Aaron Bjork on Driving Team Productivity and Promoting Culture Through Azure DevOps - Episode 009

Welcome to the second episode of The Azure DevOps Podcast — with your host, Jeffrey Palermo. Jeffrey is joined by his guest, Donovan Brown, to discuss how to use Azure DevOps services. Donovan is a Principle DevOps Manager at Microsoft, helping developers do great things with DevOps methods on the Microsoft platform. He has been with Microsoft since December of 2013, and has been a developer for 20 years.   This episode, Jeffrey and Donovan talk about the whirlwind it’s been since the launch of the new Azure DevOps, key information new developers might want to know when beginning to use or incorporate Azure DevOps, some of the changes to their services, what’s available for packages in DevOps, the free build capabilities Microsoft is giving to open source projects, some of the new capabilities around GitHub integration, and more!   Topics of Discussion: [:52] About today’s topic and guest. [1:02] Jeffrey welcomes Donovan to the podcast and he speaks about the name change and what it’s been like since the launch. [4:25] Donovan shares his background in developing and his day-to-day duties at Microsoft. [11:47] How the Team Foundation System has morphed through the phases to Azure DevOps. [14:59] The key things new developers need to put into the various pieces (the continuous integration build, the deployment, etc)? What concepts should they think of? [19:27] Donovan explains some of the changes to Azure DevOps services that allow you to pick and choose what you want to use. [21:08] A word from Azure DevOps sponsor: Clear Measure. [21:37] Donovan talks about some of the new capabilities around GitHub integration. [24:00] What is YAML? [27:44] How developers manage YAML. [29:10] Donovan speaks about what’s available for Packages in DevOps. [34:22] About the new open source pipeline listing. [36:20] About the free build capabilities Microsoft is giving to open source projects. [37:00] What Jeffrey and Donovan love about the free availability of Azure DevOps for open source projects. [38:58] Donovan explains the concept of an unbreakable pipeline, its capabilities, and what makes it so exciting. [43:30] Donovan’s suggestion for listeners to go do after listening to this week’s episode.   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps yo Team VSTS @DonovanBrown on Twitter PowerShell XAML Clear Measure (Sponsor) GitHub YAML NuGet Dynatrace Dynatrace’s Podcast: PurePerformance Docs.Microsoft.com #LoECDA on Twitter (for any questions on Azure DevOps) Channel 9   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes   Follow Up with Our Guest: Donovan Brown’s LinkedIn @DonovanBrown on Twitter DonovanBrown.com

10 Sep 201845min

Welcome to the first edition of The Azure DevOps Podcast! Your host, Jeffrey Palermo is joined by guest, Buck Hodges, to announce the global release of Azure DevOps Services. Buck is the Director of Engineering for the Azure DevOps product group and has been at Microsoft for over 15 years.   Azure DevOps Services (previously known as Visual Studio Team Services) aims to help developers ship faster. With Azure DevOps Services comes a full set of services that you can use separately, with other non-Microsoft services, or together as a suite.   In this episode, Jeffrey and Buck dive into all the key differences that come along with the rebranding and new services. Buck also gives a rundown of the system (from how it’s organized to how to mix and match with other devops tools on the market) and many of the new, exciting features available for developers.   Episode Sponsor: Clear Measure is a software engineering firm and Microsoft Gold Partner empowering development teams to be their best. Clear Measure equips developers with the devops tools, methods, and automation necessary to focus on building their applications rather than wrestling with builds, deployments, or environments. Click clear-measure.com to see whether a devops implementation is right for you.   Topics of Discussion: [:30] About today’s topic and guest. [1:00] Buck Hodges announces the new Azure DevOps Services. [2:44] Buck’s background in DevOps and career progression at Microsoft. [10:00] Key differences with the rebranding to Azure DevOps, and its 5 main services: Pipelines, Boards, Artifacts, Repose, and Test Plans. [14:49] Can Jira (and other similar softwares) users adopt Azure DevOps? [16:48] About Microsoft’s commitment to open source and giving back by offering free use of Azure DevOps to run free builds for open source projects. [20:02] About the ease of getting started with Azure Pipelines through the GitHub Marketplace, and some of the big users with Pipelines. [20:49] A word from Azure DevOps sponsor: Clear Measure. [21:19] About the internal transformation of the Azure DevOps team and what it looks like today. [24:04] How many developers are part of Buck’s organization? [24:54] Buck gives a rundown of the system (how it’s organized, how many team projects, how many Git repositories, how many independent services, etc.) [28:58] Do they build all the services together in the same Git repository or do they split them into different build configurations? [32:45] What’s coming next for Azure DevOps? [36:34] Buck addresses some general misconceptions. [40:00] When will customers be able to get their hands on the new Azure DevOps 2019 server? [41:30] Where to learn more or get started with Azure DevOps.   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps VSTS Azure Pipelines Azure Boards Azure Artifacts Azure Repose Azure Test Plans Team Foundation Server (TFS) Jira GitHub Visual Studio Code TypeScript Dev.Azure.com   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes   Follow Up with Our Guest: Posts by Buck Hodges on Microsoft Azure Buck Hodges’ LinkedIn

7 Sep 201843min