DevOps for mobile

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services, Team Foundation Server, Xamarin Test Cloud, and HockeyApp provide a comprehensive ecosystem for developer and IT operations with which your team can manage projects and rapidly build, test, and deploy mobile apps and back-end services.

With Visual Studio and Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) in the cloud, along with Team Foundation Server (TFS) on-premises, development teams can productively build, test, and release for all target platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows). Teams can manage their sources (via Git or TFS) and can manage their work through scrum and bug-tracking management.

Microsoft tools can automate the pipeline for iOS, Android, and Windows device apps from global builds with VSTS, to test with Xamarin Test Cloud, to deploy to mobile devices with HockeyApp, and to provide feedback and crash analytics about the app back to the developer. Every code commit can prompt a build and deploy the app to test users. Crash data and user feedback with screenshots are directly collected when running the app and fed back into work items for the next cycle.

The complexity of mobile app development increases steadily with new devices, new form factors,
and new operating system versions. Android runs on more than 10,000 device models, and even iOS
developers now need to consider 5 different device types and 10 screen resolutions when developing
universal apps for iOS, tvOS, and watchOS. To succeed in this environment, your project must
automate the entire lifecycle—not only build and deployment, but also management of versions and
test users, along with the collection of feedback and telemetry. In summary, VSTS offers the following capabilities :

 VSTS/TFS source code management (based on Git or Team Foundation Version Control), agile
planning (Agile, Scrum, and CMMI are supported), continuous integration, release management,
and other tools for agile teams.

 VSTS/TFS include a powerful and growing ecosystem of first- and third-party extensions with
which you can easily construct a continuous integration, build, test, delivery, and release
management pipeline for mobile client apps, (including options to designate your local Mac
or remote Macs for iOS builds).

 VSTS/TFS builds can stream directly to HockeyApp, which deploys apps to your testers. After your app is installed on a test user’s device, HockeyApp collects usage data, crash reports, and user
feedback with screenshots and will show an alert when the next build is available. Closing the
loop, HockeyApp can automatically create work items for a new crash group or feedback thread
and keep the status in synchronization.

 HockeyApp tightens the DevOps lifecycle with solutions for testing, A/B experimentation, beta
feedback management, and crash data analytics.

 Azure App Service also supports DevOps for the back end, making it possible for you to configure
and define slots for development, staging, and production, integrated from VSTS and allowing
you to configure, deploy, and manage mobile services across those slots, for your mobile apps.

Source Of Information : Microsoft Platform and Tools for Mobile App Development