Streamlining Monolith Development Through Code Sharing and Automation with Azure DevOps

    Client Overview

    A mid-sized software company operating a large .NET monolith application that supported multiple business processes across departments.
    Development had grown organically over several years, resulting in lengthy deployment cycles, inconsistent component reuse, and limited test automation.

    Challenge

    The existing monolithic solution created several bottlenecks:

    • Heavy and slow deployments — building the full solution took over 40 minutes, delaying release cycles.
    • Code duplication across projects — shared logic such as authentication, logging, and validation existed in multiple repositories with slight variations.
    • No central package management — teams manually copied DLLs between projects, creating version drift.
    • Limited automated testing and quality metrics — no consistent unit test reporting or coverage tracking.
    • Manual deployments to each environment, introducing human error and inconsistent configurations.

    The client sought to modernize internal practices without undertaking a full microservices rewrite.

    Objectives

    • Establish shared code distribution through private NuGet feeds.
    • Introduce automated CI/CD pipelines with consistent build and test stages.
    • Enforce code quality metrics (test coverage, build validation).
    • Enable repeatable, automated deployments to development and test environments.
    • Reduce overall deployment time and improve team collaboration.
    KEY TECHNOLOGIES
    • Azure DevOps (Repos, Pipelines, Artifacts)
    • .NET / C#
    • NUnit
    • PowerShell / YAML pipelines

    SOLUTION

    CODE MODULARIZATION

    Identified reusable components (e.g., validation framework, API client libraries, logging utilities).

    Extracted them into independent class library projects under a new shared-components repository.

    Implemented semantic versioning for clear dependency tracking.

    CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION

    Built standardized YAML-based build pipelines for all solutions.
    Introduced unit testing execution during CI using NUnit and Coverlet.
    Published test coverage reports to Azure DevOps dashboards for visibility.
    Integrated branch policies: no merge allowed unless build and tests succeed.

    GOVERNANCE & TRAINING

    Delivered documentation and internal workshops for developers on:

    package creation and publishing standards, CI/CD best practices, version control workflows (GitFlow).

    PRIVATE NUGET FEED SETUP

    Created Azure Artifacts private NuGet feeds within Azure DevOps.

    Configured all solutions to consume internal packages via authenticated feeds.

    Automated publishing of updated packages after each successful build.

    Added dependency version enforcement to prevent mismatched DLLs across teams.

    CONTINUOUS DEPLOYMENT

    Designed multi-stage release pipelines deploying automatically to DEV, QA, and Staging environments.

    Used deployment groups and environment approvals to ensure controlled promotion.

    Enabled infrastructure-as-code for IIS and app settings deployment consistency (PowerShell + Azure DevOps templates).

    Outcome

    By implementing private NuGet feeds and fully automated pipelines, LumenQor helped the client transform their development workflow from manual and siloed to automated and collaborative.
    Developers now reuse validated shared components, deployments are fully automated, and management gains clear visibility into code quality metrics.

    The modernization resulted in:

    • 70% faster deployments
    • Reduced code duplication by 50%
    • Improved release confidence and audit traceability
    RESULTS
    Metric Before After
    Deployment Time 40+ minutes manual 8 minutes automated
    Shared Libraries Manually copied DLLs Central NuGet feed
    Test Coverage ~10% >70% enforced by pipeline
    Release Frequency Monthly Weekly (stable releases)
    Team Coordination Fragmented ownership Unified DevOps visibility