If you ever had the experience of complaining and had someone else [genius] tell you that if it mattered to you so much, fix it yourself / do something about it / some other equally helpful piece of advice? Or, if you're like me, had someone tell you, "That is just how it works," or "You don't understand; it cannot work that way," which then motivated you to do that very thing out of spite / orneriness / stubbornness? If so, then you are in good company --and probably a member of Microsoft's target audience.
Enter the Visual Studio Marketplace, "Extensions for Azure DevOps."
Microsoft, in all its infinite wisdom, cashed in on the general public's pet peeves years ago. Do you need a specific piece of functionality that isn't offered? Do you need a slight variation of something that is offered? Is what is offered just really badly done? Does something take entirely too many steps?
You are welcome to fix it yourself. If you do, though, it will need to be integrated into the platform, and that is "in the cloud" now. You can publish it to the marketplace though, and you can install your very own extension to your very own organization. Anyone else who is facing a similar problem can benefit too. (Yes, this ultimately benefits the very product and company that aggravated or failed you to start, but let's focus on your altruistic tendencies instead, ok?) Sharing is caring.
If you add enough people to this formula, the platform is only limited to the users' ego (or goodwill). Thus, the platform is endlessly extensible and extendable. Brilliant, right?
While I would not dream of attempting to describe the sheer volume of functions in Azure DevOps, either OOC (out-of-the-cloud) or through extensions, I can, however, cover my list of favorite extensions.
NOTE: I would attempt to do a smaller list, but I have never been known for my brevity --and "Top 37" doesn't have much of a snappy ring to it.
Comments