Preface

Development teams are judged by the speed at which they can convert an idea into working software. Operations teams are judged on the uptime and stability of the production environment. One wants to deploy changes all the time, the other doesn't want any changes at all. These conflicting goals result in development teams and operation teams working against each other. The introduction of Agile practices has demonstrated that iterative feedback-driven development helps teams cope with changes in business and user requirements. Agile practices help development teams accelerate the creation of ready-to-ship software. Software that's ready to ship but hasn't shipped doesn't provide any value to users. 

DevOps has been an emerging trend in the software development world for the past few years. While the term may be relatively new, it is really a convergence of a number of practices that have been evolving for decades. DevOps is a revolutionary way to ship working software quickly and efficiently while maintaining a high level of security. DevOps advocates that everyone and everything that's needed to ship working software to of end users needs to be part of the software development life cycle. Building software is an iterative process; therefore, a high level of automation is needed to make the process of developing, testing, releasing, and monitoring software easily repeatable. The emphasis is on delivering value to end users by collaborating, automating, learning, and constantly improving the software. Simply put, DevOps is the union of people, processes, and products to enable the continuous delivery of value to end users.

While DevOps isn't just a tool you can buy and install, tooling is an integral part of DevOps. Microsoft Azure DevOps Server 2019, formerly known as Team Foundation Server, is a set of collaborative software development tools, hosted on-premises. Azure DevOps Server integrates with your existing IDE or editor, enabling your cross-functional team(s) to work effectively on projects of all sizes. Azure DevOps Server works for any language, and on any platform. Azure DevOps Server has everything you need to turn an idea into a working piece of software. You can plan your project with Agile tools, you can manage your test plans, version your code using Git, and deploy your solution using an incredible cross-platform CI-CD system, all while getting full traceability and visibility across your development activities.

Starting your DevOps journey may seem overwhelming with a product that's so diverse and an ecosystem that's so vibrant. With over 70 hands-on tooling recipes, you'll learn how to accelerate your journey of DevOps by planning, coding, building, testing, and releasing high-quality working software using effective automation techniques with Azure DevOps Server 2019.