Create a DevOps Project

At this point we know that we are using DevOps Service rather than the on premesis DevOps Server so go to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/devops/?nav=min

To get to your initial DevOps page

Which gives you three routes in. Do you…

• Start Free?
• Start Free with GitHub?
• Or Sign in to Azure DevOps if you already have an account?

At this point, we don’t have an account

Making Sense of DevOps Pricing

Start Free or Start Free with Github

Start free with GitHub

Use this option if you already have a GitHub account

In this example Start for free option is used. Because [I] have an azure account, DevOps is already logged in and it knows what my tenant is.

At this point there is no suggestion of a 30 day trial or any other information. so for the time being lets get started by adding a project (This is because I have a Visual Studio account. This may be different for uses without a Visual Studio Subscription)

Also Note the level https://dev.azure.com/debbieedwards

This is the organisation level and this is my own personal devOps account. What happens if you want to set up a New Organisation to connect related projects and scale out to enterprise Level?

Select New organisation

And New Project

the New Organisation level has been set up with the Companies name

I can now start working with DevOps at an organisational level. We can have 5 basic users for free so for the time being, this is what we will stick to.

We know we want a Private DevOps area

Version Control Git has been selected because this seems to be the one that other team members are the most comfortable with

Work Item Process Agile, Basic, CMMI, Scrum

The default is Agile but lets have a quick look at each of these processes

Basic

The simplest model.

Agile

Agile includes scrum, Works great if you want to track user stories and bugs on a kanban board

Scrum

Supports the Scum methodology. Really good for tracking backlog items and bugs on a kanban board.

CMMI

if your team follows more formal methods use CMMI (capability Maturity Model Integration.

For this Project, the Agile approach is selected

Invite a user into the Project.

Under 5 users and DevOps is free. We wont be doing anything with test plans at the moment so lets add one other user into this area

DevOps Access Levels

• Stakeholder can be assigned to users with no license or subscriptions and need a limited set of features
• Basic Provides access to most features. up to 5 users is free
• Basic + Test Plans The user has access to test plans but this costs around £34 a month extra and you dont get any free accounts
• Visual Studio Subscription – Assign to users with a Visual Studio Subscription

Check Levels of Access

Go back up to the organisational level and select Organisation settings in the bottom left hand corner of the screen

Next go to users and you can check the settings. Note that one account is under a Visual Studio Enterprise Subscription so this is assigned to users who already have a Visual studio Subscription.

We have 1 basic account which will be free at the moment

Checking Spending

Obviously the one thing you want to do is check that you aren’t spending money unnecessarily.

Still in Organisation Settings

Currently there is no billing applicable but this section will need a more detailed how to later on

Checking what has been done at organisation level

Here you can see that Tess has been added by myself to a Group and her access was set to basic.

There should be a post coming a long soon that will look into Organisational Setting in more detail

We have created a project and set up new users with Basic level accounts.

Getting back to your Project

Close Devops down and then re open

This time you can sign in and go straight to your new project

Next time we will start using some of the services on offer like Boards, Repos, pipelines, test Plans and Artifacts