The Top 8 Azure DevOps Tools You Need to Know

1. The Top 8 Azure DevOps Tools You Need to Know Azure DevOps can be intimidating for those who don't understand it or have yet to use it as a service. Azure DevOps offers users many advantages, but they may seem less than helpful unless you know what they are and how to use them. But once you learn the ins and outs of Azure DevOps, you'll quickly find that you can build out your product faster and easier than ever before, making it an invaluable tool in any development environment. To help you get started with Azure DevOps, here are the top 8 DevOps tools on offer through the service. 1) Azure Repos One of my favorite tools included with all Azure subscriptions is often overlooked. That tool is called Repos. They allow you to store different files and make them accessible via a Git repository, specifically designed to keep your code, allowing easy access and version control. This function makes it easy for developers across your organization to access and share code repositories. If you're looking for a hosted solution with an easy-to-use user interface, look no further than Gitlab. This software is exceptionally well-developed and boasts many of the same features as GitHub but with more self-hosted options. It also offers enterprise support options, making it an excellent opportunity for large organizations needing a more robust host. You'll likely end up using both solutions in tandem. 2) Delivery Pipelines A delivery pipeline is how you get changes from a developer into production at a very high level. In most cases, it's not just one developer: every line of code must go through some combination of development, testing, and QA before getting deployed into production. And while each one of these steps adds value in reducing risk and improving your product, they can also be costly. That's where delivery pipelines come in.

2. Delivery pipelines are how you structure your process for moving code through development, testing, and deployment. The idea is that if you can automate as many of these steps as possible, then any developer on your team (even a junior one) should be able to get their code deployed into production. 3) Release Management Release management is one of several activities in a continuous delivery pipeline. While each of these activities has its purpose, they all contribute to helping you deliver features faster and more safely. Some organizations choose not to separate release management as a distinct role or toolset; instead, it's integrated into other aspects of their workflows, such as continuous integration and automated testing. While release management is closely tied to continuous delivery, it encompasses a broader scope of activities. After all, release management consists of tasks that have to be completed long before you deploy anything. With that in mind, you need a way to automate any workflows or checks required for release management so you can implement them continually. As you add tasks to your release management pipeline, it becomes increasingly vital that you're able to keep track of them. The closer you deploy a new release, the more complex your pipeline and its constituent tasks become. 4) VSTS (Visual Studio Team Services) Team Services, aka VSTS, is a collection of application lifecycle management (ALM) services for agile teams and software development. It includes a source control service (GitHub), CI/CD (Jenkins), a cloud-based load testing service (Load Testing), and other items. VSTS is part of Visual Studio, which runs on Windows. Several DevOps tools are available to VSTS users, including Release Management, Windows Containers, and Application Insights. Some third-party tools are also available. Visual Studio Online, formerly known as Team Foundation Server (TFS), includes a source control service

3. (GitHub), CI/CD (Jenkins), and a cloud-based load testing service (Load Testing). But it also has capabilities for agile team management. It's part of Microsoft Visual Studio, which runs on Windows. Microsoft also offers a cloud-based release management service called Release Management. It’s an extension of VSTS that gives users a workflow for automating releases, with support for containers and end-to-end deployment of applications. Another tool is Windows Containers, which provides build/deployment and process automation using Docker containers on Microsoft Azure. Some third-party products are available to make all of these tools work together. 5) Source Control - Git Git is a distributed version control system that you can use for tracking code changes and working with teams. Distributed version control systems allow you to work without a central server, which means all developers can commit code as they make changes. No one has to worry about getting locked out of their repository. Other popular DVCSs include Subversion (SVN) and Mercurial. To start with Git, download GitHub for Windows or Mac, sign up for a free GitHub account, and create a repository. After you've completed your repo on GitHub, clone it locally using one of two methods: manual cloning or auto-cloning. Both methods use SSH keys to allow access without requiring passwords. Auto-cloning connects your local repository to a GitHub repository via SSH. To start, you'll need public and private essential pair instructions for creating one in GitHub's documentation. Once you have your keys, go to GitHub, navigate to your repository, click Settings and select SSH Keys. Click Add SSH Key, paste your public key, and confirm that it is associated with your account. 6) Application Insights Application Insights is a tool that helps development teams diagnose and monitor mobile, web, desktop, IoT, and cloud-based applications. It's easy to set up and gives developers an

4. at-a-glance view of their application's metrics in real-time. They can use it for free for 10 days, after which it will cost $50 per month. Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS) is a tool for managing and integrating server management operations. It provides integration with several third-party monitoring tools and an inventory service that enables on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure management and reporting. Developers can use it for free, after which it costs $10 per user per month. Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is a comprehensive service that provides agile project management and collaboration features for development teams. It offers integrated version control, build automation, continuous integration, and release management tools for both Git and TFS repositories. It's free for small teams of up to five users, after which it costs $7 per user per month. 7) CodeLens, Blame History, and Code Analysis CodeLens is a general-purpose tool that provides you with information about your code. When using CodeLens in Visual Studio, you can see who had changed what line of code, when they did it and what they changed. For more details, here is an excellent video by Scott Hanselman. There are plenty of other tools and features for CodeLens, but these three are my favorites. The second remarkable feature is Blame History. As you might have guessed, it shows you who made changes to your code and when. CodeLens also offers an overview of your Git branches and their status. A new Code Analysis feature can also be added in Visual Studio to analyze your code for common errors, such as using tabs instead of spaces or having illegal references in C#. The final CodeLens feature is Code Analysis. As you might have guessed, it analyzes your code for common errors such as using tabs instead of spaces or having illegal references in C#. 8) Jira Integration Suppose you're using Atlassian's Jira issue tracker. In that case, you can use a third-party connector Jira for Visual Studio Team Services or IntelliJ IDEA Plugin for Visual Studio Team

5. Services (also made by Atlassian) to connect your teams and their respective tools. This integration allows you to see issues and pull requests from Jira on your VSTS dashboard, which is helpful if you have cross-functional teams in different locations. Key points to take home: ● Azure Repos allows you to store different files and make them accessible via a Git repository, specifically designed to keep your code, allowing easy access and version control. ● Delivery pipelines are how you structure your process for moving code through development, testing, and deployment. ● Release management consists of tasks that have to be completed long before deploying anything. ● VSTS is a collection of application lifecycle management (ALM) services for agile teams and software development. It includes a source control service (GitHub), CI/CD (Jenkins), a cloud-based load testing service (Load Testing), and other items. ● Git is a distributed version control system that you can use for tracking code changes and working with teams. ● Application Insights is a tool that helps development teams diagnose and monitor mobile, web, desktop, IoT, and cloud-based applications. ● CodeLens is a general-purpose tool that provides you with information about your code. When using CodeLens in Visual Studio, you can see who had changed what line of code, when they did it and what they changed.