Understanding Microsoft Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps was formerly known as Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) and is also known as Visual Studio Online (VSO). It's a single collaboration platform where you can manage all the aspects of your project, including planning, execution/delivery, and support.  

The top two benefits of leveraging Azure DevOps/VSTS with Microsoft D365FO, Enterprise Edition and LCS are as follows:

  • Application Lifecycle Management (ALM): Management of business processes and requirements in LCS while using the same for delivery in Azure DevOps/VSTS
  • Continuous delivery: Seamless code and data movement across environments/projects

To connect and manage your BPM library artifacts in Azure DevOps/VSTS, the LCS project must be linked to Azure DevOps/VSTS. If your project team has already deployed a dev/build environment using the LCS project, your LCS project is most probably already linked to Azure DevOps/VSTS. You can utilize Azure DevOps/VSTS capabilities to manage all configurations, data, business, integrations, reporting, or any other requirements in your Dynamics 365 implementation.

Now, let's look at the steps that are involved in setting up your LCS project and Azure DevOps/VSTS:

  1. Log in to https://www.visualstudio.com/ and create a new Azure DevOps/VSTS account.
  1. Create a new Azure DevOps/VSTS project to be hosted in your account and select the tenant to host your project at https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/. Also, select how to manage your code (Git or TFS), as shown in the following screenshot:
  1. Selecting the right code repository is important. Here, we're using Team Foundation Version Control.
  2. If your project needs Git, that is supported as well.
  1. Verify whether the new project has been created in Azure DevOps/VSTS by verifying the URL of the project. This typically ends with your project name, as highlighted in the following screenshot:
  1. Now, we need to link the LCS project with Azure DevOps/VSTS. The LCS project needs to be connected to the Azure DevOps/VSTS account and project from the Project settings. Go to the section for Azure DevOps/VSTS and click on the Setup Visual Studio Team Services button to set up the LCS and Azure DevOps/VSTS project link:
Ensure the URL is in the legacy VSTS format; for example, https://<<Your organization>>.visualstudio.com.
  1. For the LCS to access the Azure DevOps/VSTS account, it needs to be provided with a personal access token, which can be accessed from the Azure DevOps/VSTS Security settings:
  1. You can create a token valid for a set duration in Azure DevOps. To do so, go to your DevOps security settings, and then to Personal access tokens to get one. This can be seen in the following screenshot:
  1. This token should be copied and pasted in the LCS BPM – Azure DevOps screen, along with your Azure DevOps account URL:
  1. Once you click on Continue, the LCS will be allowed to access the projects in this account. Here, you need to select one of the projects from Azure DevOps/VSTS:
  1. After selecting a project, the work items mapping can be selected by clicking on Restore to default mappings, as highlighted in the preceding screenshot. These work items can be changed between BPM and LCS.
  2. Associate Azure DevOps/VSTS work item types with LCS items based on the process template being used in the Azure DevOps/VSTS project:
    • For the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) process template, the following is a mapping of work items:

    • For the Agile process template, the following is a mapping of work items:
  1. Once the Azure DevOps/VSTS project process template has been selected and the work item has been mapped, you can turn on synchronization from LCS BPM to the Azure DevOps/VSTS project backlog.
  2. Use the backlog capability to keep items in the correct order and connected to the right things, as well as to keep items in your backlog linked to epics or scenarios you're using to drive your business.
As per the mapping that we've done in the LCS project settings, the levels of BPM are reflected as features and stories in Azure DevOps/VSTS. For any other project template, although it would be mapped or asked to manually to map, and it may not allow to fully use the downstream features, such as the Regression Suite Automated Test (RSAT).

Here are some acronyms that are used in Azure DevOps/VSTS:

  • Epic: This is a virtual package that can span across releases and allows you to group features.
  • Feature: This is a simple explanation of business needs.
  • Stories: This explains features in more detail, based on several constraints and conditions.

Now, let's learn how to synchronize BPM with Azure DevOps/VSTS and see what it looks like on both sides.

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