Configure a business process flow

Business Process Flow is an essential component of the Microsoft Power Platform that allows users to streamline and automate their workflows, guiding users through the steps they need to perform to achieve their targeted outcome. Business Process Flows can be instrumental when it comes to improving visibility and standardizing practices within a business, ensuring that every task is performed uniformly and efficiently.

Creating and Configuring Business Process Flow

To create a Business Process Flow, you must have the System Administrator or System Customizer security role or equivalent permissions.

First, navigate to the Power Apps portal, select ‘Solutions’ from the left-hand menu and then Click ‘New solution’. Name your solution, select the publisher and define the version. Once done, click ‘Create’.

Next, select ‘New’ and ‘Business Process Flow’. You will be given the choice to name your flow and choose the entity it will apply to. At this stage, you are constructing the blueprint from which your processes will be built upon.

Once you have created your Business Process Flow, you will be brought to the designer view—this is where you will configure the stages and steps of your process. Add stages to represent the key phases of the process and steps within each phase to guide your users. You can add conditions and branching logic to accurately model your complex business rules.

For instance, if you are creating a business process flow for a sales process, your stages might include ‘Qualify’, ‘Develop’, ‘Propose’, and ‘Close’. Under each of these stages could be multiple steps to be performed like identifying decision makers, understanding customer needs, preparing proposals, and more.

Moreover, you can configure the entities to which the business process flow is applied. For example, your business process flow could start with the Lead entity, follow by the Opportunity, and end at the Quote stage.

You can also add conditional branches to guide users through different steps based on the data entered or outcome of the previous actions. For example, users could be led down different paths depending on the size, type, or needs of a prospective customer.

Remember to validate and activate your Business Process Flow once you have configured it.

Leveraging Action Steps and Workflows

Adding both action steps and workflows in the business process flow can enhance the user experience. The action steps call for specific actions or jobs to be executed during the process, ensuring standardized execution of recurrent actions.

For example, you may add an action step that automatically creates a follow-up task when a lead is qualified.

Workflows can automate the entire processes or sub-processes in the flow. They can be particularly useful for automating backend processes that don’t require user input.

For example, when an opportunity is won, a workflow could be triggered to automatically create an order, generate an invoice and send an email confirmation to the customer, all without any user intervention.

Managing Security Roles and Process Flow

Administrators can define the access level of each business process flow by assigning different security roles. This provides an additional layer of control to ensure that only relevant staff have access to each process.

For instance, a sales manager might have access to all sales-related process flows, while a sales representative might only have rights to view and execute a subset of these flows.

Monitoring and Managing Business Process Flows

Power Platform provides insights to help monitor the performance and utilization of your business process flows. Use these insights to identify bottlenecks, optimize your processes and improve user adoption.

Manage and modify business process flow stages as your business evolves. Add scheduled checks using timers to ensure tasks are accomplished in a timely fashion, or add business rules to govern data accuracy and maintain the hygiene of your data.

To sum up, business process flows within Microsoft Power Platform provide a structured approach to managing and automating your business processes. By utilizing them effectively, businesses can foster a culture of consistency and efficacy within their business operations.

Practice Test

What is the maximum number of stages you can create in a new business process flow in Power Platform?

• A) 30
• B) 50
• C) 100
• D) 200

Answer: A)

Explanation: Power Platform allows a maximum of 30 stages in a new business process flow.

Branching in a business process flow allows businesses to move in different directions based on certain criteria.

• A) True.
• B) False.

Answer: A) True.

Explanation: Branching in business process flows allows different stages or actions to be executed based on business rules or conditions.

Can someone with the System Customizer security role configure, create, delete and edit business process flows in Power Platform?

• A) True.
• B) False.

Answer: A) True.

Explanation: System Customizer security role allows the users to create, configure and edit the business process flows.

Business process flow stages cannot be associated with specific entities.

• A) True.
• B) False.

Answer: B) False.

Explanation: Each stage of Business Process Flow can be associated with a specific entity which defines the steps necessary to be performed.

Which entity type does not support Business process flows?

• A) System
• B) Business
• C) Custom

Answer: A) System

Explanation: Business Process Flows are not supported with system entities. They can be created for business and custom entities.

You can configure business process flows to help ensure that people enter data consistently and follow the same steps every time they work with a customer.

• A) True.
• B) False.

Answer: A) True.

Explanation: Business process flows define a predefined set of steps and rules for people to follow, ensuring consistency and standardization.

What is not a valid role to configure a business process flow in Microsoft Power Platform?

• A) System Administrator.
• B) System Customizer.
• C) Basic User.

Answer: C) Basic User.

Explanation: Basic Users typically lack the necessary permissions to modify or configure business process flows.

Which of the following cannot be done while configuring a business process flow?

• A) Add new stages.
• B) Delete existing stages.
• C) Change the process order.
• D) Remove the primary entity.

Answer: D) Remove the primary entity.

Explanation: The primary entity of a business process flow cannot be removed once the flow has been created.

Businesses can only have one active business process flow at a time.

• A) True.
• B) False.

Answer: B) False.

Explanation: Businesses can have multiple active business process flows at a time. Users can switch between the flows as required.

You need to have a Power Apps per user plan to be able to configure business process flows.

• A) True
• B) False

Answer: A) True.

Explanation: The ability to configure business process flows is part of the Power Apps per user plan.

What is maximum number of entities you can have in a single Business Process Flow?

• A) 5
• B) 10
• C) 15
• D) 20

Answer: B) 10

Explanation: You can include up to 10 entities in a single Business Process Flow.

Can a security role be created specifically for business process flows?

• A) True
• B) False

Answer: A) True.

Explanation: Specific security roles can be created for business process flows to control who can create, view, edit or delete a business process flow.

Business process flows only support single entity processes.

• A) True.
• B) False.

Answer: B) False.

Explanation: Business process flows support single entity processes, as well as cross-entity processes.

Stage Category for Business Process Flows is optional to define.

• A) True.
• B) False.

Answer: B) False.

Explanation: While building a Business Process Flow, Stage Category is a required field which determines the phase of the sales process.

System administrators can activate and deactivate business process flows.

• A) True.
• B) False.

Answer: A) True.

Explanation: As an administrator role, system administrators can activate and deactivate business process flows as necessary.

Interview Questions

What is the primary goal of a business process flow in the Power Platform?

The primary goal is to guide users through a specific business process, ensuring they perform necessary actions in a consistent and regularized order.

Name three entities that can be included in a business process flow?

Three entities that can be included are Opportunities, Leads, and Cases. However, virtually any entity can be included in a business process flow.

Can stages in a business process flow be executed in parallel?

No, stages in a business process flow are executed sequentially, guiding the user through each section of the process in order.

How can users navigate through stages in a business process flow?

Users can navigate using the Previous, Next, or Finish buttons at the bottom of the business process flow.

What is the maximum number of stages you can have in a single business process flow in Microsoft Power Platform?

The maximum number of stages in a single business process flow is 30 stages.

How many active business process flows can you have for a single entity?

You can have up to 10 active business process flows per entity.

Why might a business use branching in a business process flow?

Branching can be used to accommodate variances in the process, based on the data entered or the decisions made by the user.

Can business process flows be localized?

Yes, business process flows can be localized. This means that the names and descriptions for fields, stages, steps, and process flows can be translated for different regions or languages.

What are the three types of steps in a business process flow?

The three types of steps are data steps, page steps, and floating steps.

What can be done if the user needs to step away from their business process flow before completing it?

Microsoft Power Platform allows users to switch between process flows and resume their work at the stage they left off.

What are the two types of entities for business process flows in Power Platform?

The two types are organization-owned and user or team-owned.

What permissions does a user need to create and manage business process flows?

Users need the ‘Process Configuration’ privilege to create and manage business process flows.

Can business process flows be automated in Power Platform?

Yes, with Power Automate, stages and steps of business process flows can be automated.

How can users see what stage they are in within the business process flow?

The stages are displayed in a bar across the top of the record form, with the active stage highlighted, providing a clear visual indication of the user’s position in the process.

Can you configure a business process flow to represent a loop?

No, business process flows are linear and do not support loops or conditional branching back to earlier stages. They are designed to ensure progression through the process.