DevOps Overview, Cloud Version this time Azure

DevOps is the union of people, process, and products to enable continuous delivery of value to your end users. Azure DevOps is a set of services that gives you the tools you need to do just that. With Azure DevOps, you can build, test, and deploy any application, either to the cloud or on premises. DevOps practices that enable transparency, cooperation, continuous delivery and continuous deployment become embedded in your software development lifecycle.

Azure DevOps provides several tools you can use for better team collaboration. It also has tools for automated build processes, testing, version control, and package management. That’s quite a bit to cover! We’ll get to all the tools eventually. For now, let’s follow the team as they begin with an overview of what Azure DevOps is and how they can get started.

Azure DevOps Services	Descriptions
Azure Boards	agile tools that help us plan, track, and discuss our work, even with other teams.
Azure Pipelines	build, test, and deploy with CI/CD that works with any language, platform, and cloud.
Azure Test Plans	manual and exploratory testing tools.
Azure Repos	provide unlimited, cloud-hosted private, and public Git repos.
Azure Artifacts	create, host, and share packages.

What is Agile?

Agile is a term that’s used to describe approaches to software development, emphasizing incremental delivery, team collaboration, continual planning, and continual learning. Agile isn’t a process as much as it is a philosophy or mindset for planning the work that a team will do. It’s based on iterative development and helps a team better plan for and react to the inevitable changes that occur in software development. Let’s listen in on Mara’s discussion with Andy after the latest release.

Recommendations for adopting Agile

• Create an organizational structure that supports Agile practices
• Mentor team members on Agile techniques and practices
• Enable in-team and cross-team collaboration:- If collaboration is the key to becoming successful at Agile, what are some of the ways you can encourage it? Here are some ideas.
  • Cultural change
  • Cross-functional teams
  • Tools for collaboration such as
    • Microsoft Teams
    • Skype
    • Slack

What is Azure Boards?

Azure Boards is a tool in Azure DevOps to help teams plan the work that needs to be done. The Tailspin team will use this tool to get a better idea of what work needs to be done and how to prioritize it.

Set up Azure Boards using the Basic process

• Create the project

1. Sign into your account at dev.azure.com.
2. Select + Create project.
3. In the Project name field, type Space Game – web.
4. In the Description field, type The Space Game website.
5. Under Visibility, you choose whether to make your project public or private. For now, you can choose private.
6. Select Advanced.
7. Under Version control, make sure that Git is selected. Under Work item process, make sure that Basic is selected.
8. Select Create.

• Create a team

1. Select Project settings in the lower-left corner.
2. On the Project details page, under General, select Teams.
3. Select Space Game – web Team.

• Add team members

1. Under Members, select + Add.
2. Enter the email address of the user you’d like to add. Then select Save changes.
3. Repeat the process for any other members you’d like to add.

• Create the board

1. In the column on the left, point to Boards and select Boards from the menu that appears.
2. Select Space Game – web Team boards. A blank board appears.
3. In the To Do column, select the green + button next to the New item field.
4. Enter Stabilize the build server and then press Enter.
5. Select the ellipsis (…), and then select Open.
6. In the Description field, enter this text (The build server keeps falling over. The OS, Ubuntu 16.04, requires security patches and updates. It’s also a challenge to keep build tools and other software up to date.)
7. Select Save & Close.
8. Follow the same steps for the next two items.

Title	Description
Create a Git-based workflow	Migrate source code to GitHub and define how we’ll collaborate.
Create unit tests	Add unit tests to the project to help minimize regression bugs.

Drag Stabilize the build server to the top of the stack. Then, drag Create a Git-based workflow to the second item position. Your final board looks like this.

• Define a sprint

1. In the left-side column, select Sprints.
2. Select Set dates from the upper right.
3. Leave the name as Sprint 1.
4. In the Start date field, select the calendar and pick today’s date.
5. In the End date field, select the calendar and pick the date two weeks from today.
6. Select Save and Close.

Assign tasks and set the iteration

1. Under Boards, select Work items.
2. Select Stabilize the build server.
3. In the Iteration drop-down list, select Sprint 1.
4. From the same window, select Unassigned and set yourself as the task owner.
5. Repeat the process for the other two work items.
   1. Create a Git-based workflow
   2. Create unit tests

Cheers
Osama