A presentation I gave at ESPC 2019 (the European SharePoint, Office 365 and Azure Conference) about Azure DevOps for managing both development and support work. The focus is on Azure DevOps boards and task management, but covers some CI/CD aspects too.

1. Using Azure DevOps Boards to
manage development or support
work
CHRIS O’BRIEN (MVP)
Products and Services Director, Content and Cloud, UK

2. About me
Products and Services Director,
Content and Cloud
www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com
@ChrisO_Brien
http://cob-sp.com/COBLinkedIn

3. My boss said we need DevOps!
DevOps as a concept:
SHORTEN
DEVELOPMENT CYCLES
PROVIDE CONTINUOUS
DELIVERY
INCREASE QUALITY
Close the gap between development and operations/admins

4. Azure DevOps tools
Boards
Plan, track and
collaborate around
dev tasks
Simple/lightweight
options
Agile planning tools
Repos
Store code at any scale
Use Git or TFVC
Rich tools e.g. branch
policies, code reviews,
semantic code search
Pipelines
Automated builds
and deployments
Cloud-hosted
Flexibility:
• Many languages
• Container support
• Azure/AWS/GCP
• SPFx
Other
Testing – manual
and automated
Artifacts –
package hosting
Integrations/
marketplace –
Teams, Slack,
Excel etc.

5. Azure DevOps tools
Boards
Plan, track and
collaborate around
dev tasks
Simple/lightweight
options
Agile planning tools
Repos
Store code at any scale
Use Git or TFVC
Rich tools e.g. branch
policies, code reviews,
semantic code search
Pipelines
Automated builds
and deployments
Cloud-hosted
Flexibility:
• Many languages
• Container support
• Azure/AWS/GCP
• SPFx
Other
Testing – manual
and automated
Artifacts –
package hosting
Integrations/
marketplace –
Teams, Slack,
Excel etc.

6. OPTIONS FOR TRACKING WORK

7. A high-end support team might
use an enterprise ITSM tool like
ServiceNow to track their work.
But what about other cases?
Development Support
A dev team not already using
Azure DevOps may use a variety
of tools – Jira, Asana Github etc.
But many are still using simpler
tools!
In both scenarios, there’s a good case for Azure DevOps
being a better solution!

8. Before looking at Azure DevOps, let’s consider
simpler tools and their pros/cons

9. Options for tracking work
For
Simple and accessible
PMs like it
Against
Everything! But especially:
• Info buried in a file
• No images
• No visual representation
• No notifications
• No capacity tracking

10. Options for tracking work
For
No longer trapped in a file
PMs like it
Against
No support for iterations
No capacity planning
Not particularly visual

11. Options for tracking work
For
Board view
Integration (e.g. Teams)
Against
No support for iterations
No capacity planning
Lack of advanced features
e.g. link to code, burndown
chart

12. Boards - fundamentals
Task board as the centre
Simple drag and drop between
statuses
Track effort remaining, priority etc.
Collaboration features
@mentions
Link to other work items/create
relationships

13. Developers
interruptions!

16. DEMO – tracking work SIMPLY with
Boards

17. Recap – features we just saw
Backlog items/tasks
Adding items and relationships
Assigning to users
Group work together (issue > tasks)
Rich text support
Ability to edit items directly from card
Tracking
Remaining work
@mention
Follow
Notification of task assigned to me
Tagging
Priority
Iterations
Defining iterations
Assigning items to an iteration

18. DevOps can change your life!
Problem Solution
I can't see who is working on what,
and which task I should pick up
Who is doing what?
How much longer will this task take?
Has there been any updates to this
item?
What did we change in the code?
Who is overloaded and who has
capacity?
Has the test environment been
updated yet?

19. DevOps can change your life!
Problem Solution
I can't see who is working on what,
and which task I should pick up
Who is doing what?
View the task board
How much longer will this task take? Look at “remaining effort”
Has there been any updates to this
item?
Follow item
What did we change in the code? Link a repo/branch to work item (e.g.
Task)
Who is overloaded and who has
capacity?
Look at “Work details”
Has the test environment been
updated yet?
Wait for build e-mails/go into
Pipelines area

20. Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD)
How the CFD helps
How long is an item
active for? (cycle time)
Which is our slowest
phase?
• Proposed/Ready?
• Active?
• Resolved?
• Testing?

21. Cumulative Flow Diagram
How the CFD helps
How long is an item
active for? (cycle time)
Which is our slowest
phase?
• Proposed/Ready?
• Active?
• Resolved?
• Testing?

22. RUNNING AGILE PROJECTS ON
DEVOPS

23. Process types
Scrum
Agile
Scrum
Agile
• New
• Active
• Resolved
• Closed
• Removed
• New
• Active
• Committed
• Done
• Removed

24. Bringing some structure
In “basic”, use a structure like:
Epic
Issue
Task
Not mandatory! Use:
• Epics only
• Issues only
• Epics and Issues
Pick what makes sense for you..

25. Maintaining a helicopter view (agile/scrum)
Use Epics and Features to divide backlog
into areas:
• Epic – large business initiative e.g.
”Accessibility for all”
• Feature – app or chunk of work e.g.
“Teams integration”
• User stories - sit beneath
features
Again, Epics and Features are not
mandatory!
Use one or both if they make sense

26. The Agile planning process
Backlog grooming
Add user stories and prioritise
Assign approx. effort – hours/story points/sizes
Create tasks for selected user stories – tech lead
assigns effort
Sprint planning
Establish sprint capacity (man hours), with absences
etc.
Use forecast tools to size sprints (based on velocity)
Move items into next sprint
Ensure matches to available capacity
Backlog
grooming
Sprint
planning

27. DEMO – running agile sprints

28. Recap – features we just saw
Managing sprints
Set sprint capacity
Sprint forecasting
Different backlog levels
Boards
Custom queries
Filtering items on board
Board styling - card and tag
colours/rules
Columns on board (e.g.
doing/done)
Code management/
deployment
Link to commit in Azure
DevOps
Pipelines - build/deploy to
Azure App Service

29. Burndown chart
Interpreting the
burndown
Flat line = no updates
Increase = work not
estimated or planned
properly at sprint start

30. Client quote – down the line
“We’ve started using Azure DevOps but it’s SO confusing!
We can’t seem to update the status of items properly –
WTF?!”
This is a licensing gotcha!

31. Access levels
Visual Studio Subscriber
• Full access – to level of VS
subscription
(Enterprise/Professional)
Basic
• Access to most features. 5 included
for free.
Stakeholder
• Partial access. Unlimited users for
free.
Stakeholder access
Includes limited access
to Kanban boards.
Stakeholders can:
• Add/edit work items
• View boards
Stakeholders cannot:
• Work with board directly
e.g. drag-and-drop work
items/update via card
• Do sprint planning
Developers
Pro testers
Project Managers or
similar
Occasional users
$0
$0
$6 pm

32. Licensing scenario
Role Number License type To pay for Cost per month
Dev with
Visual Studio
6 VS
subscription
0 $0
Dev without
Visual Studio
6 Basic 1 $6
Project
Manager or
similar
3 Basic 3 $18
Casual tester 5 Stakeholder 0 $0
TOTAL $24
All devs have
Visual Studio?
$0 per month
2 x testers
upgraded to Basic
for free

33. Automated builds and deployments
(CI/CD)

34. Pipelines fundamentals
• 30 hours free per
month
• Free for public
projects

35. Pipelines - two kinds of builds
• Easy to get started/learn
build concepts
• Visual editor
• Split into BUILD and
RELEASE pipelines
Classic

36. Pipelines - two kinds of builds
• Pipeline as code - can be
branched
• Can copy/paste snippets
easily
• Can reference remote
definitions
• The future!
YAML

37. YAML vs. classic – things to know
• For now, release builds use classic UI
• A classic build exports as JSON, but can be
converted to YAML
• Use “View YAML” button for individual actions

38. DEMO – automated builds

39. Starting DevOps effectively
• Centralise discussion through DevOps work items – you’ll benefit later
• Reflect and optimise - talk about what worked well
• Tweak the board (and work item types) to fit your needs
Add tasks only -
start simple
1
Track effort on
work items (initial
and remaining)
2
Use analysis tools
– forecasting,
burndown, WIP
limits etc.
3
Automate builds
so testers/PMs
are always clear
on deployment
status
4Go on a
Journey:

40. Summary
DevOps is NOT just for high-end dev teams!
Supports improved communication across the team
Tap into the “behind the scenes” analysis DevOps
does on your data (CFD, burndown, sprint planning)
Automated builds are easy for common scenarios

41. Resources
https://sharepointnutsandbolts.com
https://cob-sp.com/2DHk7gK
https://cob-sp.com/DevOpsVideos
Thank you!! 
Any questions?
@ChrisO_Brien
(Content and Code)