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TFS pros and cons

Vendor: Microsoft
4.0 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

TFS offers powerful integration capabilities, especially for those using .NET or other Microsoft products.
It provides comprehensive features for managing work items, backlogs, source code, and build releases.
TFS's test plans and test management tools are highly valued, supporting multiple test cases and automation.
The solution features robust source code management with efficient branching, labeling, and merging abilities.
Project management functionality is strong, with detailed reporting, task selection, and traceability from requirements through to design.

CONS

Access and permissions are confusing, especially when including basic manual testing functionalities.
There is a lack of integration between TFS and Microsoft Teams, causing collaboration issues.
More options are needed for requirements management to help product owners use TFS effectively.
Integration issues with third-party development sites and project teams highlight the limitations of TFS being on-premise.
Users experience problems with source code merging, leading to confusion and unexpected loss of changes.
 

TFS Pros review quotes

it_user710526 - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation Specialist Team Lead at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Jul 27, 2017
TFS’s test management capability without the expensive licensing has large gaps. Users will be unable to access performance testing and coded UI testing capabilities.
it_user711930 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Lead
Jul 31, 2017
The API for managing TFS programmatically is very powerful, you can listen on work items changes by TFS events.
it_user712050 - PeerSpot reviewer
TFS Admin, Configuration Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Jul 31, 2017
Work item management integration with source control.
Learn what your peers think about TFS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user718215 - PeerSpot reviewer
AVP, DevOps Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Aug 13, 2017
Version Control: TFS offers both the centralized “TFVC” version control technology as well as the distributed “Git” version control technology.
it_user718221 - PeerSpot reviewer
QA IV with 501-1,000 employees
Aug 13, 2017
I like its MTM (Microsoft Test Manager) section which gives us options to create various test plans and add test cases into it.
it_user738723 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Sep 18, 2017
Complete integration with VS IDE and Office tools: This give us a possibility of high-level automation, thus minimizing human error.
it_user899448 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Quality Engineering Manager with 51-200 employees
Jul 16, 2018
The biggest value-add is the solution integrates well with most Microsoft products.
Gireesh Subramonian - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Director at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Aug 13, 2018
From the project management perspective, the tool is efficiently managing teams by giving management information, such as reports, graphs, velocity, capacity, etc.
Mohamed Sadek - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead DevOps and Release Engineer-L2 at ITWORX
Dec 12, 2018
It's an integrated system that includes all the information that we need to deliver our products smoothly and to track the progress of each piece of code.
it_user1138779 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Oct 6, 2019
I like the Kanban board. It is very useful in terms of seeing who is working on what and what the current status of work is.
 

TFS Cons review quotes

it_user710526 - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation Specialist Team Lead at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Jul 27, 2017
Access and permissions are confusing when attempting to include basic manual testing functionalities.
it_user711930 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Lead
Jul 31, 2017
Sometimes we feel that it need more CPU, and RAMs on TFS server, either we implemented the hardware with the product minimum requirements.
it_user712050 - PeerSpot reviewer
TFS Admin, Configuration Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Jul 31, 2017
Microsoft should discontinue the use of SharePoint as I don’t really see any value add to TFS, document management features can be included in TFS web portal itself, if required!
Learn what your peers think about TFS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user718215 - PeerSpot reviewer
AVP, DevOps Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Aug 13, 2017
Not all of the functionality, which is exposed by the command line interface (tf.exe) is available in the Visual Studio GUI.
it_user718221 - PeerSpot reviewer
QA IV with 501-1,000 employees
Aug 13, 2017
TFS and MTM have their own style of working and they are different from other tools like Jira or TestRail, which are simpler and easy to use.
it_user738723 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Sep 18, 2017
TFS on-premise does not support integration with SharePoint Online.
it_user899448 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Quality Engineering Manager with 51-200 employees
Jul 16, 2018
Since it is Microsoft, it is technology agnostic, thus it does not really fit into various different technologies in the organization.
Gireesh Subramonian - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Director at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Aug 13, 2018
More options could be provided from the perspective of requirements management, which would help product owners to use the tool effectively.
Mohamed Sadek - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead DevOps and Release Engineer-L2 at ITWORX
Dec 12, 2018
The dashboard needs more enhancements.
it_user1138779 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Oct 6, 2019
In the next release, I would like them to include integration for various projects, similar to what JIRA has, and they could create this feature on the dashboard.