Developer Support

Advocacy and Innovation

Preserving Date Modified on Files Deployed via Build/Release Pipelines

I was working on a DevOps scenario that involved automating the deployment of batch process files from one server to one or more other servers. To accomplish this, I created a build pipeline to collect certain files from the staging location and store them as Build Artifacts. I then created a release pipeline to ask for deployment approval and then deploy the build artifacts to servers in other environments.

Tracking Cross-team Projects in Azure DevOps Boards

If part of this transition requires that aspects from the legacy process be kept, it’s a great opportunity to demonstrate that through the use of agile process and agile tools, we can have an even better control of the value (beyond just software) that the development team is creating for the company.

WIP Your Product into Shape

In his latest post, Senior Consultant, Assaf Stone shares some useful suggestions on tracking Work In Progress (WIP) in VSTS.What is WIP?(image) WIP simply means work in process (also sometimes, Work In Progress). This metric simply measures how many items (features, stories, backlog items, tasks) your team have started to develop, but have ...

Fast Start: Infrastructure as Code Using Azure DevTestLabs

In this post, Premier Developer Consultant Derrick Cawthon teaches you how to get started with Infrastructure as Code quickly and easily using Azure DevTestLabs and VSTS. He shows how simple it is to use these two technologies to be able to deploy on-demand.A lot of folks understand that Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a great idea and an ...

Sharing Deployment Groups Across Team Projects in VSTS

Premier Developer Consultant Derrick Cawthon walks through how to share deployment groups across team projects in VSTS, so you can take full advantage of your infrastructure and maximize investment in cloud services.One of the many recent enhancements to VSTS (Visual Studio Team Services) is the adding of Deployment Groups back in 2017. ...

Safe On-Premises Releases Using VSTS

Read on to learn how Premier Developer Consultant Ilias Jennane addresses the idea of safe releases and incremental feature rollout for on-premises releases using Visual Studio Team Services.I have recently interacted with many customers that were clearly under the impression that they should only consider DevOps practices if they are doing ...

Create Your First CI Pipeline in 10 Minutes or Less

In this post, Premier Developer Consultant Derrick Cawthon shares how to quickly create a continuous integration pipeline in VSTS, so teams can start pursuing their DevOps journeys.During your DevOps journey typically the first item you will want to do (after establishing a good process for the team) is setup a Continuous Integration (CI) ...

DevOps for VMs with VSTS and Octopus Deploy

In this post, Premier Developer Consultant Jafar Jaffery shares insight into how to deploy web applications to virtual machines using Visual Studio Team Services and Octopus Deploy. You can use Octopus Deploy in conjunction with VSTS to deploy both on-premises or in the cloud in a repeatable and reliable way. Problem Statement The ...