For some years Microsoft have worked on patterns, practices, business process guides, and other types of guidance content for Microsoft Dynamics 365. In the July release, things became more interesting, as we now can go from a “glorified” excel sheet to a more automated installation. The Microsoft team have done a fantastic job on building a package that create and update the Azure DevOps process/project configuration and import the Business Process Catalog source workbooks into Azure DevOps Boards.

The process are documented here : https://github.com/microsoft/dynamics365patternspractices/tree/main/templates/Azure-DevOps-templates/July

What it does, is to create and import DevOps in 6 steps/phases:

In essence, it imports the following 4 excel sheets:

Business Process Catalog JUL 2026.xlsx contains the business processes, that in the excel sheet looks like this:

After running the imports, you get a DevOps parent-child structure like this:

But there are 3 more excel sheets that is also imported. Objectives (Goals), where you build up the structure of what you want to accomplish. This structure is great to create a long-term backlog of goals.

There are also the Success by Design Delivery plan, that guides you through the implementation.

The last tree structure are Deliverables (What), that guides you through how to set up the system, and also configurations:

Having a common structure in D365 implementations is of very high value, because we start talking and thinking in the same concepts and language. This package aim to help in this direction, and will also act as a foundation for other AI tools when performing an implementation.

But lets not stop here. As we know, the Business Process Catalog is something that is “alive”, and are improved and extended through releases. I don’t consider my self as an expert in executing python scripts, but luckily I have a fantastic tool installed on my PC : Microsoft Scout. As the BPC and installation process is quite well documented, I just asked Microsoft Scout to set up everything for me. And it did this flawlessly. When information was needed (Like PAT-Personal Access Token) it asks for it, and then just starts importing and setting up the entire devOps.

After some hours, the DevOps was ready with all setup. I was amazed !

But I did not stop there. I also wanted my DevOps to be updated and refreshed periodically. As we know, the Business process catalog is a Github, so I asked Scout to create a clone in our own Github, and then periodically perform a refresh from the central github.

This gives me the the following flow/pipeline

So now I have an updated Business Process catalog from the “Mothership”. New and improved processes are imported/updated, and I can merge when needed.

As we all know, D365 implementations can be a very large investment, and by combining a structure like we have in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Patterns and Practices gives also AI tools a foundation of what to do.

I’m also looking forward to see what Project MIA will look like, as this will rely on the Business Process Catalog and Success by Design. Being able to have your local repro and structure will be important to succeed.