azure-devops

Best Practices

• Use trigger/pr sections to control when pipelines run
• Define stages for logical pipeline grouping (Build, Test, Deploy)
• Use Cache@2 task for dependency caching (npm, pip, maven, NuGet)
• Use environments with approval gates for deployment stages
• Use variable groups for shared configuration across pipelines
• Use templates (extends/parameters) for reusable pipeline logic
• Publish test results with PublishTestResults@2 for dashboard integration
• Use deployment jobs with strategy (runOnce, rolling, canary) for deployments
• Set condition on stages/jobs for conditional execution
• Use service connections for external service authentication (ACR, AWS, etc.)
• Pin task versions (e.g., NodeTool@0, Docker@2) for reproducibility
• Use dependsOn for explicit stage ordering beyond sequential

Documentation Sources