TFS Reviews

In our company, we develop software applications. With TFS we can manage the whole application lifecycle with a single product, and it is visible for all the team members.

I can point to two basic improvements:

1. The project management. Before TFS, we used Microsoft Project and Excel to manage project tasks and release dates (only the Project Manager could do this). Since we adopted Scrum as a part of software development, we needed an agile tool to perform this task. TFS it is a great tool to manage Agile projects because the whole team is kept up to date with TFS burn down charts, release dates and so on, so we eliminated the need for Project.
2. We can use TFS to perform Continuous Integration, making build operations each night. This increases quality process and prevents code regressions.

Continuous integration in most of .NET developments (web and desktop applications) is ease to configure. But in case of other kind of developments (SharePoint or Xamarin) is not so easy, you have to spend a lot of time making customizations. It would be nice to have some integrations tools for this kind of projects.

I've used it for one year.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

We could find all the required information in Microsoft’s online support (websites, blogs etc.), so I can’t rate the customer service for this product.

We used TFS 2010. We don’t evaluate any other product because we only use Microsoft products.

For our needs, we choose a basic configuration, one single server. In our case it was easy to set up the whole system.

In-house. We have the required people to set up the product on our own, in some cases, it is better to call a vendor team.

• Application Lifecycle Management
• Team Build Definitions
• Kanban

Developers are able to download code at any point in time. Helped in DevOps responsibilities.

• Team Build definitions
• Bug-tracking tools.

I've used it for around five years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

It's very good.

It's very good.

I used SVN, and wished to have a proprietary tool so choose TFS.

It was straightforward, using the proper documentation.

We used an in-house team.

Its pretty much dealt with using a Microsoft subscription.

The full ALM experience that means you can have all your information in one place. For example having everything linked together – your build linked to changes in source control which link to the work items the prompted the changes in the first place, linked to the tests that were run. This is essential when you work in an industry which requires traceability. However, all this doesn’t detract from the fact that TFS supports and encourages agile ways of working.

The level of customisation on TFS allows you to change any parts of the process to suit any organisation’s need.

TFS replaced a number of separate source control, work item and build solutions that were stretched to their limits, since adopting TFS we have been able to scale the development department without any limits from our tooling.

TFS has aided our agile transformation by providing digital Kanban boards that have enabled teams to be more productive when working remotely from one another.

I have a list things on the Visual Studio uservoice page, but none of them are major. I’m expecting most of the issues we have to the moment to be resolved in the 2015 lifecycle.

I've been using TFS for five years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

I’ve never contacted the official support channels, but I have received support via blog posts and e-mailing some of the public facing people and each time the responses have been excellent. I’ve been quickly put in touch with developers who are experts in the field and had my questions answered or my problem resolved. I have even helped to diagnose and log a bug against TFS that Microsoft were struggling with in VSOnline.

The decision was not mine, but it was based on having a complete ALM solution instead of just a bunch of systems thrown together.

Setting up TFS 2010 was quite complex, as it is an enterprise product, but nothing too complicated, just a lot of reading to make sure all the parts worked. SharePoint was hard to configure, but we no longer integrate them.

As a QA geek, MS Test is the most valuable component.

Being able to easily create new bugs during the execution of a testcase in MS Test, then resume testing is a time-saving feature.

It is very difficult to delete work items from the database. It would be helpful if MS provided a way to simplify that.

I've used it for over three years at three different companies.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

I have never needed to contact Microsoft about this product.

I have never needed to contact Microsoft about this product.

I was not responsible for the initial install of TFS, but the setup/config of both requirements, test cases and test plans was straightforward.

We did it in-house.

I was not involved in the buying process.

TFS itself is a platform for collaborative development. All the features in it are essential for successful development projects, especially version control, defects tracking, SCRUM tools etc.

TFS SCRUM adoption in our organization was very smooth.

Scrum Board implementation and Backlog viewer require some improvements in order to make its usage simpler and interactive.

I've used TFS since 2007, and the 2013 version since it was released.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Back in 2007 we used Source Safe Control. When we realized that we needed a generic platform which would combine task and defects tracking with version controlling, we moved to TFS.

I was not involved in the original setup, but the version change was quick and very smooth.

Our in-house IT department deployed it who are very experienced.

The version control itself (version history, branching and merging), shelving change and build server.

With TFS online, now everything is in the cloud, it is tidy and easy to compare and restore, especially my unfinished work, where I use the shelving changes feature. It's very useful.

I can't see any major improvements for now. Maybe the comparing tool is too simple, but I'm using an alternative, so I have no problem at all.

We've used it for five years, basically for source control. I used work items once for a very short time, so I can't consider it as "used".

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

I've not had to use it.

I had to use TFS because it was there in the companies where I worked, but I also used CVS and Git. I think that TFS is easier because it is already integrated with Visual Studio, if you are using Visual Studio.

I've never setup a TFS server.

if TFS was completely free (not limited to five members for online), I would suggest using it, but the price for extra members is too expensive in my opinion and is worth it only if you are using Visual Studio, otherwise other solutions can do basically the same (talking only about source control).

• Source control
• Work items
• Team build

• It's easy to implement agile methodology, updated and uniform code on work spaces.
• Work items allows easier tracking for risks, bug and issues, and tasks.

As of now, TFS delivers what we need on the project/business.

I've used it for seven years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

I haven't needed their help yet.

I haven't needed their help yet.

For source control, I've used SVN Tortoise before. TFS is more useful, organized and user-friendly.

Straightforward. Usually no issues being encountered when setting up.

We used a vendor team from Microsoft.

Record and playback is a good feature.

• Tech support needs a lot of improvement
• License is expensive

I've used it for six months.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Their support needs much improvement.

The company chose to switch from HP to Microsoft because of the expense of the licenses.

It was complex.

I don't know the ROI yet.

HP products were also evaluated.