Azure DevOps vs. GitHub

Introduction

The case study will contain information about Azure DevOps, but also in comparison to GitHub. Giving the reader better understanding about which development system will better fit their use.

Azure DevOps is a system created to combine the work of the application development teams (dev) and their counterpart IT operations teams (ops) within one system, this is made possible due to Azure containing application possibilities for all aspects of a development process from planning to deployment.

However Azure DevOps is a pay per-user license system and offer no free trials giving it a disadvantage within the smaller development teams. This is where GitHub might come in as a stronger contestent.

Brief History

In the below timeline, some of microsofts major milestones for the development software will be introduced:

2005 - Initial release of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (VSTS).
2012 - Microsoft Power Point was integrated with Azure to enable rapid storyboard development.
2013 - Microsoft added native support for Git. This is a standard implementation based on the same library that powers GitHub.
2018 - Rebrand; Azure DevOps was previously known as Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) and Team Foundation Server (TFS) before it’s name change on september 10, 2018. With the rebrand came several updates to the system including the cloud-hosted services into the on-premises server product.
2018 - GitHub was bought by Microsoft in october 2018 for 7.5 billion, giving GitHub more advantages while owned by the largest software developer in the world.

Features

DevOps was created to better the transition between development and the operative. This results in Azure DevOps having several key features in it’s system to help give a smoother work flow.

Some of whom are:

Azure Boards: “Deliver value to your users faster using proven agile tools to plan, track, and discuss work across your teams.”
Azure Pipelines: “Build, test, and deploy with CI/CD that works with any language, platform, and cloud. Connect to GitHub or any other Git provider and deploy continuously.”
Azure Repos: “Build, test, and deploy with CI/CD that works with any language, platform, and cloud. Connect to GitHub or any other Git provider and deploy continuously.”
Azure Test Plans: “Test and ship with confidence using manual and exploratory testing tools.”
Azure Artifact: “Create, host, and share packages with your team, and add artifacts to your CI/CD pipelines with a single click.”

Information found at microsoft

In short this means that Azure DevOps features a wide range of possibilities where the development team can plan, collaborate, build, test and deploy - all within one system. Microsoft also added power point to the DevOps system for better storyboarding in the planning stage.

In comparison GitHub has similar features, but not as developed yet.

Strengths

The Azure DevOps system is a strong choice for a company and/ or developer due to it’s features. When setting up the system the developer get everything within one system instead of having to work with many different apps and software pages. Azure DevOps gives you a system containing; repo, planning boards, timelines and the possiblity to deploy.

Some mentioned strengths when researched:

Good user management system.
Extention possibilities.
UI-based pipelines
Facilitates easy collaboration between product owners and the development team and/ or just between developers.
Sprint boards, Repos and Pipelines etc. can all be managed from one single application.
Capability to store unlimited numbers of projects.

Forum based information posted by the average user

Weaknesses

Depending on the audience a weakness for Azure DevOps may be the lack of a free trial, making it so that the user must know that they want to use this system or pay for something unknown.

Some mentioned weaknesses when researched:

lack of possibilities to divide sub tasks and timings in a distinct matter.
Time divide between each task.
Poor user interface in terms of; Many user options that can at times be hard to find / understand for new users.
License costs.
Not as customizable as JIRA.

Forum based information posted by the average user

Comparison

This Case Study had a closer look at Azure DevOps but while also comparing it to GitHub which is now owned by the same software developer since 2018.

While researching both Azure DevOps and GitHub some differences emergered but it all comes down to what needs and goals your team has, for some a combination of both might be better than choosing one.

Benefits of Azure DevOps

From the project management aspects Azure DevOps seems to be better for planning with management systems like Scrum and Kanban. This is due to the system being more mature and has had more time to develop the software.

This can easily be used in combination with GitHub if you prefer, due to the integration possibilities between GitHub and for example Azure Boards, giving the user the best of both worlds.

Azure also has an advantage over Github when looking at the workflow development. Developers can here configure tasks with an easy-to-use UI and drag them into a pipeline while using Azure DevOps.

Benefits of GitHub

In a comparison there is also another side. GitHub has some features that are better than Azure DevOps, some of whom is pricing. It has been mentioned before in this case study that Github has a free option, while with Azure DevOps you will have to pay for a licence making GitHub a cheaper option and also for smaller development teams a better one.

GitHub seems to be more user-friendly and easier to learn. Most developers manage to learn GitHub faster than they can learn Azure DevOps. When looking up introduction courses for the two systems, the one for GitHub is significantly shorter as well.

Last but not least GitHub has better security features, and with the possibility to purchase an additional license for advanced securtiy.

The information behind the comparison above is mostly found at Azure DevOps vs. Github

Several comparisons of the two systems were researched, but the information in the link above seemed most correct based on my own experiences and understandings with the two systems.

Summary

During this case study there has been a short introduction into Azure DevOps as a development system as well as a comparison to GitHub.

The conclusion after comparing the two is that for a larger enterprise / development company Azure DevOps seems to be the better choice, but a combination of the two might also be a good use of resources. Azure DevOps has a great amount of features, making it so that the development teams can if they wish, have their whole work process within one system.

However for a smaller development team and / or a single developer, GitHub is a better choice due to it’s simplicity, user-friendly build and possibility to work for free. If the development team has the money it might also be a good idea to combine the two development systems due to the systems differences in strength.

Credits

Benedicte Øverbø (th3boe)

References

Refrenceses that has simply been inspirational.

The refrences found in the case study is paraphrased from the information found at the linked website.