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Use the business process catalog as a template in Azure DevOps Services

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This article describes how you can use Microsoft's business process catalog as a template that you import into a project in Azure DevOps Services to manage your Dynamics 365 implementation project.

Generate work items from the business process catalog

There are many reasons why a tool such as Azure DevOps is critical to the overall success of a Dynamics 365 implementation. By using a service such as Azure Boards with the business process catalog, you can accelerate the deployment and follow the recommendations in the Process-focused solution articles in the Dynamics 365 implementation guide content. The following list describes just some of the benefits of using the business process catalog to build work items to manage your Dynamics 365 implementation.

  • Efficiency and time savings: The business process catalog provides a standardized and comprehensive list of business processes. It can save customers and partners significant time, because they don't have to research, define, and document business processes from scratch.
  • Recommended practices and industry standards: The documentation that accompanies the catalog is available in the Dynamics 365 guidance hub. The content of this documentation often includes recommended practices and industry-standard business processes. By applying these predefined processes, you help ensure that technology solutions are aligned with recognized industry standards and compliance requirements.
  • Reduced risk: Use of established and standardized processes helps reduce the risk of errors and oversights in the implementation of technology solutions. These processes are tried and tested, and therefore help reduce the likelihood of costly mistakes.
  • Alignment with Microsoft technologies: The business process catalog is designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft technologies, including Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Azure. This alignment can simplify integration and interoperability, so that it's easier to build and deploy technology solutions.
  • Scalability: As businesses grow, their processes might have to evolve. The business process catalog provides a foundation that can be scaled and customized as required to ensure flexibility for future changes.
  • Community and collaboration: Use of a standardized catalog can help foster collaboration and knowledge sharing in the Microsoft community. Customers and partners can benefit from the experiences and insights of others who use similar processes.
  • Training and onboarding: Standardized processes can help streamline the onboarding and training of new employees or team members who join an organization. They provide a clear reference point for understanding how the organization operates.

In conclusion, the business process catalog offers customers and partners a valuable resource for efficiently and effectively implementing technology solutions in a way that's aligned with industry standards. It simplifies the process of designing, customizing, and deploying solutions, and ultimately leads to improved productivity, reduced risk, and better business outcomes.

Note

This article assumes that you use Azure Boards, and that you've downloaded the business process catalog.

Download the latest version of the catalog from https://aka.ms/BusinessProcessCatalog. We update the catalog at least four times each year. Learn more at Business process contributions.

Before you import

Before you can import the project into Azure Boards, there are a few things that you must do and consider. Use the following list as a guide and checklist to ensure that you're ready to import the catalog.

  1. Define your project scope.

    We recommend that you use the workbook as a starting point to define the scope. At the most basic level, delete any rows that don't apply to your project. Learn more about how to define your project scope at Process-focused solution.

  2. Create a project in the Azure DevOps Services tenant.

    The template that we provide is designed to work with the Agile work item process type. Learn more at Create a project in Azure DevOps and Agile process work item types.

  3. Define area paths in the project settings.

    For each end-to-end process that is in scope, create one area path. Learn more at Add or modify work item types.

  4. Create custom work item types.

    The template includes two custom work item types that you must create before you can import the catalog. Here, we assume that you're using agile process work item types. You can use other types; however, that might require more custom work items types and fields. Learn more at Define area paths and assign to a team.

    • Collection: Create a new work item type, Collection, to group all work items related to end-to-end processes. Our template creates one collection for each of the end-to-end business processes. We recommend you add the following fields to the layout of the custom work items:

      • Description

      • Process sequence ID

        This is a custom field with values provided in the template.

      • Priority

      • Risk

      • Effort

      • Business value

      • Time Criticality

        This is the name of a field in the current version of the catalog. If you prefer to use another term to indicate time-sensitivity, you must also change the name of the relevant column in the catalog before you import the entries.

      • Microsoft Learn URL

        This is a custom field with values provided in the template.

    • Configuration deliverable: Create a new work item type, Configuration deliverable, to store each configuration in the template. Configuration deliverables represent setup or configuration that is required in Dynamics 365 to support one or more processes. We recommend that you document the details of each configuration throughout your project. The default configurations provided in the template guide you to the configurations that are required for each business process. More information is included on each configuration to help you understand what the configuration is used for. We recommend you add the following fields to the layout of the customer work item:

      • Description

      • Process sequence ID

        This is a custom field with values provided in the template.

      • Menu path

        This is a custom field with values provided in the template.

      • Included in entity

        This is a custom field with values provided in the template.

      • Module or Functionality

        Both names are equally valid. The current version of the catalog uses Module to describe a group of product capabilities, such as Fixed assets.

      • Priority

      • Risk

      • Effort

      • Microsoft Learn URL

        This is a custom field with values provided in the template.

    • Workshop: Create a new work item type, Workshop, to to store detailed information about how to run a workshop. We recommend you add the following fields to the layout of the custom work items:

      • Description
      • Agenda This is a custom field with values provided in the template.
      • Work Shop Assumptions This is a custom field with values provided in the template.
      • Key questions This is a custom field with values provided in the template.

  5. Add custom fields as required. The template includes four custom fields. Use the following guidance to create the fields. Alternatively, delete the columns from the template. Learn more at Add and manage fields.

    • Catalog status: Add this field as a Picklist field, so that you can track the status of the row in the Microsoft Business Process Catalog when new versions are released. Learn more at Add a picklist field. We recommend that you create the following four options for the list:

      • New
      • Published
      • Updated
      • Deprecated

    • Business owner: Add this field as an Identity field, so that you can select a user or person in the identity picker. We recommend you add owners to all your work items types. Learn more at Add an Identity field.

    • Business process lead: Add this field as an Identity field, so that you can select a user or person in the identity picker. We recommend you add owners to all your work items types. Learn more at Add an Identity field.

    • Business outcome category: Add this field as a Picklist field, so that users can select an option in a dropdown list. We recommend you add owners to the Feature and User Story work items types at a minimum. Learn more at Add a picklist field. We recommend that you create the following three options for the list:

      • Business unit: Use this option when the work item is for a specific business unit.
      • Organization: Use this option when the work item is for the entire organization.
      • Process team: Use this option when the work item is for a subset of your business unit, organization, or group of people in your organization. Although we use the term process team, you can use any other term that is appropriate for your project.

    • Process sequence ID: Add this field as a custom Text (single line) field, so that users can see the Microsoft assigned ID for the process. We do not recommend that you modify or change the Process sequence ID provided by Microsoft. When you need to add a custom process that is not included in our standard catalog, we recommend that you suffix the ID with custom letters for your organization to ensure there is no conflict in uptaking future releases of the catalog. Learn more at Add a custom field.

    • Alternate process sequence ID: Add this field as a custom Text (single line) field, so that users can see the alterntative process sequence ID for a deprecated process. We recommend that you review the deprecated rows in the process catalog to decide how you want to handle the transition. In most cases, we have moved the process to a new location in the catalog. You can manually move an existing work item in your catalog by deleting the Parent relationship and creating a new releationshiop. This ensures that all the additional information you have tracked on your work item is kept in place. Learn more at Add a custom field.

    • Microsoft Learn URL: Add this field as a custom Rich-text, HTML field, so that you can add a clickable link into the field. Learn more at Add a custom field.

    • Menu Path: Add this field as a custom Text (single line) field, so that users can enter a menu path to navigate to the configuration in Dynamics 365. We recommend you add this field to the custom work items type for configuration deliverables. Learn more at Add a custom field.

    • Included in entity: Add this field as a custom Text (single line) field, so that you can indicate if the configuration is included in a data entity by entering the name of the data entity. We recommend you add this field to the custom work items type for configuration deliverables. Learn more at Add a custom field.

    • Module/Functionality: Add this field as a Picklist field, so that users can select an option in a dropdown list. We recommend you add this field to the custom work items type for configuration deliverables. Learn more at Add a picklist field. We recommend that you create the following options for the list:

      • Accounts payables
      • Accounts receivables
      • Asset leasing
      • Asset management
      • Audit workbench
      • Budgeting
      • Cash and bank management
      • Common
      • Consolidations
      • Cost accounting
      • Cost management
      • Credit and collections
      • Expense management
      • Fixed assets
      • General ledger
      • Human resources
      • Inventory management
      • Master planning
      • Organization administration
      • Payroll
      • Procurement and sourcing
      • Product information management
      • Production control
      • Project management and accounting
      • Questionnaire
      • Retail
      • Sales and marketing
      • Service management
      • System settings
      • Tax
      • Time and attendance
      • Transportation management
      • Warehouse management

      Tip

      These names are based on common names for various departments or roles or functional areas in business apps. They partially overlap with the names of modules in Dynamics 365 but are not necessarily identical with the names of modules.

  6. Insert any other rows that your project requires.

    You might need more epics, features, or user stories. Epics use the second Title column, features use the third Title column, and user stories use the fourth Title column. To establish a firm relationship between the rows, don't insert the next Epic or Feature row until you've listed all rows that require a relationship to the last epic or feature. You might want to add other work item types too, such as Documentation deliverables or Workshops. However, the template that we provide doesn't currently include other work item types.

  7. Complete the other columns in the workbook as required. Use the following recommendations as guidance.

    • Description: Optionally, add a detailed description for your business processes before you import, or work on this description throughout the project. In future releases, we plan to prepopulate this column for you.
    • Assigned to: Typically, select the consultant or person who is responsible for configuring the process from the partner organization. Make sure that the person is already added to your project as a user.
    • Business owner: Typically, select the stakeholder from the customer organization that is responsible for the business process. Make sure that the person is already added to your project as a user.
    • Business process lead: Typically, select the subject matter expert from the customer organization that is responsible for the business process. Make sure that the person is already added to your project as a user.
    • Tags: Optionally create tags for sorting, filtering, and organizing your work items. The default template doesn't include any tags. Consider using this column to separate departments, phases, geographic regions, or product families (for example, customer engagement apps and finance and operations apps).
    • Priority: By default, all rows in the workbook have a priority of 1. However, you can change the priorities to suit your needs. A priority of 1 indicates "must have" features, and a priority of 3 indicates "nice to have" features. You can also make your own definitions. In this case, we recommend that you document them for your project team.
    • Risk: Optionally add a rating for the risk. For example, you might give a high risk score to processes that are very complex or require lots of modification.
    • Effort: Optionally add a rating for the effort. For example, you might give a high effort score to processes that require integration or modification.

  8. Update the Area path value in the file.

    You must replace the value in the Area path column with the exact name of your project and area paths. If you create the areas paths so that they match the end-to-end process names, you just have to replace the text BA Content Hub with the name of your project in your area path.

  9. Optional: Add more columns to the file, or remove columns that you don't plan to use before you import. If any of the custom fields that you add to your Azure DevOps project are mandatory, make sure that you include them in the file. Otherwise, import of the file might fail.

  10. Split large files for import.

    Determine if you must split your file into multiple files before you can upload the catalog. Azure DevOps limits the number of rows that can be uploaded in one import to 1,000. If your final file has more than 1,000 rows, split the file. When you split the file, make sure that all epics, features, and user stories that are related to the same end-to-end process are in the same file. For example, if row 1000 is in the middle of the order to cash process after the deletion and insertion of any required rows, split the file at the first row for order to cash. In this way, you ensure that all order to cash processes are included, and that you can establish the relationships during the import. If you try to import the entire catalog, you must split the file into four parts for import.

  11. The file must be saved as a .csv file before you can import it to Azure DevOps.

    If you added columns and features such as formatting or formulas in the workbook, and you don't want to lose them, consider saving a version of the file as an .xlsx file. This version can help you avoid losing those features. However, the version that you import must be the .csv file.

Note

If the version of the catalog that you're about to save contains special characters such as commas (,) or quotation makes ("), remove them before you save the .csv file. For example, the October 2023 version of the uncustomized catalog contains the entry Implement "secret shopper" program. Change this entry to Implement secret shopper program before you save the .csv file.

Import the file

After you prepare your file for import and configure the basic setup in the project with area paths, security, teams, and users, you can import your work items. Learn more at Import update bulk work items with CSV files.

After you import

After you import the file, validate that the import was successful. If file import fails, use the messages that are provided to fix the issue, and then try again. After the file is successfully imported, you can start to use the features of Azure Boards to manage your project. The following list includes a few tasks and tips to consider.