Introduction: This blog explains how to migrate data for Many to Many or N:N relationship records. Scenario: Client always demand configuration records to be migrated from Test Env to a Production Environment.We can migrate data for Entity records and Entities with 1:N relationships records however we cannot directly migrate data for N:N relationship( intermediate entity) which is not exposed in D365 PSA. This can be achieved by using XRM Tool Box plugin – Manage NN relationships. Prerequistive: · XRM Tool Box with “Manage NN relationships” plugin installed. · Both entities having alternate key with data – This is required as a cleaner approach. Below steps explains how to achieve requirement. Steps of Implementation: 1. Open “Manage NN relationships” plugin in XRM tool box with Source Organization as connected. 2. Click Load Metadata button and then select First Entity with Specific attribute as alternate Key and same for Second Entity as shown below. 3. Click button Export button and save file. 4. Open exported file Column A is OrgUnitID and Column B is PriceLevelID data. 5. Change connection to target organization of Manage NN relationship plugin in XRM toolbox and then follow the step 1 and 2. 6. Click Import button and select the file exported in step 3. 7. Data migrated is been tracked in log section of plugin. Conclusion: N:N relationship or Many to Many relationship entity records cannot be migrated from D365 PSA as they are not been exposed however this can be achieved by using third party tool like XRM Tool Box – “Manage NN relationship”.  

Overview: Often while working on PS, I was struggling to  get the Chargeability View right. The main reason is not having the right Price List setup at the right places. There are 4 important places where the Price Lists need to be setup properly. Product Catalog with Role Prices having Org Unit A Account having corresponding Sales Price List and the same Sales Price List under it’s Project Price Lists grid. Opportunity having Org Unit A as Contracting Unit and Product Price list having Sales Price List for Org Unit A selected. Quote derived from the Opportunity having the same Account, Opportunity, Contracting unit and Product Price List selected. Organization Unit: For each Organization Unit you add to PSA, make sure you’ve added a Cost Price list to the Organization Unit as well as a Sales Price list exists for the same. Make sure Organization Units on the Role Prices are selected correctly on both the Sales and Cost Price Lists Sales Price List on Account and Opportunity: Account and Opportunity too should have the same Sales Price list whose Cost Price list is associated with the Organization Unit of the Account’s and Opportunity’s Organization Unit. Make sure you’ve correct Organization Unit and Product Price List as a Sales Price List for that Org Unit selected on the Opportunity form. Chargeability View on Quote Lines: Once everything flows from Account to Opportunity to Quote and to Quote Lines, you can see that your Chargeability View pops-up properly. Hope this helps you derive correct Chargeability View without hassle.

Introduction: Let’s consider a scenario where we need to raise an expense entry for a Fixed Bid project. PSA by definition does not charge for expenses. If you want to have fixed price for the project and expense to be charged for other things, you need to do it via adjusting the contract. Steps: Follow the steps below to prepare the contract: Prepare a contract and add a Fixed Bid project with “Time” and “Fee” as the option shown below: Add another line and create another Time and Material Type project and select “Expenses” as the option. You will have to inform the team to select the right project while raising the expense, that is the T&M one. Now when you create the invoice via that contract, you will get your milestone as well as the expenses coming up in the same invoice as shown below.

I tried many ways to figure out why the “Project Information” form is not opening in Opportunity when a lead is Qualified in D365 PSA. I tried manually opening the “Project Information” form on Opportunity, but, it turns back to default “Opportunity” form. I figured out lastly that the tweak was with one of the fields in Lead form. To open the Project information form on opportunity, the “Order Type” value should be “Work based” this ensures the lead is for Project Service. If we select “Service-Maintenance Based”, it opens “Field Service Information” form on opportunity. Lastly, “Item Based” open the default “Opportunity” Form.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 App Development Services is a new generation business application platform from Microsoft that provides an end to end solution to all your growing business needs starting from design, development till the appsource listing and future enhancements. Our App advancement administration group has profound skills in creating sophisticated business applications on the head of Dynamics 365 for our accomplices. We help you through the whole lifecycle, from Development to AppSource posting and improvement support, permitting you to concentrate on your Business Strategy and Marketing. Once the application is prepared and inside tried, we will work with you to present the application to Microsoft, address any issues and get the application recorded on the AppSource. Project Managers often struggle to manage the project plan, keep the Gantt Chart updated.  As there are many activities under the PM’s umbrella to ensure the project delivery goes out smooth and successful. CloudFronts – PM App helps you to keep your project plan updated. Now, you will ask how does that happen? Following is what we do: 1.       We create the Gantt Chart, in which we: List down the Activities Assign duration Assign Billing Code Assign Resources Assign Predecessor’s to the Activities: This is an important activity. What happens when a predecessor is assigned to the task is, that task goes in inactive State. Unless the previous task is marked complete, the dependent task doesn’t turn active. Now, it is Project Manager’s responsibility to ensure that there is 100% time entry done for that task. This will tell you that the task is actually complete. PM-App also provides you this information. Once you double click the task, you see a Progress Field over that. If that is marked as 100%, means the time entry for the task is done by the developer completely. Now the project manager can safely mark the task as complete which is green in colour, so the dependent task becomes Active. Tip: A well-managed Gantt chart provides a lot of benefit to all the stakeholders, so always keep it updated.

We have been hearing a lot about Agile Methodology for project implementation. But, we also need to see if it is the right choice for Dynamics world. Agile in short says “Do not wait till end, rather let’s see the deliverable in pieces”. Well, that’s justified too. Clients here get to see their baby at regular intervals. Each delivery sprint can go in a controlled manner from End-to-End delivery cycle like the complete projects does, excluding the deployment phase, which happens at the end of the last Sprint of the project. We at CloudFronts practice Agile for all the project implementation. In fact, our PSM solution is getting redesigned to suit the needs of such Agile project implementation. This is done in order to help project managers keep the data intact in CRM and do not scatter it in multiple excel files. Right from Project creation to Resource allocation to Gantt Charts to Time sheet’s we keep all of it inside CRM so that the PM is in pace of the project and all is in single place. Agile generally demands clear requirements for the project to be implemented. Keeping this in mind the project moves through Sprints. The following image illustrates “Where does Sprints come into picture”. We too follow the standard practise dictated by Agile: Daily stand up meeting Iteration planning Unit testing Release planning Burndown/team-based estimation Coding standards Continuous integration Automated builds The project planning is done in MS Project in Sprinted approach. Though MS Project is not the ideal tool to do Agile Planning but taking the advantage of its flexibility that allows us to do it.   We have the following documents in place for each Sprint and the Sprints coming ahead: Daily Agile task allocation Sheet: This is an Excel sheet where we allocate the tasks to the team during the daily stand up meeting and mark the Pending tasks that are incomplete. Sprint Document: This contains the following 4 things: Achievable Backlog Completed Other Remarks All the incomplete tasks from previous sprint are move to next sprints Backlog section. This also then becomes the part of the current sprint. There are multiple benefits of following Agile: Development process gets streamlined and simplified. Higher rate of customer satisfaction. Reduces risk. Improves project Visibility. Success rate for project goes higher by 70% Reduces the cost of development. So, this is what CloudFronts follows as Agile practice. Hope you found this article useful. We will continue to publish more articles as we implement “Agile” that works for Dynamics projects !