How to Use Azure DevOps to Enhance Collaboration and Agility in Development Teams

For software project development, managing time, quality, and cost are aspects that we always need to consider.

One key factor that I believe allows our team to successfully execute projects and promptly address issues is the alignment of both stakeholders and the development team on a shared understanding of our current progress and any challenges we face.

To have this information, we should have metrics or continuously track our progress. In the context of the DevOps process, this relates to Continuous Improvement, which emphasizes the use of metrics to check whether we are reaching our goals and provides a safety zone for receiving feedback. This approach helps ensure that people do not perceive metrics as a means of finding fault; instead, they serve as a way to provide us with a clear purpose for improving together, leading to sustainable improvement for everyone.

          Azure DevOps will help address all these needs, and here are some examples.

          Azure DevOps can manage source code through its built-in Git and provide boards for Agile Sprint management, integrating with automation pipelines for CI/CD to Azure services or Kubernetes platforms!

The examples will focus specifically on task management and repositories for storing source code.

An example of the Smart Hotel project that showcases the details of the project we have.

The interface of Azure DevOps allows us to create Tile Blocks from existing data into charts or metrics. This feature represents a highly effective dynamic reporting tool, and we can customize it according to our needs.

          Let’s explore the capability of tracking tasks alongside the code developed by our team. We can verify whether the commits made correspond to the working items we’ve created. This helps prevent issues such as forgetting to complete tasks or having done them but not remembering which working items relate to specific commits.

Setting policies for branches to ensure security and establish standards that are deemed appropriate for our organization.

We can start by configuring the policies for the Git branch we want. For instance, the master (main) branch should not be modified directly; instead, changes should be made through a pull request, which must always be reviewed by a certain number of people. Additionally, it’s important to establish a link to work items to enable tracking back to the planned tasks.

All the tasks we have will be displayed in a comprehensive list.

Adding tasks and tagging them with labels according to Agile principles.

Establishing a branch strategy to prevent various errors.

We will find that if we try to modify code directly from the master branch, which has established policies, it will not be permitted. Changes must be made through another branch, followed by creating a pull request. This technique enhances the security of our branches. Additionally, it is essential to attach the working item to ensure we can trace back to the requirements or tasks.

Merging must comply with the rules established in the branch policy.

Once we have created the pull request, we can wait for the approval as usual.

Waiting for reviews along with comments.

Displaying sprints.

Displaying the board.

This is a demonstration of Azure DevOps, and for anyone interested, you can try out various examples at Azure DevOps Labs.