Is your Business Process Modeler updated?
I see a lot of MS Dynamics 365 implementations where the BPM in Lifecycle Services (LCS) is not used. They are running fine (at least that is what the clients are telling me). But in general, their implementation partner did not tell them all the benefits LCS has in store for them. Why should a partner bother to mention all the benefits Improvements on testing and user help experience does not result in more billable hours? So is your Business Process Modeler updated?
Using the BPM in combination with DevOps supports more streamlined and efficient implementation projects. By defining the processes in the BPM library; there is a generic structure for tracking the project requirements / user stories / tasks. The BPM hierarchy can be synchronized with DevOps – as a result the DevOps backlog and boards are populated with structured work items ready to be used by the project team.
In addition to tracking the progress of a project, the BPM and DevOps processes and work items can be used for automated testing (RSAT) and user documentation (online help recordings). Read more on these topics in our other blogs!
When defining the processes and work items it is important to understand how LCS and DevOps share the information. There are various approaches one can take regarding the level of detail to track in BPM vs DevOps.
Business Process Modeler
The BPM is a necessary evil – I must admit, it is a strange thing. Currently it is the only way to bring business processes, task recordings, automatic testing, and user documentation of Dynamics 365 together and re-use the information between the different areas. At the same time, it is not extremely user friendly when compared to for example DevOps.
recommendations
- The model name must be short, the name is reused everywhere later-on in DevOps, I always call it simply BPM, so later the titles of my epics, features and tasks start with [BPM]
- The existing BPM models from MS are too big and complex, no key user will ever be able to put the task recording on the correct place.
- Create your own BPM
- 2 layers
- The 3 layer is in additional point for adding the task recording. A BPM could be like below picture, the customer has 2 tasks recording on how to create a customer
The BPM can then be synchronized with DevOps – the above hierarchy will generate DevOps work items with type “Epic” and/or “Feature” based on the synchronization parameters.
Once the epics and features have been synchronized, it is possible to add Requirements per process node via the button “Add requirement” – the work item type of a requirement in DevOps is also defined in the synchronization settings of LCS and depend on the DevOps project process template.
All links to DevOps are visible in LCM on the BPM nodes, including the test cases. The below considerations are important when making the decisions regarding what type of work items to track in which application.
BPM and DEVOPS
How does it integrate
- The synchronization between LCS and DevOps is one-directional from LCS BPM to DevOps, as a result:
- Any updates made in DevOps will not be reflected in the BPM library
- All work items that need to be available in the BPM need to be created via BPM and synchronized to DevOps
- Business processes (epics, features) need to be created in BPM, not in DevOps
- The mapping between BPM and DevOps is done in LCS and the options available depend on the project template type used for the DevOps project:
- when “Agile”, a BPM requirement type will generate a work item with type “User story” in DevOps
- when “Scrum”, a BPM requirement type will generate a work items with the type “Task” in DevOps
- If the DevOps template is “Custom” – including when it is derived from Agile – a BPM requirement type will generate a work items with the type “Task” in DevOps
- Test cases are linked to BPM process nodes (epic/feature in DevOps), not the requirements (user story/task in DevOps), maximum one test case can be linked to one process
- The one-directional synchronization rule applies also here
- If the test case should have a link to the requirement / user story / task, this can be added manually in DevOps
The DevOps process templates can be defined via DevOps Organization setup screen. The standard process templates are pre-created (Basic, Agile, Scrum, CMMI) and can be extended (KANBAN below).
The process template must be linked to the DevOps project via project settings screen:
The synchronization settings between LCS and DevOps are configured via LCS project settings tab “Visual Studio Team Services”. The options available in this screen depend on the process template used for the selected project.
In case of Agile process template, it is possible to select “User story” in the column “VSTS work item type” for LCS work item sub-type “Requirement”:
In case of Custom process template, it is not possible to select “User story” in the column “VSTS work item type” for LCS work item sub-type “Requirement”. The only available options are “Task” and “Bug”:
For additional details regarding the different DevOps process templates and how these are intended to be uses please refer to the Microsoft documentation
Conclusion
Considering the usability of LCS BPM and DevOps and the synchronization limitations our recommendation is to use BPM for 2-3 levels of processes and use DevOps for tracking the user stories / requirements / tasks. With this approach, the end users and key users can add new user stories / requirements via DevOps and link them to the proper BPM nodes (features / epics) inside DevOps.
When a new process is added, this must first be created via LCS BPM and synchronized to DevOps to make it available as a parent on new user stories / requirements.
Good luck on your improved user experience!
Automated backups of D365FO databases.
When you work with LCS then below list of data base movement operations are familiar to you. Nowadays exporting and refreshing can also be triggered with the Database Movement API This can become extremely handy for daily automated backups of D365FO databases. How we do it? With DEVOPS release pipelines. The pipeline looks like this. The BACKUP TST is disabled because the API does not ‘yet’ support Tier 1 Databases.
Speeding up
Because we had to apply automated backups of D365FO databases at multiple customers. It became time consuming. So, we optimized it. All customer specific setting became Variables of the pipeline. Because customer specific Client ID, Client Secret, and password, are sensitive information we have hidden them. Be aware in case you unhide, the values are cleared.
PowerShell
Below PowerShell script is a sample of how we generate the Token. This token is later used on the backup commands PowerShell.
| $tokenUrl = “https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/token” $tokenBody = @{ grant_type = “password” client_id = “$(CLIENTID)” client_secret = “$(CLIENTSECRET)” resource = “https://lcsapi.lcs.dynamics.com” username = “$(USERNAME)” password = “$(PASSWORD)” } $tokenResponse = Invoke-RestMethod -Method ‘POST’ -Uri $tokenUrl -Body $tokenBody $token = $tokenResponse.access_token Write-Host “##vso[task.setvariable variable=TOKEN] $token” |
In the next sample we create the backup
| $cstzone = [System.TimeZoneInfo]:ConvertTimeBySystemTimeZoneId( (Get-Date), ‘W. Europe Standard Time’) $filedate = Get-Date $cstzone -f “yyy-MM-dd” $BackupName = “ACC-$filedate” Write-Output $BackupName $refreshUrl = “https://lcsapi.lcs.dynamics.com/databasemovement/v1/export/project/$(LCSPRPOJID)/environment/$(ACC)/backupName/$BackupName” $refreshHeader = @{ Authorization = “Bearer $(TOKEN)” “x-ms-version” = ‘2017-09-15’ “Content-Type” = “application/json” } $refreshResponse = Invoke-RestMethod $refreshUrl -Method ‘POST’ -Headers $refreshHeader Write-Output $refreshResponse |
And the DEVOPS insider will comment, yeah dream on, no build , is also no release. True, you just must reuse a build pool in your environment.
Please be aware that MS is throttling these requests, only 3 backups a day are possible.
And at the end, we generate an email notification for the people that really need it.
LCS
We do not use the alerts from LCS, it causes simply too many emails. So, we disable the next notification for all LCS users
Don’t forget the other handy LCS tricks
Performance tuning development VM
It is a general complain of any developer. Why is it so SLOOOWWWWW? And yes, it is slow. But there are performance tuning tricks. Slow is influence on 3 things
- Startup VM
- Is also startup of
- Batches
- Management reporter
- Windows security
- Windows update
- Windows maintenance
- SQL
- There is no SQL maintenance
- Disk
- Is also startup of
You could disable the batches & management reporter. That will help. But the real issue is how the disks of that VM are configured. In general, it looks like below 16 lazy disks.
Now you can change these to faster disks , but please be aware of the prices. Also, these are managed disk, the cost fixed amount every month, so stopping the VM will not reduce below cost.
| Size | Premium SSD | Standard SSD | Standard HDD |
| 64 GiB | 9.47 | 4.05 | 2.54 |
| 128 GiB | 18.29 | 8.10 | 4.97 |
| 256 GiB | 35.26 | 16.20 | 9.56 |
| 512 GiB | 67.92 | 32.39 | 18.36 |
How does the disk migration work? The first step is migration to managed disks
Managed Disks simplify disk management for VMs by managing the Storage accounts behind the scenes. Managed Disks also provide granular access control with RBAC and better reliability for VMs in an Availability Set. Learn more about the benefits of using Managed Disks
Source unmanaged disks are not deleted after the migration. Managed Disks are created by making a copy of the source disks. You can revert back to unmanaged disks by creating a new VM with the source disks. Configuration of the VMs is not changed after the migration. Learn more about migrating to Managed Disks
In order to complete migration, we will need to start the virtual machine. Once migration is complete, you may stop the virtual machine.
Next you can change all the discs
But hold on 16 disks multiplied with 18.29 makes 292 euro on top of running the VM. This is very expensive in the relation to how you use it. So next step:
- Archive your code & database.
- Delete the VM
- Deploy a new one
And of course, do not forget to setup the auto shutdown and the azure software reductions
Let your Operations Flow – Part 5
After some extremely busy weeks, I finally found some time to continue my blogs related to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations and Microsoft Flow. In this part, I will elaborate on the action Get a record.
Let your Operations Flow – Part 4
In this part of the Flow blog series, I will discuss the Delete action for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations connector. I posted a blog before on this action. See: How Microsoft Flow can help on data corrections in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.
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Let your Operations Flow – Part 3
On my two previous blogs, I got some great feedback. Thank you all for the kind words. It will help me continue writing blogs. There is still more to write about Microsoft Flow. In this part, I will explain the Update a record action for the Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations connector.
Let your Operations Flow – Part 2
My previous blog was an introduction how to start using Microsoft Flow with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations connector. In this episode, I will elaborate on the Create a record action. How can you use this action and I will provide some related tips. E.g. how use line numbers which should be incremented?
Create record action
The template which I used in my previous blog used the create record action also. A screenshot of the basic part shows the most important fields for the Vendors entity.
As you can see, you have to specify the environment as well as the entity to use. When these to values are specified, you will see a list of mandatory fields (marked with red asterisk). When the entity is company specific, you will also see a dataAreaId field. The Vendor account field in this example is mandatory in Microsoft Dynamics 365, but not in the entity. If you provide a value, it will be used as vendor ID. If you leave it blank, it will use logic to retrieve a number from the number sequence.
Use the create record action
When you want to create a Flow, you always have to start with a trigger. Triggers can be based on an event like a new mail message has been received. The previous blog used a recurrence. You can also install Flow on your mobile device and start Flows with a button.
When the trigger has been inserted, you can continue with actions. Usually, you would read content from a certain application and bring data automated to a destination. One destination is the action Create record on the Dynamics 365 for Operations connector. When you add a new action, you can search with keywords for the correct action. You can use e.g. Operations, Dynamics 365 or a combination to narrow down the results. At the time of writing this blog, there is a trigger for Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations in preview. I will elaborate about it in a future blog post.
When you inserted the Create record action, you can choose the correct environment. Usually you will first choose a test or demo environment before actually use a production instance. The second required field is the entity. Flow will list all public entities. Some names are quite easy to find, like Vendors. When you don’t know the name of the entity or cannot guess the correct name, you can open the form in Dynamics 365 and use the function Open in Excel. When the Excel sheet has been downloaded, you can then look in the design mode which entity is used.
In some cases, there are multiple entities for the same table, but there is a version difference. For the vendors, there is a V2 version available. It is recommended to use the highest version number. Older versions will get depreciated in the future.
In some cases, you get a error when typing an entity name. The connector is trying to find the correct entity as you type. When you have only a part of a keyword, it will mention that it could not find the entity. It is a bit annoying, but you can ignore this error when you are still in the process of selecting your entity.
When you have selected the correct entity, there will be some mandatory fields listed. Then a field for the company (dataAreaId). It will then have a key field in case it is not mandatory. In this example, the vendor account number is not mandatory, but it is mandatory within Dynamics 365 itself. The reason for not having it mandatory is that you can leave this field empty. In that case, it will try to pick up a number from the number sequence. If you did not provide an account number and the number sequence is set to be manually, the flow execution will result in an error.
To be able to use all other fields, you can click the option Show advanced options. It will list all other attributes in a non-alphabetical order. It would be nice if the field list has a certain structure, but in the current way, it is possible to map all fields.
When you completed the flow, you can test and activate your task.
How to use line numbers in Flow?
A common question is how to use line numbers in Flow? They are not automatically filled when you are using Flow or other Odata based tools to insert records. Flow can support in incremented integers by using Variable actions.
Directly after the trigger, you can add Initialize variabele actions. You need to declare all variables that will be used in your Flow. For line numbers, you can use the Integer Type. The first value can be set to the Value 1 (or another value according to your preference).
For a flow, e.g. importing purchase order lines from an Excel file, you can use the line numbers. There could be an option to increment with 1, 10 or other steps for the line numbering. How to use the line numbering an increment the value for the next line can be seen in the next screenshot.
The purchase lines create record action has the variable LineNumber mapped as input for the LineNumber field. Then after the create action, the LineNumber will be inremented with the Value 1 in a Increment variable action. In this way, you can use line numbers provided by Flow if the business logic in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is not automatically populate the Line number field.
Use values from other Dynamics 365 actions
When you look at the screenshot above, you can notice that the purchase order number and data area fields are filled with Dynamics 365 fields. In this Flow, I did use a purchase order header entity to insert a new header record first. When the purchase order has been inserted, you can re-use the values in the Flow for other entity actions or providing a notification which order was inserted.
The next part (3) will inform you about the Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations update action in Flow.
That’s all for now. Till next time!
Let your Operations Flow – Part 1
After spending some time with building some automation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations with Microsoft Flow, it would be a good timing to write some blogs. The intention is to help you getting started understanding the Microsoft Flow tool and build your own business automations. (meer…)
Prepare yourself for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations One Version
You hardy can have missed the announcements from Microsoft how they will continue delivering updates for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. In fact the full Dynamics 365 product range will be on the same update cadence. Depending if you are already running Microsoft Dynamics 365 or not there are changes which you also need to prepare for yourself.
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How Microsoft Flow can help on data corrections in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations
When using the cloud version of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, there are certain tasks which are a bit more cumbersome if you compare it with the freedom you have when running the application on-premise. When there was a need for data correction, we were used to quickly develop a job or class with x++ logic to repair data. In certain cases, we could deliver a list with identification numbers which was then used as looping to correct or delete only certain records. In this post I will explain how you can be more agile creating correction scripts using Microsoft Flow.
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