Visual Studio Team System Reviews

We primarily use the solution for remote repository and management and source control.

The analyst feature is very useful to us.

We like that it's quite flexible and you can make a variety of changes using it. There are all kinds of different tasks you can leverage.

The initial setup was straightforward. 

Microsoft makes great products. They are quite robust.

The solution can scale.

The stability is good.

Sometimes it gets tough when you're dealing with a larger process if you're accessing it through the VPN. If you're not on the local network, you're accessing through the VPN, which already makes it slower in general, and then on top of that, if you're accessing a really large process, you're going to feel it slow down even more. The product sort of gets stuck when you're trying to connect and operate for the first time. 

When you go into the front-end, the web portal, if, for example, you pick up an issue, it would be ideal if the branch was automatically created in the repository. Right now, this isn't the case.

I've been using the solution over the last 12 months. I've used it for a while.

The solution is pretty stable. I used it on an earlier job and it was fine. There were no bugs or glitches. It doesn't seem to crash or freeze. It's good overall. 

The solution scales quite well. I've used it in larger companies and it was great. At my previous employer, I had 100 or more programmers and the product handled everything like a charm, no problem.

I've never had to contact technical support. I guess that says something about the quality of their service that I've never had to call them up. However, since I have never spoken with them, I can't directly speak to how helpful or responsive they are.

We found the initial setup to be pretty simple and straightforward. It was not very complex or difficult. An organization shouldn't have too much trouble with the initial setup.

We have an enterprise license. That's an aspect that the company handles. I don't directly deal with sales or licensing.

We're just customers and end-users. We don't have a business relationship with Microsoft.

I've been using the latest version of the solution.

For those considering the solution, I would advise that they decide between a centralized or distributed repository - and then choose VSTS. For a more centralized repository, VSTS is the nicest I've used so far.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We've largely been happy with the solution overall.

We use Visual Studio Team System as part of our development environment. This is the core system to manage our code and our development life cycle.

Prior to implementing this solution, we had a lot of fear of losing our code due to some kind of situation that was outside of our control. At the same time, our team was distributed between different regional locations both inside and outside of Lebanon. When we started using this tool, it was a great way to have full access to all that was being developed between different areas.

The most valuable feature is the code management, where there is sharing of code for developers and it is distributed within the organization.

We have lately been trying to use the built-in functionality for task management and software lifecycle development. This is a new feature and it is pretty good. We are just in the evaluation phase, comparing it to other task management tools.

The user experience for the task assignment functionality, and more generally the software lifecycle development, needs to be improved. This includes assigning tasks, as well as reviewing those that are pending or ongoing. For example, Jira has an excellent user experience, and it should be more like that.

We would like to see better integration of documentation.

I have been working with this solution for about seven years.

We have ten people who use this solution in our company.

We have not been in contact with technical support.

Prior to this solution, we used to use Visual SourceSafe.

When we first implemented this solution, we had some hiccups because earlier versions needed SharePoint and a special Active Directory to be set up. It was not easy or straightforward. We had to separate our Active Directory and the company corporate directory into three directories. One for activities, one for the company, and one for the development team alone. In general, the older version was a little bit complicated. It took about one week to prepare and set it up.

The latest, cloud-based version is much better in terms of setup.

Our in-house team handled the implementation. The first time we deployed it, three people were involved in the process. Maintenance is not required for this solution and we have one system administrator.

We did not evaluate other options when we switched from SourceSafe to TFS.

My advice to anybody who is considering this solution is to first decide what they need out of it. The benefit of each solution is becoming multidimensional. For example, TFS can be used for managing code, managing software, and lifecycle development. People have to decide which dimension they need to use and then focus on it. Later, they can go to explore and use other dimensions. Otherwise, they will lose a lot of time trying to learn and to adapt to the solution. This is the biggest lesson that we learned from our implementation. Once we mastered its use in one area, we moved on to the next.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case of this solution is to search for smugglers and for people who have open files. So we integrate everything with GDPR and then we distribute this in most parts of Europe. We have some interests in the United States too.

What I like about this solution is that it is one big framework, which everybody knows, so one can quite easily start-up new developers using it. 

We are looking forward to the new Blazer system that is coming out soon. It is currently in beta on the service side, so we are looking forward to the new version that will be on the client side too. I also would like to see an improvement in the technical support.

I have been using Visual Studio Team System for more than ten years now.

The solution is pretty stable.

The solution is very scalable. We integrate this in SQL and we can do this vertically as well as horizontally; in both directions. We have 15 users that are using the regional pseudo team system within our company, and they are all developers.

We pay additional fees for support, and it is doable. It is not the best support, but it is definitely acceptable. That is perhaps something that needs to be improved. 

We did the installation and setup ourselves and it was really straightforward.

My advice to others would be to go all the way with this solution. Don't try to find a cheaper solution. On a scale from one to ten, I rate Visual Studio Team System an eight and I'm looking forward to the new Blazers system.

We are an industrial company so we use this program to develop internal products for internal use. We have a complete panel that develops it, and then we test and deploy.

What I like about this solution is that you have Source control that enables you to organize and track the production so that you know where you are in the development phase and so on. You can also make some continuous integration with it, so it is a complete solution with a complete set of features in one box. We don't even use all the features.

I would say compared to some more modern tools which are made to work offline, with this solution you have to be connected all of the time and with a central server. In our case, it's not a big problem because we all work on-premises, but it can be an issue if you have teams in different locations. Then you don't have synchronization. I would say it's the main problem - I would love to see a better way to work offline.

I think the new version allows you to choose to have different source control. But we use VPN, so we can bypass and still be connected to the company. So it's okay for us and we are on a very small scale, only ten users. So it's easy to manage.

The solution is very stable.

We are a small company with only 10 people, so it is scalable for us.

It was pretty easy to install, and we did it mainly on SQL, so we deployed it ourselves. We don't have a lot of machines running on it. The deployment took about 15 to 20 minutes. The deployment isn't complicated, as we work with the industrial factory that is producing. So we have to synchronize, and wait to start some processes. When we plan to deploy and we have to restart them afterwards.

I like the performance management of this solution and my rating would be eight out of ten. The solution works for us but nowadays I would perhaps adviser others to use a cloud-based version like Microsoft DevOps. 

The biggest lesson I've learned is you can have all the tools but you still have to manage the communication between developers. Even with the tools you can easily run into some issues with several people who work on the same parts of the projects. So it is very important to organize your sources the best you can. But keep the communication channels open. 

The valuable features are managing campaign boards, sprint planning with product backlog, sprint backlog, and velocity and capacity of the development team. Also, the bar and chart graphics, which assist in tracking the day-to-day project status (most important).

Here in the organization, we use Chrome, with development. Also, when we are planning on sprint, for example, it's too easy to put the requirement needs above the product, and a product on that feels very good to write features too easily, and to share with the development team. Pretty quick and fast, by only writing the duration and assessment criteria and also uploading the make-ups related with the deliverables, the thing we have work with, and it also improves the communication because everybody sees the requirements. It is posted in the inbox and shares brainstorming ideas to 35 people, and how the requirement would be implemented. It's very easy to know the status of the funds of the project because the protocol will be accessible to the tools remotely and easily. He/she will review the bar down chart and know how much work is being done by the team and when the work will be approximately finished.

In the engineering area, we use an engineering process because they realize the campaign board will be very useful for consulting the deliverables of the engineering process because we develop elevators, cabinets, and also casétas used in electrical plants here in Mexico. Comisión Federal de Electricidad is our electricity plant. Our customers customize the products for us and we are introducing new product families. It's important to follow and manage the deliverables in time.

Many important features that are useful for an organization but I feel that even if it is improved, some of the features are not necessary.

I know the tools. I train people here by using these tools. Today, the software development team and some engineers in production are going to be using the tool. Yet I feel it is necessary to involve more time and practice with the tool here in the company.

I've been using that software for approximately six years.

It crashed many times, because in engineering there are a lot of phases.

For example, the first phase will be preparing the document specifications about the product while the second phase is preparing the design, at the same time the third phase is preparing the prototype and the fourth is doing the product implementation.

We have had technical support for about two months and we really like it, and they're great, too, but it's not necessary. But the response of the tech support is so far pretty good. However, I think in Mexico, for Latinos, the support is not good customer service support because the tech support was elevated to India (another country). I feel that here in Latin America it's necessary to improve the service.

I used the first solution in Southern Peru at Cooper Corporations. My new company in located in Lima, Peru. They needed to version in the source code control in Visual Studio. As a part of our consulting services, because I worked at a consulting company, I proposed to implement a version control tool, like Visual Studio Team Services. The thinking thing at that time, the product was changing or Visual Studio paid for the short server after that. I also recommended to use the tool because the project managers would also track the progressive work of the team and also the team would track activities we easily had in the tool. I mean, it's very important to follow or keep it in the mining company, too. For that reason, I recommended the tool.

The tool is not complex. It's medium, because there are a lot of new features that Microsoft delivered about three months ago. But it's easy for me to use the majority of features, as I feel there are new features that I am learning how to use and improve in the company.

I chose IBM Rational Team Concert because I worked in partner consulting. The tool was recommended and it was good, but I felt that it consumed a lot of our resources. It's not too easy to configure, but it managed the majority of things which Visual Studio Team Services performs. It's a very competitive tool, but it's expensive and also it consumes a lot of power.

In regards to Latin America, there is a misunderstanding about application and data management versus software development lifecycle. There is too much confusion here. It is important to clarify what the difference is between the application and system management which it covers from requirements to delivering applications, including the bulk activities.

Our company has ten developers who use the solution's community edition on a daily basis for business process automations. 

The solution has a good framework that is user friendly and scalable. 

Accessibility switches available on the desktop should also be available on mobile devices for coding or developing on the go. 

Technical support is a bit lagging so could be improved. 

I have been using the solution for two years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

The community edition includes a forum that offers sufficient, detailed documentation. 

Documentation for the enterprise edition could be more detailed and recent so that it includes upcoming plugins and integrations. 

The setup is straightforward and I rate it a ten out of ten. 

There is no fee for the solution's community version. 

We have not explored other options because our clients prefer the solution. 

Before using the solution, it is good to have prior knowledge about how it works, how it can scale, and how it integrates with peer tools. 

There may be integrations which are not feasible in the solution's community version, so it is good to do your homework. 

I rate the solution a ten out of ten.