TFS Reviews

We mainly use it for source control.

In the past, I've used it throughout the whole CI/CD. I've worked with Scrum and Agile methodologies. From the user story, from the product backlog to the CI/CD and deployment. I've used it for everything — the whole nine yards.

At my previous company, there were a lot of employees using this solution; it was the only system that was being used. 

Currently, there are a lot of products for managing the product backlog. The usability of TFS is not that great.

Integration from an agile perspective could be improved. Jira is far better in this regard.

I have been using TFS for over a decade.

It's is a very stable solution but when compared with Jira, Jira has taken over. The question should be: how agile is TFS? From this perspective, TFS is lacking — the ease of usability is less.

TFS is not that scalable compared to Jira. It's scalable at the story level and at the project level but in the grand scheme of things, it's hard to manage it from an entire product perspective. 

It depends on what kind of program your company has. Personally, we didn't have to deal with Microsoft tech support very often relating to TFS. 

It depends on which point you start. From my experience, problems occur when you already have a development and then you adopt the agile method and try to work it into your source code.

Our IT team handles deployment and all maintenance-related issues.

It depends on what methodology. You can use it for the entire software development process, from the user story to the code and the integration and deployment — the whole nine yards. That's something to be taken care of and set up diligently.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give TFS a rating of seven.

The primary use for TFS is for event planning, including things like writing the user story and then assigning tasks to the developers. Another task is writing test cases, then recording test results, and sending bugs to the team members. The third thing is that we use TFS as part of our CICD pipeline.

As part of our pipeline, we use it for checking in code and it acts as a repository. This leads to the fourth thing we use it for, which is to move the code from dev to QA to production. Essentially, we establish a complete lifecycle using TFS.

We also use it in conjunction with Azure DevOps.

This product brings a lot of discipline and consistency in the way that our developers use their tools. 

The most valuable feature from my point of view is project management, which includes user stories as well as task management. I would say that these features are critical.

I would like to see better integration between TFS and third-party tools such as Jira. For example, integration with SharePoint is not very straightforward and we need to do a lot of manual work.

The user interface could be improved to make it simpler and increase usability. Making it more user-friendly would be a good thing. While it is okay in some regards, it does not compare to tools like Jira. There is some complexity because there are a lot of features, but usability can still be much better and it would be more comfortable to use.

We have been using Team Foundation Server for almost five years.

This product is stable and we have not experienced any issues with it.

The developers are completely dependent on TFS and are using it on a daily basis.

TFS is quite scalable and there are different deployment options that are available. I don't see any problems with scalability. We have between 40 and 45 people in my department who are using TFS.

The support that we received during the initial setup was the only time that we needed to contact them. Beyond that, we didn't have to ask for technical support. I wouldn't refer to our initial support as very technical because it was more about knowing how to perform certain tasks within the tool.

Prior to using TFS, we used CVS as our code repository solution. All of our requirements and bug tracking were done using manual effort. We were using Word documents and things like that. However, all of that has now been put into TFS.

What led us to switch was the ability to track all of the developers' activities. Before this, getting visibility and deliverables was a real pain point. For example, we didn't know how many stories the developers had completed, how much effort has been spent, or where we were with respect to the tasks that were completed by the teams.

I would say that the initial setup is of medium difficulty. You definitely need help from an expert, as it is not like I can just pick it up and start running it. TFS requires a little bit of expert support in setting up, and we received solid support from Microsoft.

Our deployment took place over the course of a week. It was not a week's worth of effort but we had to schedule calls for support. I would say that TFS can be set up and tested in a single day, although it may take up to a week to finalize things.

During our implementation, we requested help directly from Microsoft.

Our in-house DevOps team is responsible for maintenance.

I wouldn't say that this tool is cheap or expensive but in the middle. TFS is definitely not as expensive as some other tools like Rational Team Concert. Basically, I would say that it is affordable.

Professional Services is a separate cost from the standard licensing fees.

My advice to anybody who is considering TFS is that the suitability depends on what technology you are trying to use. For example, if you're using Microsoft technology then it is better to use TFS. If on the other hand, you are developing something outside of Microsoft, perhaps using an open-source tool, then I wouldn't be able to recommend TFS. Instead, I would choose one of the other many third-party tools that are available.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We use TFS for test management. Our entire project management is done through TFS.

We have our test cases uploaded, and we use it for user story tracking and progress tracking.

TFS is on our client's VMs.

What I like is the backlog management, as it is very easy to track at the feature level and move onto the big level. It offers proper traceability for this and the features. 

As far as queries are concerned, creating, grading, or customizing the queries as a primary requirement is very easy to do. It's a user-friendly interface when working with queries.

TFS has to be more user-friendly. We could have some friendly dashboards, which I feel is missing here, where I can easily plug in the dashboard and use it. 

Part of the test case upload is there, but it's an addon that is not being used at this time.

Creating dashboards is complicated. The dashboard and the customization of dashboards is an area they have to work on. It needs to be improved.

I would like to see improved dashboards with easy plug and play. There should be multiple templates that would be easily and readily available where I can track and create my view.

This is what I feel is missing or needs improvement.

I have been working with TFS for three years.

We are working with an up-to-date version.

TFS is a stable solution.

TFS is a scalable model. If I have to look into large projects, we have multiple agile teams having different backlogs. Having a view on this is rather scalable.

We have approximately 28 users for this current project, and we are using it on a daily basis.

We plan to keep using TFS.

I have not had any instances where I needed to contact the technical support team.

It goes back to our install team and they address the issues.

Previously, I was working with Jira and QC. 

The change to TFS was because our client moved onto to TFS.

TFS is more stable and more scalable. We handling multiple projects using TFS. Usability is good and it's very easy for me to have traceability with a view on everything. 

The setup is done by our customer's IT team.

In our case, it's a matter of plug and play.

In my opinion, I would say that TFS is more supportive of a large enterprise.

There is a lot of information available online.

The suitability of TFS depends on the requirements of the customer. If it is for Test Management, I would say that TFS is a product that they should consider if it's a large organization that has multiple or multi-thread implementations.

Overall, I would say it's fine and I would recommend it.

I would rate TFS and eight out of ten.

We have a DevOps team and we primarily use TFS for bug tracking.

The current dashboard has limited report charts, We need more in reporting as charts are not enough to represent project full stat.

Addition to that, configuring reporting service require a SQL report server, which is anextra cost and need allot of effort to build

The most valuable features are test case writing and bug tracking.

The reporting functionality is something that they should work on.

The dashboards can be improved.

Migrating from version to version should be easier.

I have been working with TFS for four years.

The stability is good and I would recommend it based on that.

This is a scalable product. We have more than 50 users.

I have worked with similar solutions, albeit a long time back. Visual SourceSafe was one of them and it is now discontinued. We switched to TFS as part of an upgrade.

The initial setup is straightforward.

We have one or two people who are responsible for maintenance.

We pay subscription fees on a yearly basis and the price is reasonable.

In summary, this is a good product and I strongly recommend it. If the reporting were enhanced then it would be even better.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are using the core repository for the complete development life cycle. 

The solution helps with pretty much all aspects of the development cycle. This includes using it for QA, testing, development, and the release. It's useful for every aspect of the development cycle.

The initial setup is fairly easy.

The continuous integration and continuous delivery should begin with DSS. It doesn't right now. That needs to be changed.

The phased release process could be better. Instead of shelving the call and unshelving the call, it should be done in phases. In an updated version, this should be something they adjust. It needs a more effective release process. 

There should be management of the project built-in.

I've been using the solution for more than five years.

The stability of the solution is good. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze on us. It works. It's good. We haven't had any issues when it comes to stability.

The scalability of the solution is very good. If a company needs to expand outwards and grow they should be able to fairly easily. We've had not trouble with that aspect of the solution.

We don't have technical support for this solution, therefore I can't speak to how knowledgeable or responsive they are.

We are still using TFS, however, we're considering switching to Microsoft Azure DevOps.

The initial setup is not complex. It is very much straightforward. It shouldn't give an organization too many problems.

I didn't deploy this solution, so I can't speak to how long it actually took to do so.

We had the help of consultants from Microsoft. The implementation was five years ago, so I can't recall too many details, however, I believe we were pleased with their work.

Overall the solution is good. It's scalable and stable and has been working well for us. Of course, the phased release could be smoother, and it's something they need to improve upon.

I'd recommend this solution, even though we do plan to move to Microsoft Azure DevOps.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

I am an end-user, using this solution to assign tasks for my development team.

The most valuable feature is simplicity. It's very easy.

It's simple to design and it's straightforward. This is an advantage for TFS.

They should have design patterns in TFS for the development team, and design patterns for the QA. QA around the world basically does the same thing, and also development. Similar to Scrum, they should have something already built-in.

I would like to see templates for design added, and the option to make it more complicated.

I have been using this solution for five years.

This is a scalable solution. I have plans to increase usage.

I worked with Jira two years ago. As a product, Jira is better but it's much more complex. It is hard to design but after that, it's easy to use.

It was already in place when I arrived. I was not a part of the initial setup or the deployment.

It's a good product and it's fulfilled all that I want it to do.

I recommend this product. If you are looking for something simple, TFS is what you should use. If you are looking for a more complex solution then I would suggest going with Jira.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use TFS for source control and we use code to connect to TFS as well. It's all generated and the normal process for a developer; we take the latest coding, and whenever there is a build required, we get the latest from other developers and carry out the build. We also do branching and leveling. I'm a solution architect and our company has a partnership with Microsoft. 

The features such as branching and labelling are very good because they actually help you create a master branch which is a running branch. You can then have other branches like staging correction. I also like the user interface, it's intuitive and easy to use and, most importantly, you can access it from the browser.

When you are trying to connect from Visual Studio code to TFS the integration isn't so easy and I think that could be improved. There's one feature we'd really like to see. If I want to scan through how many files have checked out by name, there are no extensions or plugins available for us to readily get the information from TFS because it's being managed by someone else. As a development partner, we're dependent on them for the details and our preference would be to have the ability to do that ourselves. 

I've used multiple versions of TFS over the past decade. 

The scalability of the solution is good. There are 20 developers in my specific project who use TFS for storing the code repository. We work on multiple projects so there can be anywhere up to 25 people in the company using the product at any one time. It's a development tool so we use it on a daily basis as a centralized code repository.

The initial setup is quite simple. I found information from the Azure DevOps portal and they have a lot of videos. 

This is a good tool for core depository, but there are a lot of thing in TFS you can do: You can automate the entire update process. You can run your sprint and everything, it's a good option enterprise wise. Nowadays everything has DevOps so it's a good thing to use. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

At my previous company, I was using TFS for managing projects and code.

The most valuable feature is the backlog.

The reporting has improved over time, with the addition of Power BI reports.

There are a lot of places that Microsoft can improve this product, as well as their support.

The program and portfolio planning facility can be improved. As it is now, you can't do portfolio program planning functionality across multiple project Areas (vs. Team areas within a project area) because you cannot link items across projects. Reporting can be done using Power BI, but real time connections are difficult.  You can use connectors and external integrations but you cannot do it with the tool. It needs to be better. 

It is difficult to customize.

I had been using Team Foundation Server for between four and five years.

This is absolutely a stable platform. It is highly available and follows on the environment.

It is possible to scale, albeit tricky. There are between 2,000 and 3,000 users.

Technical support is a challenge. It is a pain to get anything from Microsoft done. For example, working on patches and queries is slow. There was a lot of functionality that we wanted to embed that we had trouble with.

They changed the entire application lifecycle management suite, so it was a challenge to understand and navigate through how things would be done.

It is not a buggy product, but for new functionality, it is really a challenge. Especially in cloud-based deployments, it is even more challenging.

I was using TFS at my previous company and my current organization uses JIRA. I would say that TFS is the more scalable of the two. With JIRA, you really need connectors and things like that. You have to have external addons to make it more scalable.

In terms of usability, JIRA might provide a better user experience but from an organizational and stability point of view, TFS wins hands-down.

Price-wise, TFS is better than JIRA.

Out of the box, the initial setup is easy. However, it is difficult to customize, especially if it is on a cloud. 

TFS is more competitively priced than some other solutions.

My advice to anybody who is implementing this solution is to use as much as possible, out of the box. Customizing it is difficult. It may not necessarily fit everything perfectly and it can be tricky to scale, but not impossible. There are definitely challenges scaling it. That said, the tool from Microsoft does allow you to do things very differently but try to do it in a standard way first.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

I use TFS as a code repository for version control.

The most valuable features of the code check-in and check-out capabilities.

The code branch capability and build features are helpful.

The interface is easy to navigate.

I would like to see the reporting features expanded so that I can see details on the users connected to all of the projects. As it is now, I can see the details of a single project by selecting it. However, I cannot see all of the scheduled projects at once.

I have been using TFS for between seven and eight years.

TFC is a stable solution.

This is not a scalable product. We have about 35 users in our company.

We have not been in contact with technical support.

Prior to TFS, I did not work with another similar product.

The initial setup is easy and can be completed within a day.

The pricing is reasonable at this time. 

We are currently in the process of upgrading to the 2019 version, which has many more features than does the 2017 version.

My advice to anybody who is considering TFS is that once you get used to it, the interface is very easy to navigate.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use Microsoft Team Foundation Server as part of our development framework. Most of our development technology is from Microsoft and our primary language is C#, although we do have a number of Java programmers as well.

We primarily use TFS for managing our resources and scheduling. We can also use it to check to see whether tasks have been completed by the team, or not.

The most valuable features are the dashboard and task-selection capability.

The option to save favorites is helpful for managing pages.

I would like to see TFS integrated with a project management solution, such as Microsoft EPM. Right now, it is isolated from EPM but if we could somehow connect it, then that would help a lot. As it is now, the results are not easy to report to project managers, which makes it difficult to estimate both cost and the time to completion.

The interface can be improved and made more user-friendly.

We have been using TFS for about five years.

This solution is stable and we have not had any crashes to this point. We use it on a daily basis. All of our new projects start on TFS.

This is a scalable solution. Our company has 1,300 employees, although there are only between 50 and 100 who use TFS.

Because we are in Iran and there are sanctions, we do not have a Microsoft agent and we have never been in contact with them. We instead rely on various forums and searching for solutions using Google. Using Google is the fastest way to get results.

We did not use a similar solution prior to implementing TFS. However, we did use Microsoft Project for scheduling. It was not specifically for the purpose of software development, but we used it for putting together the steps of a project. For example, first, the UI would be developed, and then the backend. These steps were listed in the project management software.

I did not personally perform the installation, although my colleagues had no problem and I got the impression that it was easy.

Our in-house technical people installed and deployed this solution. There were two of them involved in the process where one took care of the servers, VMs, and infrastructure, whereas the second person installed the solution and gave us the link to use it.

We have lots of servers and virtual machines, with two people in charge of maintaining our infrastructure. One person is generally in charge of installing and maintaining software as was with TFS, and this person is also responsible for the maintenance.

There is a gap between project management, agile methodology, and TFS resource management. If they can fill this gap then it would be a great improvement for us and many other companies.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to keep in mind that using the tool, alone, will not change the way they develop their software. First, they should become familiar with agile methodology, and then they will be able to properly use TFS.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.