Visual Studio Team Services is a great program to use when working on side projects or developing large enterprise software. Visual Studio Team Services offers users a unique ability to really managing any digital projects they’re working on. But how do you make the most out of the tool? This guide will give you insight into how to make the most out of Visual Studio Team Services when using it.

How To Make The Most Out Of Visual Studio Team Services

Quick Launch Any Command

Visual Studio Team Services allows you to easily Quick Launch any command without having to remember in-depth menu/keyboard shortcut. You can easily find the commands you’re looking for by searching through the quick launch bar. You can activate this bar by easily pressing CTRL + Q. When this works you can easily just start typing the command name that you want to use.

Take Note Of Notifications

When working with Visual Studio Team Services you’ll be able to take note of new notifications in a much easier way. You can reach your notifications in an easy way by clicking the Flag icon next to the profile link. In doing this you’ll be presented with a notification list that you may want or need to act on in a hurry.

Better Search Ability

In Visual Studio Team Services you can now have better search ability instead of going through the different node combinations to find templates to use in the New Project Dialog. Instead you can simply start to search with Shortcut Ctrl + E to find the installed templates.

Connect Visual Studio Team Services with DebugMe

DebugMe is a visual feedback, bug tracking & project management solution which saves time and frustration for everyone who is working on a website project. We are all about adding value to your web development, web design or project management workflow. Our powerful visual solution allows you to send screenshot attached feedback with automatically added information including the operating system, the browser version, the screen and viewport resolution, plus the list of the used plugins and much more to your Visual Studio Team Services stories.

Organize Backlogs Better

While many teams can easily work with a flat items list, it can sometimes help to group together items that are related into a hierarchical structure. By organizing your backlogs, you have the ability to plan your project in a much easier way. In setting up this organization you can:

Group items into a release train.

Manage a portfolio of features that are supported by numerous management teams and development teams.

Minimize your deliverables by breaking them down into smaller backlog items.

By creating portfolio backlogs you have the ability to quickly and easily group and add items together into a hierarchy, or reparent and reorder items, filter hierarchical views and drill up and/or down within the hierarchy. You can also organize your backlog by mapping them. To easily map an item on a backlog feature simply select the backlog items and turn the mapping on. Find the group of unparented backlog items and drag them to the feature under which they belong. You can also drag it to a different feature to change its parent.

Add Child Items

When adding child items to backlogs you can add features to epics, and backlog items to features. Whenever there’s a + you can add child items. The item will always correspond to the work hierarchy item types which are defined for the team project.

Discussion and Link Controls

When you want to pull someone into a discussion you simply have to use the control @mention. In doing this you’ll be able to alert a team member about a change by linking them to the change. The #ID control also allows you to link the object on its ID to the work item. To initiate the @mention identity picker you just have to type @. When you do this you will see a list of people appear. Then all you need to do is simply choose the name you’re looking for.

Conclusion

Visual Studio Team Services is a great tool to use when working in a group situation on one or more projects. By knowing some of these quick tips you have the ability to easily make the most out of using Visual Studio. So have these helped with your operation?

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