Answered

Best Practice on Modifying Existing Flows

(1) Share

Report

Posted on by pgregoire

We are starting to have multiple powerapps and flows in our organization. My question is what are the best practice for modifying existing flows.

Flow example, we have a powerapps with multiple buttons that triggers a flow. In the Flow, we have connections to a Production ERP environment, Sharepoint Sites, an SQL database, we send emails with approvals, normal emails, etc. Most emails are hard coded, sometimes we do a get manager on the user that triggered the flow.

Users trigger this flow multiple times in an hour so now, what are the best practices to make modifications to this flow? Is it possible while they continue to work with the current version of this flow?

From what I know right now, I have to stop sharing the powerapp, change all my actions in the flow connected to live environments and point them to our test sharepoint site, UAT ERP environment, SQL table, and change all the emails to be myself (or static results). Now I can make changes, then change back all my actions to the proper values and reshare the app...hopefully I don't forget anything when I set all my 12 actions back to production ready.

I'm looking for best practices to deal with this?

Thanks,

Categories:

General topics

All responses (3)

Answers (1)

Sort by

Verified answer

Brad_Groux 4,556 on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
First of all, I highly encourage all organizations to rollout the Power Platform Center of Excellence Starter Kit. Secondly, it is all about documentation. You must have detailed documentation of all of your Flows, PowerApps, Connectors, etc.

From there, best practice is kind of up to you. Some people choose to have a DEV/TEST/PROD setup, some choose to have only a PROD setup. I personally use DEV/TEST/PROD, and I set a naming standard that makes components easily identifiable. Example:

DEV - Process 1 - Flow 1

DEV - Process 1 - Flow 2

TEST - Process 1 - Flow 1

TEST - Process 1 - Flow 2

PROD- Process 1 - Flow 1

PROD - Process 1 - Flow 2

Some of mine even have versions built in, it all really depends on the complexity of the job. I also follow the same naming standard for PowerApps, Power BI, etc. So, I could have:

PROD - Process 1 - Flow 1

PROD - Process 1 - Flow 2

PROD - Process 1 - PowerApp 1

PROD - Process 1 - BI Report 1

The Center of Excellence Starter Kit is a great starting point to build from. The biggest thing has and always will be documentation and change management. How complex you want to get, is dependent on your team, environment, and workload.

If this reply answers your question or solves your issue, please ACCEPT AS SOLUTION ☑️. If you find this reply helpful, please consider giving it a LIKE.
pgregoire 11 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

@Brad_Groux Thanks for the quick reply. I'll definitely look into the CoE.

So basically, you always maintain 3 copies of the same flow. 2 that are always pointing to sandbox environments with your email everywhere and only 1 that points to your production environments.

When you are ready to make the modifications to your PROD flows, what's the process? Do you have to email to users to let them know they will be a "maintenance" on that flow and turn it off while you update it?
Brad_Groux 4,556 on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

The update process depends on the Flow, as not all Flows are created equal. We utilize a standard Change Control process for our larger production Flows. For many of our process automation and infrastructure related Flows, we just update as needed.

You'll never be able to manage all of your user's Flows with standard DevOps processes - that isn't what Power Automate, and Low-Code/No-Code solutions are for. You have to find the right balance for your environment.