Microsoft Azure DevOps Reviews

I am a consultant and this is one of the tools that I use to help develop solutions for my clients.

The most valuable feature is the complete integration between test cases, pipelines, and issue management.

The test management section needs to be improved. It is easy to use but they can make changes such that it is more comfortable for the users.

I would like to see a full-quality dashboard added. For example, if I am not using their pipeline then I would still like to see the dashboard available.

I have been using Azure DevOps for more than two years.

I have found it stable, so far.

This product is very scalable. I am currently using it for about 10 users and if I want to add more then I have to pay more money.

I have not yet been in a position where I needed technical support for this product. In the past, I have dealt with Microsoft's technical support for other products and I have found them to be fine.

I have also worked with similar tools such as GitLab, GitHub, Bitbucket, and then Jira.

Because I am a consultant, I work with multiple tools and the choice is that of my client.

I find that the pricing is good, and it is competitive with the other vendors in the market.

My advice to anybody who is considering Azure DevOps is that it is quite easy to onboard. It is a good product if you really want to work in a close-knit environment.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are currently involved in a financing exchange project, and we use this solution to keep track of the exchange activities within the backlog. We are not taking advantage of the repository and the code stuff at this stage. 

The most valuable feature for us at this stage is the Azure Boards.

I really like the user interface. For comparison, I have been using JIRA for several years now, and I am rather skilled at using that tool. The reason for my using Azure DevOps is because my client uses it. My first impression of DevOps, after using JIRA, is that it has a much better, more intuitive, and more user-friendly interface. That first impression is still valid, today.

There is a lack of integration and portability with other tools and products.

I would like to see better interoperability with the agile scaling frameworks.

When I first started using Azure it was impossible to figure out how to do the configuration correctly. Perhaps there should be a configuration environment that hides some features and is not open for everyone.

I find it difficult to find some of the features, although it may be that they are not enabled, or perhaps I have to take some time to better understand the tool.

I cannot really comment on the scalability of this solution. We are running in a microenvironment with only a few users and a few integrations. It is enough for us at the moment, but if we want to go forward and continue to work with it then that will be a discussion for later.

We have approximately fifty users right now. There are three or four administrators, and the remainder of them are end-users.

I have not contacted technical support. Coincidentally, I needed support today, so I went online to find the answer. The toolkit for helping yourself is there, but perhaps it should be more integrated into the solution.

I have used JIRA for several years, and although I am impressed with the interface in Azure DevOps, JIRA still has better integration with other tools.

The initial setup for this solution is much easier than for that of JIRA.

My advice for anyone implementing this solution is to have an expert for every fifty users of the solution. This person is responsible for configurations and so forth.

If you have a Microsoft environment then this is an easy choice for you, but if you don't then I think that JIRA would be a better choice.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for applications that analyze data and the data scientist creates the test data for the manual and automatic application tests. Here in Europe, we need anonymous synchronization of all data for testing.

We create special applications for creating data for direct tests.

Microsoft Azure DevOps has been very good for creating pipelines, and all the solutions for creating task management for developers and for the business. 

All of the tests of the applications are done on the mobile or web interface and it could be improved.

The connection to Power BI could improve. Power BI is a very good platform for reporting and presenting processes, but a good engine does not exist to present the process development in time in Power BI. It's a typical business reporting tool.

I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for approximately one year.

Microsoft Azure DevOps is highly stable.

There are two options to build. The first option is to build in the cloud, which is very stable but not quickly. The second is to build the systems in the local networks. 

We have 5 to 10 people using this solution in my organization. We have three DevOps and the others are the QA cluster.

We do not use support from Microsoft, we have not had any problems.

The initial setup of this solution was complex. Every part of the implementation was difficult.

For us to implement our production it took approximately 10 to 20 sprints. One sprint is two weeks.

We require a three-person team for the maintenance and support of the solution.

The price of the solution is expensive.

All people who work on projects must have good staff in development in .net, and need to have certificates. The minimal certificate is the AZ-204 Azure developer, it is obligatory.

I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a nine out of ten.

We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for application lifecycle management, including source control-related things, pipelines, and also for work item management. In short, the whole ecosystem.

Within our organization, there are roughly one thousand core developers using this solution. We also have stakeholders, product vendors, Scrum masters, testers, and manual testers. 

Mainly the source code solutions and the pipelines. Work item management and the manual test I/O. Test automation, end-to-end testing, and the manual test experience. It's got something that you won't find in other products. The work item management is good enough for small to medium-sized teams, and for large projects with plenty of teams collaborating with each other.

We can achieve the boundaries of the system. Potentially, we could do it with other tools like Jira. Still, with Microsoft Azure DevOps, we can manage everything.

Currently, if you would like to use the full-set of customization features, for example, the process templates, the HL process, or the Scrum process, if you start from scratch right now, you'll have these options. But if you've been working for several years in an established ecosystem, then you're based on an old-fashioned way of working and you won't be able to use the recent customization features.

There are options to get around this, especially if you move to the cloud or if you copy things and migrate them, but that's a huge amount of work. It's best if you start from scratch in a new project — in a new environment. With an ecosystem that has been up and running for some time, you won't have the full-flexibility that you would have with a new ecosystem.

We have been using this solution for roughly 10 years. 

This solution is stable. I don't have anything negative to report. 

Microsoft Azure DevOps is very scalable. It uses techniques from Microsoft itself, so if you have the knowledge of how to deal with that, you can scale it up and out as you wish.

Technical support is good. We have had a few cases where we needed support and they contacted us immediately. There was a willingness to find a solution and determine if there was a bug or if it was an oversight. We have a good relationship with Mircosoft support.

The initial setup is easy.

Most of our developers have an MSDN license which is linked to the Visual Studio development environment. 

We also have a corporate license for other products like Windows Server — it's all included in one package. An additional license is not required for the on-premise solution. If you go to the cloud, it's a different story. Most of the things that we need and use are incorporated in the corporate solution — there are no additional costs.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight. 

It could be a little bit more flexible in terms of work item management. Apart from that, I can't really think of many features that are missing. It supports all kinds of ecosystems; there are a lot of possibilities when it comes to interacting with other ecosystems. 

Try to follow the market standards. There's a whole huge community that supports it. The market is evolving very fast. Microsoft is acquiring other companies. They recently bought GitHub. It's hard to say which solution will survive — DevOps or GitHub. That may be an issue in the future. 

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.

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.