1/5/23, 11:03 AM (5) Azure DevOps: it’s like VSTS and MS Project had a baby | LinkedIn

Azure DevOps: it’s like VSTS and MS Project had a baby

Published on June 12, 2020

AnneMarie Tellefsen PMP, MCP, MS, MEd

17 articles Follo
D365 Solution Architect & Program Manager:
Providing Business Application and Process…

Azure DevOps: it’s like VSTS and MS Project had a baby – the result is a Project

Management Tool I am in love with.

Work Smart, not hard has never been so true. Back in the day (2000-2010) the

management of an ERP implementation involved, at minimum, a spreadsheet or project

plan with enough granularity the size of the file often prohibited use – it often felt like

using a “life-size map.”

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Spreadsheets, spreadsheets, and more spreadsheets! Critical work items like; key

decisions, subtle changes to a requirement, meeting notes, updates to Design

Documents were not always captured Real-Time. When a client is making that type of

investment, project assets need to reflect the current ‘truth’.

At times it felt as if I needed a separate server to manage all the moving pieces.

IF the project team was/is disciplined the spreadsheets might be “current-ish” – which

meant your best decision was always at the mercy of the “ish” information. Not an ideal

place to manage a multi-million-dollar implementation. It is a fine balance to manage the

details of a project without running over on budget or sacrificing development time.

It only makes sense to apply lean thinking to the way projects are managed. Lean

thinking does not support multiple sources of truth and documents and work items

without traceability.

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1/5/23, 11:03 AM (5) Azure DevOps: it’s like VSTS and MS Project had a baby | LinkedIn

Azure DevOps is a one-stop-shop for all project information and Requirements

Traceability. Historically, it felt like a tool used by the technical side of

a project; management of code, environments, etc. Its use has grown to encompass every

facet of a project and offers a platform that spans the lifecycle and supports cross-

functional work and an easy “visual” for all project members to use.

First, let’s establish that there must be an underlying, defined, scalable methodology to

support the use of Azure DevOps to manage a project successfully. No tool can assist

poor planning.

A tool can assist in visualizing the Planning and it can assist with keeping teams apprised

of all the latest facets of a project, the latest; document updates, key decisions, blockers,

obstacles, code promotions, and more with one Kanban board.

Wikipedia has a nice definition:

Kanban boards visually depict work at various stages of a process using cards to

represent work items and columns to represent each stage of the process. Cards are

moved from left to right to show progress and to help coordinate teams performing the

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work. A Kanban board may be divided into horizontal "swimlanes" representing different

kinds of work or different teams performing the work.

Regardless of project size or complexity setting

up a Kanban Board to track Work Items provides

traceability, accountability and allows fast,

productive status calls with team members who

can see their tasks, the dependencies, and roadblocks.

Kanban Boards can be customized and adapted to any organization’s infrastructure. Some

client requires detailed task management – some require guide rails and directions.

DevOps is a flexible, scalable, repeatable, and adaptable one-stop-shop for any size of

complexity, replacing project management through spreadsheet BLEEP.

It is a One-Stop-Shop tool acting as: document management, communication/traceability

tool (integrated with email), visual Kanban, real-time status, and accountability tool. And

this is a tiny fraction of the capabilities DevOps offers Project Managers.

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