Enterprise Architect - Integrations at BCA
Real User
Top 20
Comprehensive and has features that work for different plans; powerful and efficient
Pros and Cons
  • "What we like about Microsoft Visual Studio is that it's a comprehensive tool. It has features that work for different plans and it has a wide variety of use cases. It's also a powerful tool and it's quite efficient."
  • "The UI could be better, and development could be easier on Microsoft Visual Studio if there were more features like drag and drop and more frameworks, etc."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Visual Studio for various builds such as building our .NET applications, and in some cases, we use it for design, and for building specifications.

What is most valuable?

What we like about Microsoft Visual Studio is that it's a comprehensive tool. It has features that work for different plans and it has a wide variety of use cases. It's also a powerful tool and it's quite efficient.

What needs improvement?

There's always room for improvement in any product, and in Microsoft Visual Studio, it can be spread into other areas of development and design. It's pretty much Microsoft-oriented at the moment. It can be spread into other open source or open source-based developments. That's why I gave it a rating of eight. There's always room for improvement, for example, the UI could be better, and development could be easier on Microsoft Visual Studio if there were more features like drag and drop and more frameworks, etc.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using Microsoft Visual Studio for the past three years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Visual Studio is a stable tool. It has improved in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, I don't know if scalability applies to Microsoft Visual Studio, to be honest.

How are customer service and support?

We never required technical support from Microsoft Visual Studio because it's a straightforward tool. Online help is great, for example, the community support and forums are all good and widely used.

How was the initial setup?

Microsoft Visual Studio has improved a lot over the years, and setting it up is quite straightforward now.

How fast the tool is deployed depends on project to project, but usually deployment is quite efficient and fast. We usually take on average fifteen days to build a feature and deploy it in DevOps.

What about the implementation team?

We both have an in-house team and partners that take care of the implementation of Microsoft Visual Studio.

What was our ROI?

I've seen ROI from Microsoft Visual Studio.

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

The development license for Microsoft Visual Studio is free. I don't know if there's a licensing cost to it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Eclipse and also used other tools, but Microsoft Visual Studio is good.

What other advice do I have?

My company has been using Microsoft Visual Studio for development purposes, particularly Microsoft Visual Studio for .NET development.

I would highly recommend Microsoft Visual Studio to others looking into implementing it. I would also advise that it has some learning curve to use, in particular, people need the technical skill to use the tool properly.

My rating for Microsoft Visual Studio is eight out of ten.

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
Micheale See - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business System Developer at AVEVA
Real User
Top 10
Breakout point,and interface design are easy to use, but the solution is not really good at debugging JavaScript, jQuery, or SQL
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution includes a debug function that I can breakpoint to easily detect what is wrong with my applications."
  • "The solution is not really good at debugging JavaScript, jQuery, or SQL"

What is our primary use case?

I write all of my web applications and perform debugs with the solution. Our company is a Microsoft partner and has 1,000 developers and technical team members that are dispersed across the UK, US, and Asia Pacific.

How has it helped my organization?

The breakout point, interface design, and coding areas are WYSIWYG and easy to use. 

What is most valuable?

The solution includes a debug function that I can breakpoint to easily detect what is wrong with my applications. It is really good for debugging C# code. It identifies which lines or sections have problems and if your naming is incorrect.

What needs improvement?

The solution is not really good at debugging JavaScript, jQuery, or SQL. 

For SQL, sometimes I get alerts that there are non-values or mismatches but the line or section is not identified. I get very generic information with SQL. I have to install ELMAH open source code into our SQL so Visual Studio can track it. 

For jQuery, I have to add the debugger command manually. 

Sometimes, when upgrading the product, certain features are removed even though they are very good like EDMS. There was a VISA for connecting databases and creating an entity framework that would generate connections and pulses. It was removed from the latest release so now it needs to be added manually. I like enhancements but would prefer they not remove features as it makes things more difficult. 

When they release things like .NET Core, the solution becomes unstable. There needs to be a long-term plan because so many versions have been released that some are duplicates. Let's say I'm using .NET Core version 5 and they change it to .NET 5 or 6.0, the releases are too quick and completely duplicated. 

Every new release includes duplicates of features. Some are very useful but when they are duplicated, I have to rewrite or upgrade my code. This makes it difficult for a developer and is not a long-term solution. In one year, I've already spent money to develop my apps, and then I have to upgrade the code again. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for 20 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is not very stable and sometimes hangs. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable and adding users is no problem. 

How are customer service and support?

I rely on internal staff for technical support. I believe Microsoft requires you to register as a customer before you can utilize their support. There's an online forum where you can post questions and get quick replies from other users. 

How was the initial setup?

Setup and use are easy. 

Deployment varies based on the size of your project. 

Small, web-deployed projects take less than five minutes and we are ready to publish the web app to Azure. 

For on-premises, we build the DLL and web package in advance. It takes 20-30 minutes to import because you have to upload to the file server, download the package, and import the application.  

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Our company is a Microsoft partner so we only use their solutions. 

What other advice do I have?

If you want to use .NET or C#, then Visual Studio is the best solution. 

I rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
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CEO at Shiraz University
Real User
Top 20
Provides an integrated development environment and great for developing enterprise projects
Pros and Cons
  • "We can write programming code, write our test cases and automate tests in Visual Studio.NET."
  • "The product could be improved by including axle intelligence."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for developing enterprise projects.

What is most valuable?

It is a beneficial tool because we can write programming code, write our test cases and automate tests in Visual Studio.NET. Additionally, after we develop projects, we can automate and test. It also provides an integrated development environment where we can design our page and program it. It works well both on the front and back end.

What needs improvement?

The solution could be improved by including an axle intelligence
for tech suggestions and suggesting the dependencies between API. When we use some APIs, we have to add the dependency ourselves in Microsoft Visual Studio. However, with axle intelligence, when an API is added to a project, it can find the dependency of the API and add it automatically.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for about 17 years now and we are currently using the 2019 version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. It works very well once it is open and has never crashed.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, and scalability depends on what we use the tool for. It has various tools we can use in whatever way we choose. Currently, six people are using this product in our company.

How are customer service and support?

We have had a very good experience with customer service and support.
Whenever we post an issue, someone in the support team reaches out to us within 24 hours. Therefore, I would rate the support team a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We used Borland IDE before switching to this solution. Borland C++ builder was a good product then, but we switched to this solution because we think Microsoft Visual Studio is currently the best IDE.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It just needs to be downloaded and installed from Microsoft.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented this solution on our own. We work with Microsoft Visual Studio on our PCs, which is installed on every PC. For each project, we have a manager and a group of about five to 60 staff members comprising engineers, administrators and managers. We extend our team and employ new people whenever we get a new project.

What was our ROI?

Unfortunately, we cannot comment on ROI because we are using the community edition.

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

Unfortunately, because our country is under hefty sanctions, we could not buy this product so we use the community edition, which is a free version. However, we believe the cost of licensing for this product is logical.

What other advice do I have?

I rate this product a ten out of ten. This product is a very good choice for people searching for an Integrated IDE. Microsoft IDE is very integrated and does not require other tools except Microsoft Visual Studio.NET. However, the product could be improved by including axle intelligence.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Crewmem67 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Consultant at College Notre Dame de Nazareth
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Handles tasks well, helps simplify tasks, and can scale
Pros and Cons
  • "It's pretty prevalent."
  • "We'd like the solution to be more secure."

What is our primary use case?

It's up to the client or the software we are using. I use VB .NET or C# sometimes.

What is most valuable?

You can get two tables, child and parents tables, and you can handle tasks such as invoicing, receipts, et cetera. I like to have the results on hand fast. It's making my life easy. 

Many firms can use it. It's pretty prevalent. 

I like the copy-paste all capabilities.

The stability is okay.

You can expand usage if you would like to. 

What needs improvement?

I had to use VB .NET in place of using C# immediately with the child and parent table.

Generally, the solution works well and I haven't really had issues with it. 

We'd like the solution to be more secure. 

The installation can take a long time. 

We'd like the solution to be more stable. 

Technical support does not respond quickly.

The ability to scale can be difficult.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for 15 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is mostly stable. It's rate it six or seven out of ten. It could be better.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution can scale, however, it's not straightforward. Sometimes it's very confusing in terms of what you need to do to make it happen. 

We have three users on the solution right now. 

We do plan to increase usage in the future. 

How are customer service and support?

We are in Lebanon and we had to wait for Microsoft to reply to us. We used it two years ago, however, and they were responding fairly well. 

They could be faster. 

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

I started with VB Access and Visual FoxPro. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty hard to set up. 

It took too long to install it. We also needed the new hard discs. It's very big. It's not a light application. It's about 25GBs. 

The deployment took about two hours. 

What about the implementation team?

We handled the installation ourselves without ht need of integrators or consultants. 

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

I can't speak to the exact cost of the solution. It's not an aspect that I deal with. 

What other advice do I have?

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Azad Periwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at ATOS
Vendor
Easy setup with good interface and lots of languages
Pros and Cons
  • "The product integrates well with Azure Cloud, and it supports a ton of languages."
  • "It has a ton of options and that sometimes can become very, very overwhelming for a new person, a new developer."

What is most valuable?

The product integrates well with Azure Cloud, and it supports a ton of languages.

It also has a very good interface for Git source code management. Then there are a couple of add-ins or plug-ins that are out there in the marketplace that sometimes come in handy. From a developer standpoint, it does a very good job when it comes to debugging. It's a great development tool. 

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. 

The solution has good technical support.

What needs improvement?

It has a ton of options and that sometimes can become very, very overwhelming for a new person, a new developer. If something can be done around simplifying the product, for example, if there's a way, to just have enough options that are relevant for me, that could probably help.

The upgrade system is a bit complex. If they're upgrading something, then they should not force us to go to the next version. Maybe they should probably just release a fix or something that, and once we implement that fix, it gives us at least a choice that you're good for some time even if you don't want to upgrade.

A ton of time is just spent trying to keep ourselves up with the frequent releases that Microsoft rolls out. That is something that takes away from our productive time that we could have invested that time to enhance your application, and could have worked on additional features or functionalities, however, you end up spending that time just to upgrade your current solution to the next version that they roll out.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for three years, however, my team members have been using it for ten to 12 years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of the stability, the frequent upgrades that they roll out and then they force us to upgrade the solution, upgrade the tool itself, those sometimes can be a nuisance.

Most of the time, I see my team members end up spending a lot of time just upgrading the application to the next .NET framework. Or sometimes even the Microsoft Visual Studio version that gets rolled out and then you just have to do that upgrade. Therefore, the frequent upgrades that happen just don't support the older ones, they just take it off support, which causes a lot of nuisance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The project that I'm part of is a huge team for sure. We are a team of a couple hundred. 

How are customer service and support?

There have been instances in the past where we have reached out to Microsoft.

Support-wise, they're doing a fair job. I don't mind that. Whenever we reach out, we do get help.

How was the initial setup?

It was a pretty easy setup. For us, basically, it comes with some preconfigured settings. The license that we have is a project from our customer. It is fairly straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We had a third party help us with the initial setup. We did not do it completely by ourselves.

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

I'm not someone who concerns myself with the cost. That said, my understanding is the license cost is a lot. Before customers roll out a license for any developer, they make sure that it is relevant and it's required for the job. 

What other advice do I have?

We use the enterprise edition of the product. We're using the latest version.

We're end-users of Visual Studio. We're also using Microsoft Teams as well.

We have a couple of applications running on-prem. The roadmap is to move as much as possible onto Azure.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Andres  Alberdi - PeerSpot reviewer
General manager at ESOFT
Real User
Top 10
Comes with Azure DevOps integration which helps to check code quality but needs to improve documentation
Pros and Cons
  • "My company works with outsourced programmers. The solution helps us to test, integrate and foresee the code quality. We can trace the development stages."
  • "Visual Studio Team System needs to improve documentation."

What is our primary use case?

I use the Visual Studio Team System for programming. 

How has it helped my organization?

My company works with outsourced programmers. The solution helps us to test, integrate and foresee the code quality. We can trace the development stages. 

What is most valuable?

I like Azure DevOps integration and the nativeness of the C#. 

What needs improvement?

Visual Studio Team System needs to improve documentation. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for ten years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the product's scalability a nine out of ten. 

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

Visual Studio Team System is expensive, but it is worth the money. 

What other advice do I have?

You can start using the community edition first. I rate the tool an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Goran Peterson - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior SQL Server DBA Consultant at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Top 10
Highly stable solution, good integration, and straightforward installation
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is its integration with Azure DevOps."
  • "The migration could improve in Microsoft Visual Studio. When I upgraded from 2017 and up to 2022 it was not smooth. There was a lot of manual hand-picking. Microsoft should put a higher budget for the database developers' section in Visual Studio."

What is our primary use case?

I am using Microsoft Visual Studio for developing SQL Server applications.

How has it helped my organization?

Using Microsoft Visual Studio has heightened the quality of the work that I do since it is checking everything.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is its integration with Azure DevOps.

What needs improvement?

The migration could improve in Microsoft Visual Studio. When I upgraded from 2017 and up to 2022 it was not smooth. There was a lot of manual hand-picking.  Microsoft should put a higher budget for the database developers' section in Visual Studio.

In a future release, it would be a benefit to include an option so I can share the library of methods between different projects in SQL Server easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Visual Studio for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Visual Studio is a highly stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have four or five people using Microsoft Visual Studio in our organization. We are a small startup company.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used the support from Microsoft Visual Studio.

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

I previously used SQL Server Management Studio which is very popular for development. However, I wanted to source code handling as well, and this is why I moved to Microsoft Visual Studio.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Microsoft Visual Studio was straightforward. However, the difficulty depends on how much of the solution is going to be used. The installation is typically done in smaller steps at the beginning which makes it easy.

The time it took for the deployment was approximately one day.

What about the implementation team?

We did the deployment of the solution in-house but we had a consultant with the GitHub integration.

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

The solution is expensive.

I rate the price of Microsoft Visual Studio a two out of five.

What other advice do I have?

I am the only person that is needed for maintaining the solution.

My advice to others is to do small steps at the beginning to make it simple. This solution is very large and is best to do it in small steps.

I rate Microsoft Visual Studio an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Erick  Karanja - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at Cellulant Kenya
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Can be used to develop applications but needs improvement in integrations
Pros and Cons
  • "We use the solution to develop applications."
  • "Microsoft Visual Studio needs to improve integration."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to develop applications. 

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Visual Studio needs to improve integration. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate Microsoft Visual Studio's stability a nine out of ten. 

How was the initial setup?

The tool's deployment is straightforward. It takes less than an hour to complete. 

What about the implementation team?

I can install the solution by myself. 

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

Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft Visual Studio a nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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