Microsoft Dynamics 365

Size does matter (or not?)

It is a general issue with D365FO development on those development VMs (virtual machines) when it is not working as planned, in the end we throw it away and start over. In the next blog I will explain some tricks to solve issues on the disk space. Look at the next example, we use a disk of 32GB and need 20 of them so we have 640 GB of disk space.

Of course, check the prices: Pricing – Managed Disks | Microsoft Azure.

Besides the disk size I also use DS13 V2, so I can upgrade to Managed Disks: Performance tuning development VM (Virtual Machine) – Kaya Consulting (kaya-consulting.com)

Why not 10 * 64 GB or 5 * 128 GB? It is all about IOPS!

Later, in Azure it will look like below.

When we look at the VM with Disk Management we see a striped disk that has partitions for database and ‘AOT (Application Object Tree) drive.’

So far so good, but the developer needs a good database and when restoring, scenarios like the next picture may occur.

We are stuck, no space on the G drive. And plenty of space on those other drives. So, let us adept, we start with shrinking the other disks. NOTE: K drive needs 15 GB free space for installations started from LCS (Life Cycle Services).

After shrinking we add the created free space to the G Drive.

• In case you still run into disk space issues, use the next SQL script to compress the database:

EXECUTE sp_msForEachTable ‘ Print ”?”;SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON ;IF EXISTS (Select * from sys.indexes Where object_id = object_id(”?”) And type=6) ALTER INDEX ALL ON ? REBUILD ELSE ALTER INDEX ALL ON ? REBUILD WITH (data_compression=PAGE,FILLFACTOR=99)’

• Another trick is dropping the retail database, it is in any installation package, the script name is DropAllRetailChannelDbObjects.
• Set the database recovery model to simple will reduce the database log disk size.
• Check the SQL report “Disk Usage by Top Tables.”
• Add an additional disk:
  • Attach a managed data disk to a Windows VM – Azure – Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Docs

Of Course, I would love to give you a golden rule for size of the bacpac file in relation to the needed disk space. I can give you a refence a 9 Gb Bacpac file results in a 90 Gb Database MDF file. So  Bacpac file size multiply by 10. It is still a guesstimate 🙁

Intro to Configurable Business Documents – Part 1 of 3

How do we generate configurable business documents for our customers in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations? You will find only very basic documentation on Microsoft Docs, so you will need to watch quite some available webinars on the internet to get a bit of an idea.

The big advantage of configurable business documents lies clearly in the word “configurable”. Configurable business documents are not part of the software anymore, they are not a matter of development but rather of setup. Creating and updating business documents is no longer part of the software development and release process. Adding or removing fields, adjusting the document layout and formatting, changing the document data sources and designs, it can all be done at any time directly from within the D365FO production environment itself. So configurable business documents provide much more flexibility than SSRS reports and there is no more need for deployments!

The business document management audience targeted by Microsoft are business users. No knowledge of the Electronic Reporting (ER) framework is supposed to be required and as usual it is all very simple and fast… OK, back to reality! The out-of-the-box business documents hardly ever meet the customer’s requirements and the layouts usually need to be completely turned upside down. Because generating configurable business documents proves to be a quite complex and therefore time-consuming process the business user will soon hand it over to a functional consultant, who in turn will seek help from a developer because a deep understanding of the data structure is needed. Apart from that, the user experience is not yet very friendly, the design is difficult, troubleshooting is not easy and some of the features are still unstable resulting in errors like “Something went wrong, but we were able to recover your session”. Let us say there is room for improvement…

In this small series of blogs I will share my first experience with configurable business documents on a customer project and summarize and briefly explain the necessary steps to be taken. But before doing so I will try to answer the following question.

What are Configurable Business Documents?

Configurable business documents are built on top of the ER framework and basically consist of ER configurations plus templates. The following three types of reporting configurations are always involved, working closely together:

Data Model

This defines the logical data tree structure with the necessary data fields as required by the business domain for which it will be used. Good examples are the Order model, Waybill model, Invoice model and Reminder model.

Data Model Mapping

This connects the data model elements with its data sources in database, classes, calculated fields, etcetera, from where the data will come at runtime.

Format

This defines the output data tree structure for the template and its mapping to the data model. It includes templates in Excel and Word.

The data model is in fact in the center, with on the one side the mapping with the data sources and on the other side the output mapping with the format template. The flow looks like this:

At execution time the configurable business documents still use the known Print Management functionality and the SSRS execution pipeline. But instead of generating an SSRS report and sending it to an SSRS print destination, the configurable business documents flow as depicted above is executed, generating an output document and sending it to one or more ER destinations.
The main purpose of configurable business documents is to replace the SSRS reports and to make customization of business documents like order confirmations, invoices, collection letters, etcetera much easier and less costly.

Required setup

Before we can make our hands dirty, we must first do some minimal configuration activities:
• Make sure that in the Feature Management workspace the following features are enabled:
o Business document management.
o Convert Electronic Reporting outbound documents from Microsoft Office formats to PDF.
• In the Electronic Reporting workspace, we create a configuration provider for our customer besides the one for Microsoft. After this we set it active and define a configuration repository for the newly created configuration provider via the Repositories link on the new tile (see picture below).

My favorite type of repository used to be LCS, because it worked fine for me to do maintenance and distribution to other environments. But recently Microsoft decided to deprecate LCS as an ER configuration storage type and now recommends us to use the Global repository instead. Via the below link in the ER workspace a special Regulatory Configuration Services environment (RCS, nothing more than a stripped down D365FO environment) can be provisioned in which the customer’s ER configurations will have to be maintained.

This forces us to move all existing business document configurations to this new provisioned environment. A migration option like for example importing these configurations directly from LCS does not exist. Another thing is that the new environment does not contain any D365FO metadata. So, in addition to the business document configurations also metadata configurations need to be created and moved over to the new environment. Hopefully, Microsoft will come up soon with a solution to support this imposed migration to RCS.
• Setup the following ER parameters:
o Set Enable design mode to Yes, otherwise we cannot do anything.
o Define a File document type and assign it on the Attachments tab.

After this has been done, we should be ready to go!

In the next blog of this series you will learn where to start and how to derive configurations, we discuss repositories and take a look at the format designer. Till next time!

Please read the other related articles on this link https://kaya-consulting.com/category/Business-Documents/

Do you want to join a major online retailer?

Connecting to online platforms such as bol.com, Amazon, Zalando or Thuisbezorgd seems very easy for many entrepreneurs and therefore very interesting. But what does this do to the competitive position of your organization? And what are other challenges you can face?

Threat or opportunity?

The large online platforms saw profits grow enormously due to the corona crisis. We also saw an increase in demand from our customers for links with such platforms. Many organizations will think “if you can’t beat them join them”. In many cases this is certainly the case. However, we also see various challenges when entering into such a collaboration.

This creates an unhealthy incentive if an operator of a platform is also a provider. The market master, who determines his own rules of the game, then also becomes a market trader on this same market. A platform can then better position its “own products” by placing them higher in search results. Because the administrator of the platform has all user data, he can see exactly which products sell best. Amazon is already making use of this by making ‘private label’ products cheaper and more visible.

Yet it can also pay off for organizations to join a platform. Especially bol.com or Zalando are interesting sales channels where you can reach a large audience relatively easily. A big advantage of bol.com over Amazon is that it does not yet offer private label products. At the same time, all these parties are partly shops – with their own stock and warehouse – and partly market places for other providers. Without clear rules, the incentive continues to exist to favor one’s own goods.

Do you have a unique product? Or if you have the exclusive right to sell, an online platform is quickly interesting. After all, it does not matter to customers who offers or supplies a (commodity) product. It is often the price which is the decisive factor.

Product and price determine your succes

It is important to ask yourself a few questions when considering joining a platform. Is my product unique? Can we distinguish ourselves on the platform or in customer experience (after sales)? How often does an average customer buy your product or service? Is it a one-off or repetitive sale? What do we outsource and what do we do ourselves? How do we bind the customer to us.

In addition, it is important to bear in mind that such a platform also raises certain expectations. This includes the terms of delivery, service, returns and complaints handling. When it turns out to be a success, this can also bring new challenges. Ultimately, it is up to the organization to weigh the costs of commission and – sometimes – distribution of a platform against the greater reach of potential customers. When an organization does not invest in its own distribution and marketing channels, the platform takes over this customer contact and your organization becomes enormously dependent.

Ultimately, it is very important that abuse of power and monopoly formation is actively combated. That platforms have a dominant position does not have to be a problem, as long as smaller companies have access to the online market and have a fair chance against the big (er) players. Supervision and new laws and regulations can also contribute to a healthier and more balanced online climate.

Create tracking dimension in D365FO.

When we have a close look at the InventDim table, the fields can be split up in 3 groups. These 3 groups are already represented in the existing field groups.

The investigation

As you can see there are also Russian localization field in it, those can be turned off with the configuration key “Invent tracking dimensions – GTD, inventory profile, owner.”

So now how doe we add new tracking dimensions? There is a good documentation Add new inventory dimensions through extension – Finance & Operations | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Docs

On the end there is an explanation how to add the predefined field to the product dimensions.

It is a good article with also an example code, but it will not work incase you want only a tracking dimension. To get that job don I investigated the tracking dimension Batch. The key trick for your new tracking dimension is to create a new extension of the InventTrackingDimension Class. Below picture shows the current extensions.

Lets do it

The next step is creating table extensions on the next 2 tables:

• InventDim
  • Add the InventDimension1 to the field group Tracking Dimension.
  • Create a new relation from the InventDimension1 to your new lookup table.(Below example the table name is XXTable)
• InventDimParm (Display settings)
  • Add the InventDimension1Flag to the field group Tracking Dimension.
• Create and EDT extension for the correct labels on:
  • InventDimension1
  • InventDimension1Flag

So those where the easy steps. Now we start coding. The next step is creating an (COD)extension on the next 3 tables:

[ExtensionOf(tableStr(InventDim))] final class InventDimXXDim1_Extension { public DlvTermId parmInventFlavorId(DlvTermId _XXTable = this.getValueForDimension(classStr(XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1))) { if (!prmIsDefault(_XXTable)) { this.setValueForDimension(classStr(XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1), _XXTable); } return _XXTable; } public static FieldID fieldIdFlavor() { return InventDim::fieldIdForDimension(classStr(XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1)); } }

[ExtensionOf(tableStr(InventDimParm))] final class InventDimParmXXDim1_Extension { public NoYes parmInventFlavorFlag(NoYes _flavorFlag = this.getValueForDimension(classStr(XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1))) { this.setValueForDimension(classStr(XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1), _flavorFlag); return _flavorFlag; } public static FieldID fieldIdFlavor() { return InventDimParm::fieldIdForDimension(classStr(XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1)); } }

[ExtensionOf(tableStr(InventDimFieldBinding))] public final class InventDimFieldBindingXXDim1_Extension { protected static FieldName className2FieldName(ClassName _className) { var fieldName = next className2FieldName(_className); if (_className == classStr(XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1)) { return fieldStr(InventDim, InventDimension1); } return fieldName; } }

And finally, the new extended class from InventTrackingDimension

final class XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1 extends InventTrackingDimension { public IndexId indexHintForTable(TableId _tableId) { switch (_tableId) { case tableNum(InventDim): return IndexNum(InventDim, InventDimension1Idx); } return 0; } public static XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1 getInstance() { return InventDimension::singletonFromInventDimFieldId(fieldNum(InventDim, InventDimension1)) as XXInventTrackingDimensionDim1; } public boolean isAffectingPrice() { return true; } ///Override next lines incase behavior should change public boolean checkExistsValueForItem(InventTable _inventTable, anytype _value) public boolean isSelective() public boolean isTransferReceiptMergeable() public boolean isTransferTransitReceiptMergeable() }

The whole solution would look like something like this.

The results

And of course, do not forget to turn on the configuration key for InventDimension1, testing would be impossible with out 😉. The next screen dumps show the look and feel. As you also see the Owner field is still there, I guess MS has forgotten to add a configuration key to it….

Bana Regression Suite Automation Tool(RSAT) satabilir misiniz?

Microsoft D365 FO’nun yeni sürümlerinin mevcut hızlı görünümü ile test yapmak daha fazla zaman alabilir (yılda 10 kez). Bu durumda bazı kararlar vermenizde fayda var. Örneğin;

1. Güncellemeleri atlayın ve örneğin yalnızca çift veya tek platform güncelleme numaralarını alın
2. MS’i test etmeyin ve güvenin. Ancak lütfen MS’te sadece insan olduklarını ve insanların da hata yaptığını unutmayın.
3. Daha kısa sürede daha fazla test yapılabilmesi için test ekibinizi artırın.
4. Regression Suite Automation Tool kullanmaya başlayın.
   Geçmişte 1. seçeneği seçiyorduk. Yine de her ay release çıkardık, ancak MS sürümüne ISV ile sürümler ve müşteri için özel çözümler dahil edilmedi.
   

Nasıl kullanabiliriz?

Müşterilerimizle RSAT hakkında konuşmaya başladığımızda, her zaman bütçe olmadığını söylüyorlar. Bu doğru değil, her zaman test maliyeti vardır. Sadece mevcut test maliyeti, dahili testler ve / veya üretim ortamlarında ortaya çıkan sorunlar şeklinde o müşterinin organizasyonunda gizlidir. Gördüğümüz şey; müşterilerin BT projeleri için bir bütçesi olduğu. Müşterinin / anahtar kullanıcının test ettiği saatler bu bütçenin parçası değildir.
Sonra başka bir nokta daha görüyoruz ki mevcut görev kayıtları (task recorder) çoğu zaman güncelliğini yitirmiştir (bkz. İş Süreci Modelleyiciniz (BPM) neden güncel olmalı? bloguna). RSAT kullanarak BPM kitaplığınızı otomatik olarak güncellemiş olursunuz.
RSAT, bir sağlama aracı gibi kullanarak daha da güçlü hale gelebilir. Aşağıda, veri hattı sürümünde kullandığımız bir örnek verilmiştir. İlk örnek, bir veri tabanını 1. katman (MS barındırılan veya müşteri tarafından barındırılan) üzerine geri yüklediğimiz zamandır.

Mevcut RSAT çözümünün bir bulut hizmeti olarak çalıştırmak yerine gerçek bir makineye kurulması gerekiyor. Bunu başarmak için, onu bulutta barındırılan bir Devbox’a kurduk ve maliyetleri yönetmek için otomatik kapatmayı açtık. Bu nedenle eğitimde söz konusu ortamı hem başlatan hem de durduran adımlar görüyorsunuz.
Devops’taki mevcut RSAT, yalnızca kurulu olduğu gerçek bir makinede çalışır. Bu yüzden onu bulutta barındırılan Devbox’a kurduk, Azure maliyetini düşük tutmak için bu sanal makineyi talep üzerine başlatıyoruz. RSAT provizyonunun parametrelerinde; veri tabanını yeni geri yüklediğimiz(restore) ortama işaret eden RSAT ayarları dosyasını seçiyoruz.

RSAT’ı kullandığımız görevler şunlardır:

• Kullanıcıları etkinleştirin
• Toplu işleri (Batch) başlatın
• Exchange ayarlarını güncelleyin
• Diğer tüm entegrasyon seçenekleri
Ancak RSAT, en son özelleştirilmiş müşteri kodunuzla yeni bir release yayınladığınızda da tekrar kullanılabilir. RSAT’ı bu şekilde kullanmamın nedeni; 1. Katman üzerinde yapılan testlerin dünyayı temsil etmemesi, paketi geliştirme alanında değil operasyonel alanda test etmek istiyorum.

Ve son durum, Microsoft’un güncellemeleri içindir. Yukarıdaki gibi benzerdir, RSAT görevini yalnızca MS versiyon aday ortamında çalıştırırsınız.
Şimdi iş durumu açıklandığına göre, yapı taşlarına kısaca bir göz atalım.
VM’yi başlatmak ve durdurmak için Azure CLI kullanıyoruz

Agent pools

Kullandığımız adımlar farklı agent pool’a ihtiyaç duyar. Ben her zaman sadece azure pipeline’ı kullanmayı tercih ediyorum. Ancak bunların bir sınırlaması var. Adımın sanal makinede bulunan programlara veya dosyalara ihtiyaç duyması halinde, sanal makinenin de bir agent pool’u olması gerekir. Aşağıdaki liste, bir müşteri uygulamasında ihtiyaç duyduğumuz agent pool’u göstermektedir:

Ayrıca, mevcut bir bulutta veya hatta yerel bir sanal makinede çalışan bir building pool’a ihtiyacınız olduğunu fark ettiğinizde, onu yine de kurabilirsiniz. Https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/v2-windows?view=azure-devops ile ilgili bilgilere bakabilirsiniz.
Toparlamak gerekirse; RSAT’ın bir satış hikayesine ihtiyacı yoktur. Nasıl kullanılacağını bilirseniz, kendisini satmaya başlayacaktır.
Diğer DEVOPS ipuçları için https://kaya-consulting.com/category/lcs/ adresine bir göz atın.

Restore Azure database to Tier-one

In my current project I get a high demand on request for restoring Azure databases to Tier-one. Out of the box there is no support on it from LCS point of view. But that does not imply that it is not possible.
At this moment we create an additional DEVOPS release pipeline that is manually triggered. The steps of that pipeline are shown in the next picture.

The Steps

The steps we are taking are in general

• Request access token to LCS
• Download the bacpac file from the LCS asset library
• Import the bacpac file into a new database
• Stop all services
• Swap the new database with the old database
• Synchronize the database (there could be new tables & fields)
• Reset Financial Reporter
• Start all services

With the current security on the MS hosted Tier 1 boxes, it is getting more complex to completing all these steps. The complexity is related to less privileges. You do not have administrator access anymore.
When you want to perform actions that requiring administrator access, you can host a D365 environment hosted on your own azure subscription. Here you can open Pandora’s box, but Microsoft does not have any responsibility or privileges on this environment.
We prefer to have all PowerShell inline, in case you prefer to use local PowerShell, below example shows you how to transfer the parameters to PowerShell files

Now let us go through the steps one by one.

Lets Download the Database

Below is an example for downloading and restoring the Bacpac file. For more details please read https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/dev-itpro/database/dbmovement-scenario-exportuat#import-the-database

cd C:\temp\ <# asset list #> $refreshUrl = “https://lcsapi.lcs.dynamics.com/databasemovement/v1/databases/project/$(LCSPRPOJID)” $refreshHeader = @{ Authorization = “Bearer $(TOKEN)” “x-ms-version” = ‘2017-09-15’ “Content-Type” = “application/json” } $refreshResponse = Invoke-RestMethod $refreshUrl -Method ‘GET’ -Headers $refreshHeader $DatabaseAssets = $refreshResponse.DatabaseAssets; <# find latest BACKUP on LCS #> $cstzone = [System.TimeZoneInfo]::ConvertTimeBySystemTimeZoneId( (Get-Date), ‘W. Europe Standard Time’) $filedate = Get-Date( $cstzone).AddDays($(DAYS)) -f “yyy-MM-dd” $BackupName = “GOLD-$filedate” Write-Output $BackupName $url = $DatabaseAssets | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $BackupName} | Select-Object -Property FileLocation $output= $DatabaseAssets | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $BackupName} | Select-Object -Property FileName Write-Output $url.FileLocation Write-Output $output.FileName <#remove old downloades#> <#Remove-Item –path C:\temp* -include *.bacpac -whatif -force> <# start download #> Import-Module BitsTransfer Start-BitsTransfer -Source $url.FileLocation -Destination $output.FileName $importFile = $output.FileName Write-Host “##vso[task.setvariable variable=BACKUPNAME]$BackupName” Write-Host “##vso[task.setvariable variable=FILENAME]$importFile”

The next step is creating the database

<#import Bacpak file#> cd C:\temp\ $fileExe = “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\DAC\bin\SqlPackage.exe” & $fileExe /a:import “/sf:$(FILENAME)” /tsn:localhost “/tdn:$(BACKUPNAME)” /p:CommandTimeout=1200

Stop environment

The step for start or stopping the service are not so complex, you can even run them inline on the release pipeline (For start change the stop to start)

<#stop environment#> net stop W3SVC net stop DynamicsAxBatch net stop Microsoft.Dynamics.AX.Framework.Tools.DMF.SSISHelperService.exe net stop MR2012ProcessService net stop ReportServer

Swap Databases

Now all systems are down so we can swap a database.

<#rename Database#> $server = “.” Write-Output Drop AXDBOLD Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -Query “DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS AXDBOLD” <#rename Database#> $server = “.” Write-Output Drop AXDBOLD Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -Query “DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS AXDBOLD” Write-Output renaim AXDB to AXDBOLD Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -Query “ALTER DATABASE AXDB MODIFY NAME = AXDBOLD” Write-Output renaim new DB to AXDB Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -Query “ALTER DATABASE [$(BACKUPNAME)] MODIFY NAME = AXDB” Write-Output create technical users Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -Database axdb -Query “the latest scripts MS”

I will not distribute the latest scripts MS statements, because it can change depended on latest updates from MS. In general, it should be in line with https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/dev-itpro/database/dbmovement-scenario-exportuat#update-the-database

Lets Synchronize

The next step is about synchronizing the database, there are several ways to do it

• Start Visual studio and synchronize manually
• Scripts that need admin privileges that you do not have
• Use the next one 😊

<#sync database#> $command = Join-Path “K:\AosService\PackagesLocalDirectory” “\Bin\SyncEngine.exe” $connectionString = “Data Source=””.””;Initial Catalog=AXDB;Integrated Security=True” $arguments = “-syncmode=fullall -binfolder=K:\AosService\PackagesLocalDirectory -metadatabinaries=K:\AosService\PackagesLocalDirectory -connect=””$connectionString”” -fallbacktonative=False -verbosity=Diagnostic -continueOnError=false” Start-Process -FilePath $command -ArgumentList $arguments -Wait -PassThru -RedirectStandardError “SortError.txt” -RedirectStandardOutput “log.txt”

Management Reporter

And finally reset the database mart, normally you get again that admin privilege issue , but by adding the option -scope local, we bypass this requirement

<#reset management reporter#> K: cd K:\MROneBox\MRInstallDirectory Import-Module .\Server\MRDeploy\MRDeploy.psd1 -scope local Reset-DatamartIntegration -Reason OTHER -ReasonDetail “” -force

Please be aware the Bacpac to Tier1 is still a work in process, we must update the scripts regularly based on the requirements from MS

Additional we have on the release pipeline an RSAT provisioning step running, for more details please read XXXX

Please read the other related articles on this link https://kaya-consulting.com/category/lcs/

Second Love

Which Agile methodology to use during ERP implementations

Agile SCRUM vs KANBAN

Do not use Agile SCRUM on customer implementations. With this one liner we start this blog. Why not and what should you use then?
In general, we see these days that all ERP implementations are done in an Agile way; the waterfall methodology has become an exception. But there are various Agile methodologies, the most common ones are SCRUM and KANBAN.

Customer projects

The method to use is important at Customer projects in our role of implementation partner (ERP/CRM implementations) but also on the ISV products we maintain ourselves as Kaya. Leading factor to determine which methodology to pick is not the methodology itself but how an organization is working and organized. Beside that the necessary skillset for building and releasing software plays a role too. Those skills are usually less present at a customer compared to a Microsoft, or other software, partner.

ISV products

In case you are in full control of your resources & requirements, planning fixed (release) dates is working fine. We see this at the implementation of ISV products. So, for those using Agile SCRUM would be a good choice.
However, on Customer implementations, we as a partner are not always in full control. Some examples are:

• Decisions that requirements are out of scope (read not before go-live)
• Capacity of customer resources are hard to plan. A partner has no control over it.
• Customer must accept the solution and usually they need support on the testing as they are not used to this.

So, the planning of a customer implementation needs much more flexibility. This flexibility can be better arranged with KANBAN. To have a closer look at what KANBAN is use following link https://www.scrum.org/resources/kanban-guide-scrum-teams.

Differences between Kanban and Scrum

Most important differences between KANBAN and SCRUM are:

	Scrum	Kanban
Cadence Regular	fixed length sprints	Continuous flow
Release methodology	At the end of each sprint	Continuous delivery
Roles	Product owner, scrum master, development team	Stakeholder
Key metrics	Velocity	ead time, cycle time, WIP
Change philosoph.	Avoid changes during the sprint.	Change can happen

Let us start with the Cadence. The functional confirmation of D365 F&S has a higher throughput than the development of code extensions. Beside the code extensions we also have the ISV solutions and the MS monthly updates.

This brings me to the next point. Release mythology: a code release is different from replicating a setup in a target environment.

Then we have the Roles. There are several Scrum Roles, where customers usually are not accustomed to, and the theory is that Kanban has no roles. To my opinion, this is not the case there is a stakeholder, wo defines what he needs and signs of when his wishes are realized. To a certain extend this resembles the Product owner role.

The change philosophy of KANBAN is more flexible. In case you have not started on a card, you can always put it back in the backlog. We see this happen when the Implementation gets disrupted by day to day topics or customer changes scope or priority.
The impact of using KANBAN at a customer implementation has an additional dimension. This dimension is the division between Development and Operations. In general, we can say the Partner is development and the customer is operations. This helps to determine who is responsible for what.

The next diagram narrows it even more clear on extensions to be delivered during implementation. The Partner (DEV) delivers a combined build into the asset library, it is up to the Customer (OPS) to continue from that point onwards.

OPS	DEV	DEV	OPS	OPS
Customer	Partner		Customer	Customer
Backlog	DEV	TEST	Acceptance	Production
	Code changes	Code changes	LCS asset	LCS asset
		Manual setup	Manual setup	Manual Setup

Additions to Kanban

Beside the concept of KANBAN and DEVOPS, Kaya also uses the phrase requested today, delivered tomorrow.

• When a Developer is finished, the solution is automatically available next day in TEST
• When a Tester is finished, he has in general a release candidate feature for the Customer
• The customer can almost do cherry picking on the release candidate features. The ones the customer select will be available next day in the combined build in the LCS asset library.

Are we in control?

So, are we in control? Yes! But be careful there is still a risk. This is so called work in Progress (WIP). The WIP on Acceptance is extremely important, all acceptance task must be completed before going to production. Who is responsible? The Customer (stakeholder) is responsible, but of course supported by the partner (which task should be completed first, dependencies, risks etc.). How can the Customer control it? Simply throttle on the requests that are picked from the backlog.

For other DEVOPS tips have a look at https://kaya-consulting.com/category/lcs/

Can you sell me Regression Suite Automation Tool (RSAT)?

With the current fast appearance of new versions of D365 FO (10 times a year). Testing can become more time consuming. So, you must decide:

1. Skip updates, take for example only the even or odd platform update numbers
2. Do not test and have confidence at MS. But please be aware at MS they are also mere humans and humans make mistakes.
3. Increase your Test team so more tests can be performed in a shorter time.
4. Start using the Regression Suite Automation Tool.

In the past we chose option 1. We did still release every month, but the release of MS was not included the releases with ISV and tailored solutions for the customer.

How we use it

When we start talking about RSAT with the customer, they always reply, that there is no budget. This is not correct, there are always costs on testing. Only the current test cost is hidden within the organization of that customer in the form of internal tests and/or issues arising in production environments. What we see is that the customer has a budget for his IT projects. The hours that the customer/key user is testing is not part of this budget.

Then we see another point, the current task recordings are most of the time outdated (see blog Why should your Business Process Modeler (BPM) be up to date?). By using RSAT you are automatically being forced to bring your BPM library up to date.
RSAT can become even more powerful by using it like a provisioning tool. Below is an example as we use it in a release pipeline. The first example is when we restore a database on a tier 1 box (MS hosted, or customer hosted)

The current RSAT solution needs to be installed on an actual machine instead of running as a cloud service. To achieve this we installed it on a cloud hosted Devbox and turned on auto shutdown to manage costs. Therefor you see steps both starting and stopping said environment in the train.
The current RSAT on a devops only runs on a real machine where it is installed. So, we installed it on cloud hosted Devbox, to keep the Azure cost low we start that VM on demand. In the Parameters of the RSAT provisioning we select the RSAT settings file pointing towards the environment we just restored the database of.

The tasks we use RSAT for are:

• Enable users
• Start batches
• Update exchange settings
• Any other integration options
  

But RSAT is also reusable when you deploy a new release with your latest tailored customer code. The reason I use RSAT this way is, testing on a Tier 1 is not representing the world, I want to test the Package in the Operational area and not in the Development area.

And the last case is for updates of Microsoft. It is similar like above , you only run the RSAT task on the MS release candidate environment.
So now that the business case has been explained, let us have a short look at the building blocks.
For starting and stopping the VM we use Azure CLI

Agent Pools

The steps we used need different Agent pools. I always prefer to use only the azure Pipelines. But those have a limitation. In case the step needs programs or files that are located on the VM, the VM also need to become an agent pool. Below list shows the additional agent pools we need at a customer implementation

And when you realize you need a building pool on an existing cloud hosted or even running on a local VM, you can still install it. Look for information on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/v2-windows?view=azure-devops
And now to wrap up; RSAT does not need a Sales story. If you know how to use it, It will start selling itself.

For other DEVOPS tips have a look at https://kaya-consulting.com/category/lcs/