What Are The Best Plugins to Visual Studio Team Services?
As the software’s creators beautifuly describe, “Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is a cloud service for collaborating on code development. It provides an integrated set of features that you access through your web browser or IDE client.” But sometimes these build in features are not enough for achieving the highest results. And that’s why you should try the best plugins to Visual Studio Team Services.
Make sure to check out these links:
- 11 Time Tracking Software for Mac + BONUS
- The Best Free Online Timesheet Software
- The Best Software for Managers (Video Tutorials)
There are so many plugins to Visual Studio Team Services that it may be really difficult to choose the perfect ones. Of course, it all depends on your business needs, your team needs, and other internal and external factors. You can check Visual Studio Marketplace and see what they offer.
However, if you want to be sure that you’re choosing the right extensions, see our list of top 8 plugins to Visual Studio Team Services!
1. Track your time TimeCamp
Code development is not only about spending your time in front of the computer and clicking the keyboard like crazy. It’s about being productive by spending your time on activities that actually matter. TimeCamp’s plugin to Visual Studio Team Services will help your team of coders avoid distractions and do more in less time. And let’s be clear, it’s not about spying on them.
Tracking work time makes it possible to enance workflow and collaboration, assess what tasks need attention, how long it takes to complete certain processes, and estimate time and money needed for other projects. Also, this is one of the best plugins to Visual Studio Team Services because it automates and optimizes work.
Bring seamless time tracking into your Visual Studio Team Services! Try TimeCamp for free today!
2. Coding? Forget about errors! Code Spell Checker
While writers are lucky enough to have editors and proofreaders, developers, programmers, etc. are not that lucky. When you spend too much time coding, it’s easy to overlook double letters or skip a tiny little sign. But this letter or tiny little sign can be the cause of your code running wrong. Use Code Spell Checker to catch all errors and avoid spending hours in front of the screen searching for that one thing that ruins the code. You can customize it as you please – include or exclude patterns, enable or disable them, etc. It is definitely one of the best plugins to Visual Studio Team Services – it’s even a life savior!
3. Communicate Slack
Communication is the key component of every project. Thanks to Slack integration your team can stay updated with the latest news and easily collaborate in one place. Everything appears in your team’s channel so that all the problems can be quickly solved. It’s a great plugin for people who can’t live without Slack and need to have an easy access to team’s informational inventory. You can also use Post to Slack integration for more smooth work.
4. Visualize projects Work Item Visualization
People like to see things to understand them better. It gives them a better idea of why, how, and when things should be done. This plugin enables you to visualize work items in projects. It’s a good way to manage projects and people. Also, everybody sees the relationships between work items. With Work Item Visualization, it’s easier to see tasks and the overall status of the project. It’s a great plugin to help keep people updated with the latest changes.
5. Easy testing Test & Feedback
If you perform testing using multiple teams, you may consider Test & Feedback as the best plugin to Visual Studio Team Services. It’s a browser extension which allows you to capture screenshots, notes, and screen recording. You can also capture issues and annotate them for easy change. Based on what you captured, you can create issues, tasks, and feedback response work items to send feedback or report issues. All that to later test them, get feedback and share it all with your team.
6. Have everything in one place Office 365 Integration
Since VSTM was created by Microsft, it is a good idea to integrate it with Office 365. You will have everything in one place; and that’s why it’s the best of all plugins to Visual Studio Team Services. This integration gives you and your team a platform for seamless collaboration. You have access to shared files, calendar, inbox and you can be sure that all information is secure in one place.
7. Export your work Enhanced Export
How often do you have to export work item queries or test plans to document like formats? If you do it on a daily basis, and most likely you do, Enhanced Export is another of the best plugins to Visual Studio Team Services that you shouldn’t live without. Also, if you have repetitive tasks formats of which don’t really change, you can use templates of the form and layout you prefer.
8. Never Forget! TODO Highlight
The last of the best plugins to Visual Studio Team Services is this tiny friend. Sometimes it may happen that you forget about fixing a problem in your code. We’re all busy and forget about smaller tasks when really big projects are at stake. TODO is an extension that highlights to-dos and reminds that there are notes or things not done yet. No more forgotten or ruined codes. A simple but powerful tool!
