How we built a project management system based on Azure DevOps

Over 15 years of work, we have met with various trackers: from exotic FogBugz and Mantiss to modern ones that were actively used until 2019 - TFS, Jira, Redmine, even GitLab. Last year, we transferred 200 people to work with Azure DevOps in a few months. In this article, we will tell you how it happened.

The four trackers are the four different processes, project templates, build and deployment systems that we supported. The path to a common tracker began with an experiment - to transfer one of the teams from the "non-microsoft" stack to Azure DevOps. Coincidentally, the experiment took place almost before quarantine due to the pandemic, but this did not stop us. And in less than a year, all of our engineers moved to Azure DevOps.

Why Azure DevOps

We carefully studied the capabilities of different trackers and chose the Microsoft Azure DevOps (formerly TFS) platform. In its basic purpose as a universal planning tool, Azure DevOps has several advantages:

• Convenient interface for planning the distribution of tasks and workload for each person in the team, taking into account vacations and switching to other projects;

  
  
  
  
  

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• Provide all employees of the company with a common vision of the development management processes and tools. As a result, cross-project processes, rotation of any specialists between teams, work of employees in several teams at once were simplified.

  
  
  
  
  

• Reuse good practices in task and team management between projects (settings, dashboards, metrics).