27 Apr 2020

The Power of Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps, Conferences
This past week, I gave a talk on The Power of Azure DevOps as part of the Virtual Global Azure Day 2020. This talk was recorded and is now available on YouTube if you would like to check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpIts5c_47E&feature=youtu.be If you can't see the video above, you can click here to go directly to the video on YouTube. Also, the PowerPoint slides for the presentation are located here.
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24 Apr 2020

Global Azure Day 2020 – Omaha

Azure DevOps, Conferences
UPDATE You can view/download my presentation slides here. This year will mark the seventh annual Global Azure event! In light of the on-going (COVID-19) situation, this year's Global Azure Day in Omaha has been moved online. This virtual event will take place on Saturday, April 25th starting at 08:00 (Central Time). Here is the full schedule for this year's event: I am pleased to be speaking at this year's Global Azure Day on The Power of Azure DevOps. If you are new to Azure and/or Azure DevOps, or you've been around it for a while but are looking to learn…
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12 Jun 2019

Introducing the Azure DevOps CLI

Azure DevOps, Azure DevOps Extensions
This is the first in a multi-part series on the Azure DevOps CLI. There are currently four posts planned, including: An Introduction to the Azure DevOps CLIRevoking PATs with the Azure DevOps CLIUsing the Azure DevOps CLI Behind a ProxyMake Every Day a Banner Day with Azure DevOps CLI Why Have a CLI? If you've been using Azure DevOps for a while then you know there is a ton of functionality available within the product. With that functionality comes a decent amount of administration overhead that must be dealt with. For example, you need to manage users and licensing. You…
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20 Mar 2019

Work Items and Queries in Azure Wikis

Azure DevOps, Tips
Did you know that you can embed individual work items and/or work item queries within your wiki pages? If not, then read on... There is a lot to like about the wiki feature within Azure DevOps. You can create a provisioned wiki or one or more Git-based published wikis. The content is based on markdown, though Microsoft provides several extended features on top of the markdown syntax. In this post, we will cover a couple features that allow you to embed individual work items and work item queries within your wiki pages. Embedding Work Items Embedding a single work item…
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18 Mar 2019

5 Things You Should Know About Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps
Maybe you've heard of Azure DevOps but haven't tried it out because you create non-Microsoft solutions (e.g. Java on Mac or Linux, etc.). Maybe you haven't tried it out because it has Azure in it's name so you've assumed it wouldn't work with AWS or GCP? If you've had your doubts about trying out Azure DevOps, then take a look at the following 5 things you should know about Azure DevOps and see if you still feel the same way. You'll likely discover that Azure DevOps can work for your specific needs as well! 1. Does Azure DevOps Require an…
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25 Jan 2019

Azure DevOps Keyboard Shortcuts

Azure DevOps, Tips
File this one under tips-n-tricks. As you likely already know, Azure DevOps has a ton of features and capabilities that are generally encapsulated into Azure DevOps' primary offerings: Azure Boards, Azure Repos, Azure Pipelines, Azure Test Plans and Azure Artifacts. However, did you know that Azure DevOps, just like Visual Studio and many other tools out there, has a lot of keyboard shortcuts at your disposal that can improve how you navigate and use Azure DevOps? If you already knew this, then you can skip to the end where I talk about the Azure DevOps Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet. Otherwise,…
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12 Jan 2019

Markdown to WordPress Extension Now Open Source

Azure DevOps Extensions, Open Source (OSS)
About two and a half years ago (wow, time flies!) I wrote about a Markdown to WordPress extension that I had built for Visual Studio Team Services (now Azure DevOps). This extension was borne out of the desire to manage markdown files within version control (e.g. Azure Repos) and publish them to WordPress via a build definition. Two and a half years later, we are still making use of this extension. Since the original preview release there have been a few tweaks made to the extension that resolved a few bugs as well as introduced some new functionality - e.g.…
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01 Jan 2019

Azure DevOps Demos – At Your Fingertips!

Azure DevOps
There are a lot of features and capabilities built into Azure DevOps. Out of the box, Azure DevOps includes several beneficial services - though you can pick and choose which services you actually want to include in your project (they can vary by project). Azure DevOps Services Azure BoardsAzure PipelinesAzure ReposAzure Test PlansAzure Artifacts Maybe you're new to Azure DevOps and you'd like to experiment with some existing projects to see how everything connects and integrates. Maybe you are familiar with Azure DevOps and want to do some demos for others. Having the ability to generate projects within Azure DevOps,…
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30 Dec 2018

Parallel Builds in Azure DevOps

Azure Pipelines
The build capabilities within Azure Pipelines (the Build and Deploy technologies within Azure DevOps) are extensive and powerful. If you can build it on a Windows, Linux or macOS machine, then you can build it within Azure DevOps. In this post, I'd like to highlight one of many powerful features of Azure Pipelines - the ability to run builds in parallel. Caveat: To run multiple jobs in parallel, you must have the appropriate number of build pipelines licensed. For example, if you want to run three jobs in parallel, then you must have at least three pipelines licensed for use.…
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21 Dec 2018

The New Azure DevOps PAT Experience

Azure DevOps
A few years back I wrote about Personal Access Tokens (PATs) in Personal Access Tokens & VSTS. Since then, not only has Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) been rebranded to Azure DevOps, but there is also a new PAT experience. While the original PAT experience is functional, there is a lot to be liked in the new experience. Turn It On At the moment, the new PAT experience is in preview. If you want to give it a try, you have to enable the option. To do this: Sign on to Azure DevOpsClick on your profile image in the upper…
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