2 Very Notable Changes in AX Security with AX7/D3FO

There are two very notable changes with security when moving to AX7 or Dynamics 360 For Operations (D3FO).  I learned this at the 2016 AXUG Summit Conference.

1. The Security Development Tool that I love (!!!) will be completely new starting with AX7.  The menu item is called Security Configuration Form.  You won't be able to TEST from the tool anymore.  Hopefully Microsoft will add this back.
2. There are multiple access levels to a form which is set at each entry point.  In D3FO, the application will honor entry point access.  What this means in layman terms is IF a user has role which grants them multiple accesses to a form.  Then depending on what navigation path they access the form from, their access will be different.  Microsoft considered this a bug in 2012 and corrected it in AX7.  This may upset/confuse your users as they may think their access has been changed!

The beginning of an upgrade journey

Following my own advice!  Here is my article in the Q3 AXUG Magazine - Viewpoint: Are you ready for the New Dynamics AX .

During the AXUG Summit 2016, I spoke with 2 Microsoft professionals, Matthew Maertens on Security and Tariq Bell on Upgrades.  Since my company is on 2012 R1/RTM, our upgrade journey is to upgrade to R3 which will position us for where Dynamics 365 for Operations will take us.  With R3 mainstream support through 2021, we have time to see what paths Microsoft will offer and consider our options before beyond 2012.

Done:

1. R3 licence key - You will need this to install, we contacted our partner who had to request from Microsoft.  Note: The key is only good for 3 months.
2. ISV code - Secured R3/CU9 compatible versions of their software.  We'll need to recontact when they will have a CU12 version which was just announced November 21, 2016.  We'll want to install CU11 so that we can upgrade to SQL Server 2016.
3. Partner model - Since we have customizations from our partner, they reviewed and provided an updated R3 compatible model and provided some notes as to what we might want to consider in modifications given R3 functionality.
4. Microsoft documentation - Gathered up release documentation on changes and new features.  Reviewed and took note of what might be desirable from my company's view.  Here's some links: New, Changed, and Deprecated Features for AX2012, New Feature List for R2, What's New in Microsoft Dynamics 2012 R3, and Deprecated Features AX 2012.  You can also find documents on specific features. 
5. Customizations - Thankfully, we tracked all changes to AX in Jira, both changes by our partner and those done internally.
6. Project Team - Established the project team; pointed them to the release documentation; highlighted reasons to upgrade both technically and functionally; and presented a high level project plan.

To Do:

1. Process Reviews - We'll do this in 2 ways.  First, each functional team member will review the release documentation to see what might affect them or where they might want to alter their current process.  Secondly, we will regression test all our processes.
2. Security - We will move our custom security from the USR to the CUS layer.  Much to the delight of some of my consultant friends.  Also we have yet to review what changes might affect what we've setup.
3. R3 environment with company data - This is in process now.  It is a difficult process given the technical changes between R1 and R3.  We will be working with our partner for some guidance and hope to have an environment up by mid-December.  I'll post more details on this in a subsequent post.

This is just the start.  More to come as we dive into this upgrade!!!

Thankful...

As you begin this holiday this holiday weekend,

please take a moment to be THANKFUL.

Thankful of all you have:

project team members,

super users,

online communities,

LinkedIn connections,

followers,

and best of all your loved ones...

those that support you in all you do

at home and at work.

2016 AXUG Summit - Count In. Count On.

Summit was very busy this year!  It had a stronger Microsoft presence and much more content by USERS!!!  My involvement has grew this year - Programming Committee, Security Track User Leader, Speaker, and Moderator.

The most inspirational part of it for me was when past attendees reached out to me to thank me for the knowledge and advice that I was able to provide and they could use it back at their jobs.  This for me is driving stronger commitment to the AXUG community and the spring boarding of this blog.

I hope that you will join me on this adventure.  I will post articles on project management, AX security, and my company's R3 upgrade journey!