How is the Azure DevOps Service version determined?

Question

Azure DevOps Service has a version number, which we can see by browsing to https://dev.azure.com/my_organization/_home/about (see below).
My question is how is this version determined?
I guess that (in this example) 164 is the sprint number, and .1 is a build in the sprint.
However it's not clear what the "Dev18" stands for? How is it determined and when does it change?

I understand this question doesn't make much sense for SaaS, but in our case (regulated environment) it does.

Answer 1

As I know the Dev18 doesn't make much sense. Only the M164 matters in most cases, because sometimes we may need that to determine if you're in one region with the latest update.

And I just got some help from engineers who are more experienced in this topic and we can make the confirmation about the relationship:

Dev18<=>TFS 2020
Dev17<=>TFS 2019
Dev16<=>TFS 2018
Dev15<=>TFS 2017
Dev14<=>TFS 2015

So DavaShaw's guess is correct. It's the major version of TFS, so it won't be changed frequently. I think it will change only when a new TFS version is released. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

I'd guess the Dev18 is the major version of Azure DevOps Server that it is from.

Although, I can't be certain, some deduction leads me to believe it is...

VS and TFS Versions used to be in Sync:

• TFS and VS 2015 - were 14.X
• TFS and VS 2017 - were 15.X

But the cadence broke:

• VS 2019 is now 16.X
• Azure DevOps Server 2018 - would be also 16.X
• Azure DevOps Server 2019 - would be 17.X

Azure DevOps is always ahead of what is in the Azure DevOps Server installations, so it seems reasonable to assume that the next release of Azure DevOps Server will be 18.X - probably called Server 2020.

All that said...

For Azure DevOps you should only be concerned with the Sprint Milestone that you are on .