[2] Azure DevOps can be used as a back-end to numerous integrated development environments (IDEs) but is tailored for Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse on all platforms.

It uses the same code as the on-premises version of Azure DevOps, with minor modifications, and implements the most recent features.

A user signs in using a Microsoft account to set up an environment, creating projects and adding team members.

Because Azure DevOps is written on a service-oriented architecture, it can communicate with virtually any tool that can call a web service.

Azure DevOps supports Visual Studio 2010 and later, Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) 2012, and 2013.

With Team Foundation Server 2012, Microsoft PowerPoint was also integrated with Azure DevOps to enable rapid storyboard development to help with the requirements management process.

The integration provides extensible storyboard shapes that can be used to build any type of interface mockup that can then be animated with PowerPoint's built-in functions.

In an effort to handle the growing geographic dispersion of teams and to involve stakeholders earlier and more often in the process, Microsoft added the Feedback Client.

[11] This tool allows users to exercise an application, annotate what they are seeing with audio and video, capture screens and provide contextual feedback to the development team.

This provides specific feedback on the functions of an application from a users’ perspective without requiring meetings and demonstration sessions.

[12] Work items are combined into a Process Template that contains these and other pieces of information to provide a development framework.

Azure DevOps includes Process Templates for the Microsoft Solutions Framework for Agile, Scrum and CMMI.

The extensible linking capabilities ensure that traceability from requirements to source code to test cases and results can be accomplished and reported on for auditing purposes as well as historical understanding of changes.

TFVC is a centralized version control system allowing teams to store any type of artifact within its repository.

To improve performance for remote clients, Azure DevOps includes the ability to install Proxy Servers.

[16] Proxy servers allow source control contents to be cached at a site closer to the developers to avoid long network trips and the associated latency.

Check-ins are still performed directly against the Azure DevOps application tier so the Proxy Server is most beneficial in read scenarios.

As part of the source control engine, Azure DevOps supports a number of features to help developers ensure the code that is checked in follows configurable rules.

These policies are extensible and can be used to examine all aspects of the code being checked in, the comments and the related work items.

The inclusion in Azure DevOps means that the analysis can run against code checked into the server and during automated builds.

This allows tools on any platform and any IDE that support Git to connect to Azure DevOps.

In addition, if developers do not want to use Microsoft's Team Explorer Everywhere plug-in for Eclipse, they can choose to use eGit[19] to connect to Azure DevOps.

One of the major reasons to use Azure DevOps as a Git repository is that it is backed by SQL Server and is afforded the same protection as Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC)[clarification needed].

TFS 2012 (and continuing into 2013) offers real-time burndown, velocity and CFD diagrams directly within Team Web Access.

In the on-premises version build output can be configured to end up in any accessible shared folder location.

Initially, in TFS 2015 and with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), Microsoft has reinvented the architecture for the build engine to be based on a cross-platform friendly Node.js application.

This capability complemented the automated build and testing processes by allowing a true continuous deployment solution.

Microsoft has rebuilt Release Management for Visual Studio Team Services and on-premises version of TFS with the new changes in 2015 Update 2.

The new version of Release Management leverages the web browser as the client and relies on the same agent architecture as Team Foundation Build.