Ismail Kiswani - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at Al-kiswani
Real User
Good CI/CD pipeline and testing automation that is both stable and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of this solution are the CI/CD pipeline, and the testing automation."
  • "They have to add more features such as schedules and more flexibility in the platform."

What is our primary use case?

We are using this solution for CI/CD projects, for Scrum, Agile planning, testing, and business management system solutions. 

We are also using it for continuous integration, and continuous delivery of DevOps.

I am also using the Git Repositories, which is the main source control for me in the organization. We were using it on-premises and now planning to move it to the Cloud.

They are calling it repository and they are supporting an old protocol, which is a popular protocol called Git repository.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of this solution are the CI/CD pipeline, and the testing automation.

It's good that they are bringing more options to this environment, and to deploy to virtual machines.

What needs improvement?

The testing agents needs to be improved, they need to work on it.

They can enhance the areas related to continuous integration and build automation. They can add more technologies for the build.

The integration with the Azure infrastructure as a code and include more templates for infrastructure as a code in the continuous integration phase and the build phase.

They can add more flexibility to the continuous deployment.

Artifact management is also an area that needs some enhancements.

I think automation and integration with the CI/CD lifecycle it's good but it's using agents.

I am using a different tool for testing automation because I have not found any use cases on it. This feature is not covered. I'm using only testing and business management. I'm not using the testing automation feature that is provided by Azure DevOps.

I would like to see more integration with other platforms and more flexibility.

They have to add more features such as schedules and more flexibility in the platform. This will allow me to build my space and time based on the schedule and based on a calendar.

I would also like to see a release calendar so that I can plan my releases based on my sprints. 

This is required and it would give this solution more maturity. Between Scrum, Agile Planning, or Project planning with the build and deploy prophecies.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for three years.

We are using the latest version of this solution.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure DevOps
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure DevOps. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution. We have not experienced any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable product. We have more than 50 users in our organization using this solution.

I plan to continue using it in the future.

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

Previously, I used TeamCity, Jenkins, I used Chef, and many other technologies.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward, it's a cloud service, so it's plug and play.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Microsoft Azure DevOps for other users who are interested in using it.

I would rate this solution an 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
Senior Project Manager at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good traceability and dependency-tracking features
Pros and Cons
  • "There are a lot of helpful features available for tracking dependencies."
  • "Improving the metrics that are readily available on the dashboard would be very helpful."

What is most valuable?

The key thing I find benefits me is the ability to track right from the feature and determine what has happened. I have a direct link to the test and the metrics that are available.

There are a lot of helpful features available for tracking dependencies.

What needs improvement?

The dashboard could be improved. Although there is flexibility in configuring it, there are some metrics that we have to configure ourselves. Improving the metrics that are readily available on the dashboard would be very helpful.

I would like to see better integration with third-party solutions, where if they are part of the DevOps pipeline then the reporting could be made available on the dashboard.

Having some form of check modeling integrated into Azure would be useful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure DevOps for the past four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have had no issues in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The offerings in terms of scalability are good.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not had to depend much on Microsoft support for DevOps and project management. However, I can say that the general support that we get for Azure is good.

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

I have some experience with Jira from Atlassian, although I have worked with Microsoft Team Foundation Server from the beginning.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. While we were migrating, we had training from Microsoft, which was helpful.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I haven't really looked into other options.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, this is a good product and one that I recommend. The features it has have helped us, especially with tracking dependencies.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure DevOps
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure DevOps. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
They fix issues and add new features quite regularly and it offers many analytical capabilities
Pros and Cons
    • "They do very frequent releases, there's a complete change in UI kind of stuff. Sometimes it feels like they change it too often."

    What is most valuable?

    The ability to interact with various other Azure services like for a deployment or using CICD was very helpful because when we leverage it for Azure IT helps. There's no CICD pipeline available. They provided us with some of the plugins to deploy that onto the Azure IOT edge.

    What needs improvement?

    They do very frequent releases, there's a complete change in UI kind of stuff. Sometimes it feels like they change it too often. They fix issues and add new features quite regularly which is good. 

    They leverage a lot of new features, new features get released frequently, and sometimes the change management on our side is a bit complicated because we'll see something and there's an entirely different way how it is presented. You need to get it all working again.

    Previously we asked them for more analytics on top of what they already had so that we could look at it comprehensively and see how the projects are progressing. They implemented these changes for us. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Azure for the last couple of years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It's stable. It's good. If there are some features missing we connect with the Microsoft team and then they get it developed and we utilize it.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is very scalable. We use it for quite a lot of projects including running the data and all that stuff. We do quite a lot of analysis and analytics on top of that.

    We have hundreds of users using this solution.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    We don't really use technical support for incidents but more for developing new features. 

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

    I've been using Microsoft based solutions, like VST and then like before that DSS. It was a natural progression from VSTS into Azure DevOps.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward. We've been using Microsoft products for a while. 

    What other advice do I have?

    It's a good tool, quite rich, it has a lot of features, and quite a lot of analytical capabilities which are built on top of it so that you can see how your projects are going and all that stuff. It's a good tool.

    I would rate it a nine out of ten.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Cloud Solution Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
    Reseller
    Easy to set up, allows for third-party extensions, and is pretty scalable
    Pros and Cons
    • "It is possible to add third-party extensions to increase the usability of the product."
    • "Some things like project management, tasks, progress, and having work progress views require us to use some external tools, or to create our own internal tools. These are not native to DevOps. It would be ideal if, instead of searching for third-party solutions, they had these feature sets or capabilities included under DevOps."

    What is our primary use case?

    We primarily use the solution for our internal development and we have some clients that require some consulting around some DevOps functionality.

    We use the product for the development process for the repository, for the tracking of the tasks in the boards, and for the pipeline for CINCD.

    What is most valuable?

    The test plan is one feature that we are exploring more right now. This is a great feature that we want to deeper into.

    We have a solid base. We can do everything with DevOps.

    It is possible to add third-party extensions to increase the usability of the product.

    The initial setup is very simple. 

    We have found the solution to be scalable.

    The solution, for the most part, is stable. 

    What needs improvement?

    Some things, like project management, tasks, progress, and having work progress views, require us to use some external tools or to create our own internal tools. These are not native to DevOps. It would be ideal if, instead of searching for third-party solutions, they had these feature sets or capabilities included under DevOps. They need to expand the solution's offering.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    While I have used the solution for two years, the company has some personnel that have used it for longer. Our development team may have used it for four or five years. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The product is stable. We had some regional degradations a few months ago, however, it wasn't too much. For the most part, it's reliable and there aren't bugs or glitches. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The solution is scalable. If we need to expand it we can do so. 

    How are customer service and support?

    We've never had to contact technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they would be, as I've never dealt with them directly. 

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is very simple and straightforward. It is not difficult or complex. 

    We use the online version. We don't have to deploy the tool. We don't have to put in a lot of effort as we already have the pipelines in the TFS. We just move it to Azure DevOps. 

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I'm a solution provider. I sell Azure DevOps and I have a client that was looking to analyze some differences between Jira and Azure DevOps. Therefore, I have evaluated Jira a bit for them.

    What other advice do I have?

    We are both a reseller and a partner of Microsoft.

    We always use the latest version of the solution. 

    I would recommend this product to other companies and users. If a company or a team doesn't know how to work with Azure DevOps, the advice I would give is to find someone that knows the tool and do a POC first to make sure you understand everything a bit better before diving right in. 

    In general, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Microsoft Azure
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
    PeerSpot user
    Chief Operating Officer Executive at a cloud provider with 11-50 employees
    Real User
    Fast, scalable, and stable work planning and code collaboration software; offers a good user experience
    Pros and Cons
    • "Stable and scalable solution for work planning and code collaboration. It's fast, and it offers a good user experience."
    • "The optimization feature in Microsoft Azure DevOps needs improvement. Control over multiple projects could also be improved."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for management, e.g. managing items that we need to work on, planning activities, connecting to components to get information on how long the developer is working on the items assigned, etc. We use the solution for our projects.

    We have internal users from the development team, and we have the work logs that we need to work on for each customer. We match those to have control over the projects and the budget. We have a component plugged into the solution for the billables and performance delivery. What we don't have yet is optimization, and that is something that needs to be improved in Microsoft Azure DevOps, but the solution has all the activities and the budgeting functions, so the project is working good. We're making an exact component in seven days that we can use with the solution.

    What is most valuable?

    One of the features I found most useful in Microsoft Azure DevOps is that we can use it to plan activities. We use the dashboard to work on the tasks we have, and also use it to find out what could be better. It's also useful when you have many customers and many people working together on different projects.

    In our case, we have one developer working on more than one project within the same day, week, or month, and Microsoft Azure DevOps helps give better control of his schedule, making it easier to find out if the developer still has availability to take on new work. The solution helps us see the work status and availability of team members, making work management and task management better.

    The validation and quality offered by Microsoft Azure DevOps are very good. The user experience is good. The speed of the solution is also good, e.g. the pages load fast.

    What needs improvement?

    The optimization feature in Microsoft Azure DevOps needs improvement.

    Sometimes, having control over multiple projects for a customer could be difficult. If you're a developer, you need to know if you still have time to work on more activities within the day. When you're working on one project for one customer, Microsoft Azure DevOps is great, but when your team is working on different projects for several clients, it may be too hard to handle, e.g. you really need to organize and plan the activities, so planning is another area for improvement in the solution.

    Planning includes budgeting, e.g. creating a budget for each project, especially if the developer is working on multiple projects of customers. You need to have control and see to it that you are within budget, but it can be hard because you can't always see the daily, weekly, or monthly activities of the developer, particularly if the developer doesn't keep the calendar updated. We want to be able to view the complete list of activities of the developer, whether daily, weekly, or monthly, to make planning and budgeting easier.

    I'd also like the Microsoft Azure DevOps Gantt chart to be improved. We need to see in the schedule how to plan the fields out. We have daily activities and we'd like to use the Gantt chart to make our work approach more successful.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We've been a partner of Microsoft for 10 years, and we've been using Microsoft solutions for 10 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Microsoft Azure DevOps is stable. Sometimes there's a little lag, but the next day, it'll work fine. The solution works fine.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Microsoft Azure DevOps is a scalable solution.

    How was the initial setup?

    Setting up Microsoft Azure DevOps was easy.

    What other advice do I have?

    We use Microsoft solutions as part of management. We use Microsoft's platform.

    We use the latest version of Microsoft Azure DevOps for our projects.

    We have 15 people who are in charge of the deployment and maintenance of the solution. Per project, we have one or two developers who utilize Microsoft Azure DevOps: At the beginning, we have the front end developer and the cloud personnel who create the environment, the designer who works to create the right frame, the right materials, the layout, and the design for the project, and at the middle, we have four to five operators.

    The platform works well so we didn't have the need to open a ticket or contact Microsoft technical support.

    I really like Microsoft Azure DevOps, so I recommend it to people who want to start using it. My advice to them is that it's a huge platform, so it won't be easy the first time. When you test the platform, you need to spend time and make an effort to understand how it works, but it's the best solution. It's the top solution. 

    Another advice to new users of Microsoft Azure DevOps is that it's harder to have a macro view of all the processes together. When we needed to cross-match a lot of information from the different processing teams of customers, we found it difficult. You also need to plan well, particularly plan when your developer can work on more than one project. When you have many projects, you need to handle the processes well, e.g. create separate folders for each customer, separate projects, etc., to keep the information separate and be more organized.

    Microsoft Azure DevOps could still be improved more, so I'm rating it an eight out of ten.

    We are a partner of Microsoft, and we use Microsoft solutions. What we recommend to our customers is for them to use the Microsoft environment, server and databases. We work with some of the solutions and technologies from Microsoft.

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Practice Director, Global Infrastructure Services at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Good for the purpose it is designed for and can be easily used by developers, but needs better reporting
    Pros and Cons
    • "It is good for the purpose it is designed for. It is good for maintaining a repository of application code, creating pipelines for deploying the code, building the code, and deploying the code. It can be easily used by developers. There are no issues."
    • "Reporting could be better. We would like to see how many applications are onboarded in DevOps and in which phase they are. We would like to know for how many applications we have done only the repository, but we have not yet done the build pipeline or deploy pipeline. Currently, there is no such report. We have to figure it out ourselves. There is no way to check how many applications are completing their build pipelines, how many applications are completing their deploy pipeline, how many are ready to use, and how many pipelines are working."

    What is our primary use case?

    It is for all the DevOps functions, such as managing the deployment of the code to the production environment. 

    What is most valuable?

    It is good for the purpose it is designed for. It is good for maintaining a repository of application code, creating pipelines for deploying the code, building the code, and deploying the code. It can be easily used by developers. There are no issues.

    What needs improvement?

    Reporting could be better. We would like to see how many applications are onboarded in DevOps and in which phase they are. We would like to know for how many applications only the repository is done, but we have not yet done the build pipeline or deploy pipeline. Currently, there is no such report. We have to figure it out ourselves. There is no way to check how many applications are completing their build pipelines, how many applications are completing their deploy pipeline, how many are ready to use, and how many pipelines are working.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for more than two years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is stable. It is also good performance-wise. There are no issues.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have more than 800 developers who are using this solution, and this is only a portion of the company. Across the company, there are many groups, and we have more than 2,00,000 employees. We are using DevOps across many customer projects and environments, and more than 50% of our projects are on DevOps.

    How are customer service and support?

    Their support is good.

    How was the initial setup?

    It is a cloud solution, and there is no installation. You just start using it.

    We have one or two admins per project for deployment and maintenance.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would definitely recommend this solution to others. They can go ahead and use it.

    I would rate it a seven out of 10.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
    PeerSpot user
    Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
    Real User
    Easy to use, stable, and helps speed up production
    Pros and Cons
    • "Typically the sprints themselves and managing the tasks have essentially eliminated our need for reporting."
    • "Some of the queries, the way they're built, need to be looked at. We need better query tools."

    What is our primary use case?

    We primarily use the solution for our Agile teams, however, we started off using it with our executive suite. Our executive team now meets in sprints every day. Sometimes it's a short 15 minutes, other times it can be up to an hour. We have two-week sprints and daily scrums associated with it. We've also rolled that down from the executive. We've got seven formal Agile teams running throughout the organization across our businesses. We probably have at least 40% of our staff now trained in Agile and using DevOps to execute the projects.

    How has it helped my organization?

    As an Agile team, we're now able to move much faster than we could, even pre-COVID.

    What is most valuable?

    Typically the sprints themselves and managing the tasks have essentially eliminated our need for reporting. That in itself has had a huge effort on the number of meetings. In the past, you would almost wait a month before you could get all the executive teams together. Now, we've got meetings daily. Due to the regular meetings, we're utilizing daily scrums and two-week sprints, and we've been able to move a lot faster than we've ever had before as far as initiatives. 

    Frankly, throughout this whole COVID situation, being able to respond the way we have to some of the changes that were going on has been amazing. I don't think that would have happened if we weren't an Agile team.

    What needs improvement?

    There are a lot of features that we could probably work with a bit differently as we learn more about the tool. Right now, we're just really using it from a task management perspective. We've only been using it a year. There may still be more to learn and unpack.

    Some of the queries, the way they're built, need to be looked at. We need better query tools.

    Being able to report back to boards, to regulators, and the activities and stuff would be helpful. The queries do require somebody else to actually write them. There should, however, be a way to make things a little simpler in that space. Right now it's on us to figure out how to get better at making queries effectively and in such a way we're just not reporting on tasks complete.  

    We track the associated feature story. In many ways you can actually go back and see the story, and see the progress you've made on initiatives due to the fact that you can see all the decisions that have been made along the way. If there's a way that person could dig into that and pull more information or insights, that would be very helpful as it would assist us in improving future projects or even help us forecast on an existing project. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I use the solution daily. We launched it in the company in January. We've been using it across all our Agile teams here for 12 months here.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability of the solution is very good. I haven't had issues with bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's a reliable solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The solution's level of scalability is good. We're a smaller organization. We've only got 300 people in total, and out of those, probably 40% of our entire staff use the product. About 120 people probably are in there on a daily basis. That's everyone from executives down to programmers. It's extremely cross-functional across our organization.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    I haven't had to reach out to DevOps themselves personally, so I wouldn't have experience there. However, if we ran into any issues, my technology teams would contact them.

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

    We didn't previously use a different solution. That's why we looked for an automation tool. We switched to DevOps mostly due to the fact that our development team was utilizing DevOps as part of their own Agile operations. A number of teams were also already sort of experienced. There are a number of individuals in the company who were experienced that way, and we had homegrown support in some ways when we launched it. It just made sense to go with DevOps as opposed to bringing in something new.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup wasn't complex. It was pretty straightforward. We didn't run into any issues that complicated the process of implementation.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We did look at Jira briefly, however, it didn't look that different from DevOps and we knew many of our team members were already comfortable with this solution so we didn't pursue it.

    What other advice do I have?

    We're just Microsoft customers. We don't have any business relationship with the company.

    I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using.

    I'd strongly recommend the solution to other organizations. I can't see us ever reversing back now after being on this for a year.

    Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten. It's relatively easy to use and it does what we need it to do.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Microsoft Azure
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Co Founder and Technical Architect at Think NYX Technologies LLP
    Reseller
    Top 10
    Easy to onboard and use, with complete integration between pipelines and testing
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable feature is the complete integration between test cases, pipelines, and issue management."
    • "The test management section needs to be improved."

    What is our primary use case?

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

    What is most valuable?

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

    What needs improvement?

    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.

    For how long have I used the solution?

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

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I have found it stable, so far.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    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.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    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.

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

    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.

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

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

    What other advice do I have?

    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.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Microsoft Azure
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Azure DevOps Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: March 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Azure DevOps Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.