Microsoft Power Platform Enterprise Architecture: Design tailor-made solutions for architects and decision makers to meet complex business requirements, 2nd Edition

Cover
Copyright Page
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Section I: The Basics
Chapter 1: Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Overview
	Introducing Contoso Inc.
	Introducing Microsoft Power Platform
		Introducing the Common Data Model and Microsoft Dataverse
			Introducing the Common Data Model
			Introducing Microsoft Dataverse
		Introducing model-driven apps
		Introducing canvas apps
		Introducing Power Automate
		Introducing Power Virtual Agents
		Introducing Power BI
		Introducing On-Premises Data Gateway
		Introducing AI Builder
		Introducing Power Pages
	Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM applications
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations
	Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP applications
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
	Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 AI, MR, and other modules
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Insights
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Product Visualize
		Microsoft Dynamics 365 Unified Service Desk
	Microsoft Power Platform licensing overview
	Contoso Inc. Power Platform commitment
	Summary
Chapter 2: Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure Overview
	Contoso Inc. cloud maturity
	Introducing Microsoft 365
		Introducing Microsoft Office 365
			Microsoft Exchange
			Microsoft SharePoint
			Microsoft OneDrive
			Microsoft OneNote
			Microsoft Teams
			Microsoft Outlook
			Microsoft Word
			Microsoft Excel
		Overviewing Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security
			Microsoft Intune
			Microsoft Cloud App Security
			System Center Configuration Manager
		Contoso Inc. using Microsoft 365
	Introducing Microsoft Azure
		Introducing Azure Active Directory
		Introducing Azure Service Bus
		Introducing Azure Event Hubs
		Introducing Azure Logic Apps
		Introducing Azure API Management
		Introducing Azure Functions
		Introducing Azure SQL
		Introducing Azure Cosmos DB
		Introducing Azure Blob Storage
		Introducing Azure Synapse Analytics
		Introducing Azure IoT Hub and Azure IoT Central
		Introducing Azure Key Vault
		Introducing Azure DevOps
		Introducing Azure Monitor
		Contoso Inc. using Microsoft Azure
	Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure licensing overview
		Microsoft 365 licensing
		Microsoft Azure licensing
	Summary
Section II: The Architecture
Chapter 3: Understanding the Microsoft Power Platform Architecture
	Contoso Inc. starts architecting their planned Power Platform solution
	Understanding the Power Platform architecture
		Learning about the Microsoft cloud infrastructure
		Understanding the customer cloud structure
			User management
			License management
			Group management
			App registration
			Office 365 Activity Logging
		Learning about Power Platform technology
		Understanding Power Platform environments
			Microsoft Dataverse
			Microsoft Dataverse for Teams
			Capacity restrictions
			Power Platform data connectors
			Data Loss Prevention policies
			On-Premises Data Gateway
			Managed environments
		Learning about Power BI’s structure
	Understanding the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 clients
		Learning about desktop clients
			Browser client
			Dynamics 365 App for Outlook
			Unified Service Desk
			Omnichannel for Dynamics 365 Customer Service
			Robotic process automation with Power Automate Desktop flows
		Understanding mobile clients
	Learning about Power Platform administration and monitoring
		Understanding Power Platform administration centers
			Microsoft Azure portal
			Microsoft 365 Admin Center
			Power Platform Admin Center
			Power BI admin portal
		Understanding PowerShell administration and monitoring
			Microsoft 365 administration
			Power Platform administration
			Power BI administration
			PowerShell monitoring
		Learning about API administration
			Microsoft 365 administration
			Power Platform administration
			Power BI administration
		Administration and monitoring using Power Automate
		Administration using Azure DevOps
		Learning about platform auditing
			Office 365 Activity Logging
			Dataverse auditing
		Understanding application monitoring
	Presenting architectural best practices
		Introducing single tenants or multiple tenants
			Development and testing environments
			Unsupported integration topology
		Understanding environment strategies
			Default environment
			Developer environment
			Shared test and production environment
			Dedicated environment
			Complex testing
			Multiple release strategy
			Product upgrades
			Other environment types
		Environment regions
		Administration and monitoring
	Contoso Inc. Power Platform architecture
		Tenant structure
		Power Platform environments
		Power Platform clients
		User groups and licensing
	Summary
Chapter 4: Power Platform Customization and Development Tools and Techniques
	Contoso Inc. empowering the project team
	The citizen developer vs. IT pro developer paradigm
		Introducing the citizen developer
		The IT pro developer
		Distinguishing between the citizen developer and the IT pro developer
	Presenting configuration and customization tools
		Microsoft Dataverse and model-driven app tools
			Power Apps Maker Portal
			Model-driven app designer
			Introducing XrmToolBox
		Power Apps Studio
		Power Pages Studio
		Power Automate Maker Portal
		Power Virtual Agents designer
		AI Builder
		Dataflows designer
		Power BI designer tools
			Power BI Desktop
			Power BI Builder
			Power BI service
		Microsoft AppSource
		ISV Studio
	Presenting custom development tools
		Visual Studio
		Visual Studio Code
		Power Apps Command-Line Interface (CLI)
		Power Platform extensions for Visual Studio
		NuGet developer tools and assemblies
			The code generation tool
			The plug-in registration tool
		XrmToolBox
		Postman
		CRMRestBuilder
		Testing tools
			Testing the user interface
			Testing backend components
			Using network traffic analyzers
	Presenting application lifecycle management tools
		NuGet developer tools and assemblies
			The configuration migration tool
			The package deployer tool
			The solution packager tool
		Azure DevOps
	Contoso Inc. project team workplace setup
		Enabling the core project team
		Enabling citizen developers
	Summary
Chapter 5: Application Lifecycle Management
	Contoso Inc. implementing application lifecycle management
	Understanding application lifecycle management
		Environment complexity
		Power Platform solution complexity
		ALM for the Power Platform
	Introducing solutions management
		Overview of solutions
			Environment variables
			Solution properties
		Solution types
			Unmanaged solution
			Managed solution
			Default solution
			Common Data Services Default Solution
		Managed properties
			Forms, views, charts, and dashboards properties
			Columns properties
			Tables properties
		Dependencies and solution segmentation
			Solution layering
			Layering behavior
			Solution dependencies
			Solution segmentation
		Patching and updating solutions
			Solution patch
			Solution updates
		Microsoft updates
			Major Power Platform updates
			First-party applications updates
			Power Platform hotfixes
	Introducing Azure DevOps for the Power Platform
		Overview of Power Platform Build Tools
			Helper and quality check tasks
			Solution tasks
			Environment tasks
		Azure DevOps with Power Platform Build Tools
			Committing a solution to the source control
			Distributing solutions between development environments
			Distributing solutions out of development
			Pipeline versus Release
	Introducing GitHub for the Power Platform
	Application lifecycle management for Power BI
		Environments in Power BI
		Power BI components
		Power BI ALM approach
		Power BI deployment pipelines
	Application lifecycle management for other solution components
	Application lifecycle management best practices
		Solution best practices
			General practices
			Unmanaged versus managed
			Structuring solutions
			Using segmentation
			Using source control
		Solution publishers’ best practices
		Power BI best practices
	Contoso Inc. ALM strategy
		Establishing Azure DevOps
		Using Power Platform solutions
		Using Power BI ALM
		Other ALM decisions
	Summary
Section III: The Implementation
Chapter 6: Implementation Approach and Methodologies
	Contoso Inc. preparing the implementation project
	Getting an overview of the implementation approach
	Understanding customer enterprise architecture and environment
		Data residency requirements
		Authentication providers
		Internet restrictions
		Data protection requirements
	Learning about project implementation methodologies and tools
		Understanding programs and projects
		Understanding project implementation methodologies
			The waterfall model
			The agile model
			The iterative model
			The combined model
		Making a project effort estimation
			Business requirements
			Custom development
			Infrastructure requirements
			Integration
			Data migration
			Other efforts
		Project management tools
			Microsoft Project
			Azure DevOps
			Effort estimators
		Creating project documentation
			The project plan
			The requirements document
			The solution architecture document
			The solution/technical design document
			Other documents
	Learning about project setup
		Project types
			Internal project
			External project
		Project roles and responsibilities
			Central roles and responsibilities
			Partner roles and responsibilities
			Customer roles and responsibilities
	Understanding project phases
		The preparation phase
			Identifying demand
			Studying feasibility
			Specifying the budget
			Seeking approval
			Issuing a Request for Information (RFI)
			Issuing an RFP/RFQ/RFT
			Discovery
			Negotiations
			Contract
		The project execution phase
			Project preparation
			Project initiation
			Initial analysis
			Iterative execution
			Final testing
			Solution deployment
		The operation phase
			Support transition
			Operation
			Decommission
	Contoso Inc. starting the implementation project
		Bidding process
		Project setup and methodology
		Project plan, tools, and documentation
		Project setup
	Summary
Chapter 7: Microsoft Power Platform Security
	Contoso Inc. designing Power Platform solution security
	Getting an overview of IT security
		Authentication versus authorization
		Microsoft cloud authentication and authorization fundamentals
			Provisioning user identity
			Assigning licenses
			Granting authorization
	Understanding authentication
		Identity and authentication solutions for internal users
			Cloud identity approach
			Password hash synchronization approach
			Pass-through authentication approach
			Federation approach
			Conclusion
		Authentication features for internal users
			Conditional access
			ADFS claim rules
			Multi-factor authentication
			Single sign-on options
			Cross-tenant inbound and outbound restrictions
		Service authentication for internal users
			Dataverse authentication
			Power BI authentication
		Authentication governance for internal users
			Dataverse user accounts provisioning governance
			Dataverse session governance
		Azure Active Directory guest users
		Authenticating external users
	Understanding authorization
		Authorization in Power Platform
		Authorization in Dataverse and model-driven apps
			Fundamentals of Dataverse authorization
			Setting up basic authorization
			Standard role-based security
			Modernized Business Units
			Group teams
			Authorizing model-driven app access
			Hierarchy security
			Record sharing
			Access teams
			Column-level security
			User interface security
		Authorization in canvas apps
			Authorization of apps
			Authorization of connections
		Authorization in Power Automate
			Authorization of background flows
			Authorization of interactive flows
			Authorization of desktop flows
		Authorization in Power BI
		Authorization in Power Pages
	Understanding compliance, privacy, and data protection
	Presenting security best practices
		Dataverse security roles
			Modifying security roles
			Layering of security roles
		Dataverse content-based security
			Using business units
			Using table form switching
			Using client-side scripting or business rules
			Using server-side event handlers
		Integrate security across solution components
			Dataverse-SharePoint integrated security
			Dataverse-Power BI integrated security
		Using identity and access management automation
		Establishing the Power Platform mature security model
	Contoso Inc. security architecture
		Active Directory integration
		Data Loss Prevention policies
		Dataverse
		Other security decisions
	Summary
Chapter 8: Microsoft Power Platform Extensibility
	Contoso Inc. – designing the Power Platform solution
	Getting an overview of extensibility
	Presenting Dataverse and model-driven app extensibility
		Dataverse standard customization
			Dataverse data modeling
			Dataverse user interface design
			Designing model-driven applications
			Designing mobile apps
		Dataverse automation
			Dataverse business rules
			Classic Dataverse workflows
			Dataverse custom actions
			Dataverse custom APIs
			Dataverse business process flows
		Dataverse client-side extensibility
			Standard custom controls
			Power Apps Component Framework
			Web resources
			Embedding canvas apps
		Dataverse server-side extensibility
			Dataverse API interface types
			Plug-in event handlers
			Custom workflow actions
			Azure Service Bus integration
			Azure Event Hub integration
			Webhook integration
			Building external applications
		Unified Service Desk extensibility
	Presenting Power Pages extensibility
	Presenting Power Automate flows
		Cloud flows
		Desktop flows
		Process advisor
	Presenting canvas apps and Power Automate extensibility
		Canvas apps and Power Automate customization
		Power Fx
		Building custom connectors
	Presenting Power BI extensibility
	Power Platform extensibility best practices
		Dataverse client-side interface extensibility
		Dataverse server-side extensibility
			Dataverse API selection
			Extensibility and automation options
			Performance impact
	Contoso Inc. Power Platform solution design
		Model-driven apps
		Automations
		Client-side extensibility
		Server-side extensibility and integrations
		Other design decisions
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 9: Microsoft Power Platform Integration
	Contoso Inc. designing the Power Platform integration
	Getting an overview of Power Platform integration
	Integrating with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure
		Introducing implicit Dynamics 365 integrations
		Integrations with Microsoft 365 services
			Integrating with Exchange
			Integrating with SharePoint
			Integrating with OneDrive
			Integrating with Microsoft Teams
			Integrating with Microsoft OneNote
			Integrating with Skype/Skype for Business
		Integrations with Microsoft Azure services
			Integrating with Azure Blob Storage
			Integrating with Azure Data Lake/Synapse Analytics
			Advanced integration scenarios with the Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse
			Integrating with Azure Logic Apps
			Integrating with Azure API Management
	Frontend integration patterns and solution approaches
		Embedding third-party content into Dataverse
		Embedding Dataverse content into third-party containers
		Event-driven and on-demand frontend integration
		Using Unified Service Desk
	Backend integration patterns and solution approaches
		The remote procedure call pattern
		The relay pattern
		The publish-subscribe pattern
		The request-callback pattern
		Data integration
			Virtual tables
			Standard Azure data integrations
			Integration between Dynamics 365 CRM and ERP
		Custom backend integrations
	Other Power Platform integrations
		Power Virtual Agent and AI Builder
		Power BI
	Learning about Power Platform integration best practices
		Frontend integration
		Backend integration
	Contoso Inc. Power Platform integration design
		Integration with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure
		Frontend integration
		Backend integration
	Summary
Chapter 10: Microsoft Power Platform Data Migration
	Contoso Inc. planning the data migration
	Getting an overview of data migration
		Migration as part of integration
		Migrating consolidated data
		Advanced migration
	Understanding the data migration tools and techniques
		Entering data manually
		Using Excel files
		Using the Dataverse data import wizard
		The Configuration Migration Tool
		Dataflows with Power Query
		SQL Server Integration Services
			Extracting data
			Transforming data
			Loading data
		Azure Data Factory
		Data migration using code
	Data migration challenges and best practices
		Planning and effort estimation
		Scoping the migration
		Understanding the impact on storage
		Compliance considerations
		Understanding access issues
		Coping with a lack of knowledge
		Dealing with a lack of documentation
		Poor-quality source data
		Understanding encoding issues
		Understanding record ownership issues
		Understanding mapping issues
		Understanding record relationship issues
		Understanding business process flow issues
		Understanding record status issues
		Setting certain system fields
		Migrating documents
		Understanding the importance of the order of migration steps
		Understanding migration automation
		Understanding migration performance
		Resolving API limits
		Time for migration execution
		Verifying the data by the customer
	Contoso Inc. data migration design
	Summary
Appendix
Appendix: Best Practices for Solution Architecture
	Architectural best practices
		When to use multiple tenants
			Separate development and testing environments
			Unsupported integration topology
		Environment strategies for an enterprise-scale project
			The shared test and production environment strategy
			The dedicated environments strategy
			The complex testing strategy
			The multiple release strategy
			The product upgrades strategy
		Environment regions
		Administration and monitoring
	Application lifecycle management best practices
		Create a specific solution package
		When to use unmanaged or managed solutions
		When to use a single solution
		When to use multiple solutions
		Component sharing and component libraries
			Using segmentation
			Using source control
		Use one single publisher for all solutions within a project
		Power BI best practices
	Security best practices
		Dataverse security roles
		Create new custom roles instead of modifying default roles
			Layer security roles instead of configuring individual roles
		Dataverse content-based security
			Using a business unit hierarchy
			Using table form switching
			Using server-side event handlers
		Integrate security across solution components
			Dataverse-SharePoint integrated security
			Dataverse-Power BI integrated security
		How to use identity and access management automation
		Establishing a Power Platform mature security model
	Extensibility best practices
		Optimizing the performance of client-side extensibility
		Dataverse server-side extensibility
			When to use which Dataverse API
			Recapping extensibility and automation options
			Avoid synchronous workflows and plug-ins
	Integration best practices
		Frontend integration
		Backend integration
	Data migration best practices
		Don’t underestimate the project duration
		Determine the scope of the migration
		Understand the impact on storage
		Compliance considerations
		Start getting physical access to all required systems and solutions early
		Expect a lack of knowledge about legacy IT systems
		Include contractual responsibility for the quality of source data
		Legacy IT systems might have encoding issues
		Attempt to resolve record ownership issues in the data transformation phase
		Understanding mapping issues
		Exclude records with record relationship issues
		Understanding business process flow issues
		Understanding record status issues
		Ascertain whether you need to set certain system fields
		Migrating documents
		Follow the order of migration steps
		Understanding migration automation
		Understanding migration performance
		Request the lifting of API limits for large projects
		Arrange time for the migration execution
		The customer should verify the quality of all migrated data before the final migration
Index