System updates

  • 10 minutes

The system update experience consists of four steps:

  1. Configure
  2. Notice
  3. Update
  4. Validate

Configure

During the Configure step, customers can select a maintenance window based on their business operating constraints. This maintenance window can be set up in Lifecycle Services by using the update properties that are available for your Dynamics project. A calendar of upcoming updates is also available to help you plan.

For you to be able to use new features, you must opt in for the updates and then turn them on. To ensure environment stability, all updates will be first applied to the user acceptance testing (UAT) environment, and if the testing is successful, they’ll be deployed to the production environment. This way, you can give your customers the time that they need to do the required validation. Customers can select the environment that is updated and can also pause an update for up to three months to coordinate with their business schedule.

Notice

For you to be able to plan for future updates in coordination with your business, you have access to the updated release plans at Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans. These updated release plans will be available to help you plan and understand which existing features have been modified and which new features have been implemented. The release plans are published three months before the actual updates, which should give you enough time to plan accordingly. Additionally, notifications will be sent by email and shown in Lifecycle Services five days in advance of the update.

Update

After the notifications have been sent, the automatic update will be applied during the scheduled maintenance window and then a notification email will be sent. You will also be able to self-update by using the standard update experience in Lifecycle Services. Customers who participate in the First release program will have an opportunity to update their sandbox environment and other environments early.

Validate

After an update has been run and completed in the UAT environment, you can start a basic business test procedure, which will validate the environment. To support this process, a no-code automation test tool for business process testing is available. The Impact analyzer can be used to assess the release impact while data task automation is available to test the integrations.

The following features enhance the system update process:

  • Impact analysis background – This tool helps to avoid risk during the testing efforts. More risk is found in areas of the product that are used more often and in areas of the product that have changed the most in the release. The purpose of this tool is to provide insight into usage, churn and feature areas that can help assess risk, and to drive smarter testing.
  • Regression Suite Automation Tool (RSAT) – The target users for this tool are customers or partners who are looking for business process scenario validation. This tool enables you to record the test scenario once by using the Task recorder, and then running multiple playbacks. This tool significantly reduces the time and cost to run scenario acceptance testing.
  • No code required - Enable functional power users to run test automation with no need to write source code.
  • Microsoft Azure DevOps integration - The Lifecycle Services Business process modeler (BPM) syncs to Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) test cases.
  • Decouple test data parameters from test steps – This process is achieved with the use of Microsoft Excel data templates.