user password changes, otherwise until today have not faced issues on the production environment.

Nope.

Very good.

Very good.

We used VSS and most of our projects are in Microsoft stack. I opted to choose TFS for incorporating DevOps with easy integration VS IDE as there are many advantages.

Setup is straightforward. As I mentioned earlier, we did a multi-node installation.

In-house.

Yes.

No idea on this one as it was done by different team.

Yes, VSS and Git.

Source Code Management: TFS has both Git repository management as well as a TSVS Repository. It is the only source code management tool which supports both repository types and also supports on-premise installation. TFS also has ALM capabilities where business users can enter user stories, and the QA team can track test scripts and issues, where stakeholders can view project statuses effectively.

It is great product with capabilities for SCM, ALM and issue tracking.

Allowed project teams to communicate, collaborate and track tasks, stories, test cases, issues, and defects at a single location (using one tool).

Adding more canned reports to allow querying and reporting data export to Excel etc., which would help management with their reports.

Two years.

No issues have been noticed in stability.

No issues have been noticed in scalability.

Microsoft has good expertise in this product. Sometimes, it takes longer to get the correct resource.

Not applicable.

The TFS installation was easy. We had issues moving TFS from the development domain to the production domain. The domain has challenges as users from development domain have different signatures in production. Microsoft helped in resolving these issues.

Very straightforward pricing. We have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft, where the majority of the product is covered. One good thing is the stakeholder license, which is free for business users. Hence, the cost of the license for only the QA and Development team is around $5.

There is no single product that has both SCM and ALM integrated which can enable us to quickly onboard projects. We use JIRA for certain areas in our business, with GitHub. Great product as well, however we have had some difficulties in configuring workflows.

I suggest giving the product a try first. Reading too much on paper does not tell you the entire story of the product. It is really good to use it if you want to combine both SCM and ALM.

I like its MTM (Microsoft Test Manager) section which gives us options to create various test plans and add test cases into it. Once the tests are run or tested, testers can give results. For higher managers, it is really helpful to look at its graph and figure out what is its status.

Another option that I like is linking with other works. Bugs can be associated with user story, test case, etc. This helps us to figure out which work item it is related to.

This really helps in planning our Regression and Functional tests as we create plan and test cases in it. It is easy for higher officials to get an overview of the testing part. Once the team is familiar with it, it’s really easy to work with.

It is completely different than other test management tools. I would highly recommend giving training and brainstorming sessions for the employees before anybody starts to use it in an organization. Otherwise, it is hard for them to work with it. In my current company, I face that situation. They introduced this tool without providing them any training or brainstorming sessions and many of them are not able to use it properly. It creates a lot of confusion. TFS and MTM have their own style of working and they are different from other tools like Jira or TestRail, which are simpler and easy to use.

I have used this product from 2015 onward. I have used its other version TFS 2013.

The product is stable. I have never had any stability issues.

I never asked for technical help. So, I don’t know.

I have worked with Jira and TestRail as part of a different project. They are simpler than TFS. It is really easy to follow these other tools, but TFS has more features and its own unique way of functioning. JIRA has no facility to create test cases, but TFS has it. TestRail is good for writing test cases mostly; project management techniques are more in TFS and MTM. In short, MTM and TFS have more functions. Project management and test management can be done together in one tool.

I have never set it up in an organization. I have just used it. It was really tough for me at the start to use. I never had any experience with it before. I learned by myself looking at YouTube videos. Best bet would be to get an introduction, a brainstorming session, and some follow-up session for the beginners.

I am not sure about pricing. I never got a chance to purchase it.

I never purchased it. No comments on this.

Since I have worked with Jira and TestRail as part of test management, I would strongly suggest giving training to your employees before implementing them. TFS is way different from other tools; its working style is also different. Unless, they get introduced to it, you won’t be able to attain its merits. TFS is really worth it if we can use its advanced features. In order to get that kind of understanding, a training session and follow-up sessions once a while are essential. Learning TFS is like getting familiar with a brand new tool. That kind of awareness is needed from both the employees and higher officials.

Microsoft Test Manager with Enterprise Licensing.

TFS’s test management capability without the expensive licensing has large gaps. Users will be unable to access performance testing and coded UI testing capabilities.

Test Execution will not allow 'on the fly' correction of the test steps that affect the test case itself and not just the run copy of the test case.

Reporting has less depth and cannot report on requirement coverage without Microsoft Test Manager with Enterprise Licensing.

Any improvements would have come on the development side as the organization already had a more mature test management application.

Basic, manual testing should not be only available at the most expensive pricing level. We use many different resources during the testing process, some users only create the test cases, some only execute test cases, and some do both.

Access and permissions are confusing when attempting to include basic manual testing functionalities.

For instance, a user who has contributor and project admin access can end up with no ability to create a test case due to permission level. All users doing any type of test authoring, execution, failure triage or reporting must have the costly advanced permission level.

The ability to export test cases with test steps from TFS to excel, the ability to sync excel changes back to TFS or upload existing excel test cases into TFS. Getting existing test cases in other application lifecycle software into TFS is a finicky, time-consuming process relying on cut and paste functionality.

The ability to see a hierarchical view of user stories with child test cases and the test cases bugs in the backlog

Since November 2016.

There is an issue when selecting multiple test cases for execution or editing that the rows selected are not highlighted in IE 11 and Chrome. There is also an intermittent issue with test modules toolbar icon visibility in IE 11.

I am not involved in this aspect of TFS’ evaluation.

I am not involved in this aspect of TFS’ evaluation.

Yes we are using HPE ALM for Test Management, TFS was purchased to help support the development team

I am not involved in this aspect of TFS’ evaluation.

It's just as expensive as HPE ALM, without many of the features, best used for development tool only to avoid higher costs.

I am not involved in this aspect of TFS’ evaluation.

Test Management is immature for an application lifecycle management tool and it might take a couple more releases and pricing/functionality restructuring.

TFS is mainly used for day-to-day project management i.e. all the tasks, user stories, and test case management are done on TFS.

The most valuable feature is integration, particularly if you have a .NET application because it nicely integrates the CI/CD pipeline where you can automate your build whenever developers check the code. It also has great integration support with Visual Studio.

TFS isn't a great tool if you're on the cloud, so the cloud version could be improved.

I've been working with TFS for over ten years.

TFS is a Microsoft tool, so it's very straightforward to set up.

TFS is nicely suited for enterprises running Microsoft, but if you're using a different technology, I'd advise exploring other tools as well. I would rate TFS eight out of ten.

Project Management: Agile and Code development can now work side-by-side in the same solution.

This speeds up development, as developers do not need to be swapping applications to update and develop at the same time.

TFS increased productivity and reduced our times to market by 60%.

The product needs to stay competitive with its peers like Github, and the adoption of other markup language renderings in the code section of TFS.

10 years.

I didn't encounter any issues with stability.

I didn't encounter issues with scalability.

If you have premier support, then the support is excellent. We get a response within four hours of placing a ticket.

I did not use a different solution prior to using TFS.

Simple, out-of-the-box.

The only area that takes time is creating builds and release pipelines.

It's free with MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network).

We have looked at Github, JIRA, and Rally.

Team Foundation Server is an enterprise ALM tool, not just for developers.

It’s come a long way in 10 years, it's worth a look.

I use TFS to assign and manage projects.

TFS's best features include user-friendly test management, bug reporting, and ID assignment.

TFS's CI/CD, project pipelines, and management development could be improved. TFS is also an older product, so it's not making the advances that other products in the market are.

I've been using TFS for seven years.

TFS is very stable.

TFS is a very scalable product.

I would rate TFS eight out of ten.