Visual Studio Team Services Licensing/Billing

Question

A client has tasked my team with building a responsive web application (angular based) for them using Visual Studio and Visual Studio Team Services. The client is hosting the Team Services instance that our team is using. Our developers will be able to get Basic access for Team Services on the client's instance via their developer Visual Studio Pro MSDN subscription IDs. But, we have a bunch of non-developer functional members of my team (scrum master, analysts and testers) that need Team Services access on the client's Team Services instance and getting that has been difficult to do.

The testers will need Advanced access for Team Services and all others will need Basic access. The client does not want to be billed specifically for any of my team's Team Services users who they can't add/link with existing MSDN subscriptions. Because I am not typically doing work on the MSFT stack/tools, I do not want to procure MSDN subscriptions from a cost stand point for all of our non-functional folks, which includes my testers. It would seem to me that based on the SAS model afforded by Team Services and based on the fact that our non-developers don't use Visual Studio that purchasing MSDN licenses just to be able to use Team Services accounts would not make sense for me.

Is there a way for us to either:

Add the non-developer Team Services accounts on my Team Services instance on our Azure account and then get them added to the client Team Services, so that all incurred billing will be made to my account?

Is there anyway we can add Team Services accounts on the client's Team Services instance and specify a different bill to account for specific accounts?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Based on the requirements, most or all of your scrum masters and analysts may qualify as stake holders. A Visual Studio Team Services account can have unlimited stake holders (they can add and edit work items and bugs, plus can view your dashboards, backlog, and Kanban boards) for free.

For the testers, depending on what they need, you can additional Basic licenses for $20 a month. You can get more details on the Visual Studio Team Services pricing page.

With regards to the actual billing question, I am not sure if/how to do either of the options you are looking for.

Answer 2

As all of your Testers require to access the software you are building, and those machines are likely licenced by your MSDN then they do indeed need an MSDN licence. Access to environments for testers, access to Microsoft Test Manager, and advanced test management tools all need an MSDN and you can get the Test Professional SKU for them.

If your analysts need access to the environments then they also need MSDN.

If the customer wants you to work in their VSO then either you get MSDN or they buy the required licences. If you are a vendor then I would expect you to have the appropriate licences for developing the software that you are commissioned for.