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A Strategic Approach to the MB2-703 Certification

The journey towards achieving a Microsoft Dynamics certification, such as the MB2-703 for CRM 2013 Customization and Configuration, is a significant undertaking. For many professionals, the primary motivation is the credential itself, a badge of honor that validates expertise and enhances career prospects. However, the true, lasting value of this process is often found not in the final certificate, but in the disciplined journey of study and preparation. It is through this intensive learning process that a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the platform is forged, transforming theoretical knowledge into practical wisdom.

This five-part series is designed to guide you through that journey. We will move beyond simple tips and tricks to provide a structured, in-depth exploration of the core concepts required to master the MB2-703 exam. In this first part, we will focus on establishing a strategic framework for your studies. We will delve into the philosophy of certification, outline a personalized study plan, emphasize the critical role of hands-on experience, and discuss advanced learning techniques that will ensure the knowledge you gain is retained long after the exam is complete.

The Philosophy of Certification

It is a common perspective that the ultimate goal of studying for an exam like the MB2-703 is to pass. While this is certainly the immediate objective, a more profound benefit comes from the process itself. The curriculum for a certification exam provides a structured path through the vast landscape of the platform's capabilities. It compels you to explore features you may not use in your day-to-day role, forcing you to step outside your comfort zone and engage with the product holistically. This structured approach ensures you develop a broad and balanced knowledge base.

Engaging with the material at the level required to pass an exam reinforces information in a powerful way. You move from a state of passive awareness to active comprehension. The need to answer specific, often tricky questions about functionality, its applications, and its limitations requires a more granular understanding. This deep-seated knowledge is invaluable in real-world scenarios, enabling you to design more robust, efficient, and creative solutions for your clients or your organization. The MB2-703 certification, therefore, is a catalyst for deeper learning.

Deconstructing the MB2-703 Exam Objectives

A successful study campaign begins with a clear understanding of the battlefield. The MB2-703 exam is not a monolithic entity but is comprised of several distinct knowledge domains. Before diving into the material, it is crucial to review the official exam objectives provided by Microsoft. These objectives are the blueprint for the exam, detailing every topic that is considered fair game. A high-level review reveals that the exam focuses on the core building blocks of any CRM implementation, ensuring a candidate has a comprehensive grasp of the platform's foundational capabilities.

The primary domains include the management of solutions, entities, and fields, which form the underlying data structure. Another key area is the configuration of the user experience through forms, views, and visualizations like charts and dashboards. A significant portion is dedicated to the security model, covering business units, security roles, and teams. Finally, the exam places a strong emphasis on process automation, particularly the new features introduced in CRM 2013 such as Business Process Flows and Business Rules. Our subsequent articles in this series will be structured around these core domains.

Building Your Personalized Study Plan

With the exam objectives as your guide, the next step is to construct a personalized study plan. The cornerstone of this plan should be the Microsoft Official Curriculum, or MOC. The MOC is specifically designed to align with the exam objectives, ensuring complete coverage of all required topics. Unlike general-purpose books, the MOC is focused and targeted, making it the most efficient primary resource for your studies. It provides the solid foundation upon which you will build the rest of your knowledge for the MB2-703.

However, relying solely on the MOC can be a dry experience. To enrich your understanding, you should supplement your reading with articles, blog posts, and community resources. These often provide real-world examples, screenshots, and alternative explanations that can illuminate complex topics. As you consume this information, the practice of taking notes is invaluable. The act of summarizing and rephrasing concepts in your own words forces your brain to process the information more deeply, aiding in both comprehension and retention. Your notes will become a condensed, personalized study guide for final revision.

The Power of Hands-On Learning

There is no substitute for practical, hands-on experience. Theoretical knowledge is essential, but it is only when you apply that knowledge that it truly solidifies. Securing access to a CRM 2013 trial environment is a non-negotiable part of preparing for the MB2-703. This is your personal laboratory, a sandbox where you can experiment, build, and even break things without any real-world consequences. It is in this environment that the abstract concepts from the MOC become tangible and memorable.

Don't just read about creating a custom entity; create one. Don't just study the different field types; add them all to a form and observe their behavior. Configure a new security role and test its limitations. Build a Business Process Flow from scratch. This practical application does more than just teach you how a feature works; it teaches you how it feels to work with it. You will discover its nuances, its limitations, and the small but important details that are often the subject of exam questions. These hands-on experiences create strong visual and contextual memories that are far easier to recall under pressure.

Active Recall and Teaching as a Learning Tool

Passive learning, such as reading or watching videos, is a good starting point, but active learning techniques are far more effective for long-term retention. One of the most powerful active learning methods is active recall, the process of actively retrieving information from your memory. A practical way to implement this is by creating your own practice questions as you study. After reading a chapter on security roles, for example, write down two or three questions that test your understanding of the key concepts. Later, you can use these questions to quiz yourself.

An even more advanced technique is to teach the concepts to others. This does not mean you need to stand in front of a classroom. You can achieve the same effect by writing a blog post, explaining a topic to a colleague, or even just articulating it out loud to yourself. The act of teaching forces you to organize your thoughts, simplify complex ideas, and identify any gaps in your own understanding. When you can explain a concept like Access Teams clearly and concisely, you can be confident that you truly understand it at the level required for the MB2-703.

Mastering Exam Day Techniques

All the preparation in the world can be undermined by poor exam-taking technique. It is vital to have a clear strategy for the exam itself. A simple but effective motivational tool is to book your exam well in advance. This creates a firm deadline, transforming a vague intention into a concrete goal and preventing procrastination. On the day of the exam, ensure you arrive at the test center early to avoid any last-minute stress. Once the exam begins, time management is key, although you will likely have ample time.

For each question, read it carefully and then immediately try to eliminate the answers you know are incorrect. Most questions will have one or two options that are obviously wrong. This process of elimination narrows your choices and significantly increases your probability of selecting the correct answer. After you have answered all the questions, use the remaining time to review your answers. A quick second look can often help you catch a simple mistake made due to misreading a question. A calm, strategic approach is a critical component of passing the MB2-703.

Core Data Structures in the MB2-703 - Solutions, Entities, and Fields

Welcome to the second part of our in-depth series on preparing for the MB2-703 certification. In our previous installment, we established a strategic framework for studying. Now, we begin our technical deep dive into the core components of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. This article will focus on the foundational elements of any customization: solutions, entities, and fields. These are the fundamental building blocks upon which all other configurations are built. A mastery of these concepts is absolutely essential, as they form the very bedrock of the system's data architecture.

The MB2-703 exam places a heavy emphasis on your ability to correctly structure the data model to meet specific business requirements. This involves not only understanding the technical properties of these components but also the strategic implications of your design choices. We will explore the solution framework for managing customizations, differentiate between system and custom entities, analyze the critical decision of entity ownership, and detail the various field types and their appropriate use cases. A solid grasp of this material is your first major step toward success on the MB2-703.

Understanding the Solution Framework

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, all customizations are contained within solutions. A solution acts as a package or container, allowing you to bundle, transport, and manage customizations as a single unit. The MB2-703 exam requires a thorough understanding of the two types of solutions: unmanaged and managed. An unmanaged solution is used in development environments. It is essentially an open container that allows you to add, remove, and modify components freely. When you customize the system directly, you are working within a special unmanaged solution known as the Default Solution.

Managed solutions, on the other hand, are intended for deployment to production or testing environments. When a managed solution is imported, it becomes a locked-down package. You cannot add or remove components from it, and there are limitations on what can be modified. This provides a level of control and prevents unwanted changes in a production environment. Understanding the difference between these solution types, along with the role of solution publishers and versioning, is a critical competency for managing the application lifecycle and a key topic for the MB2-703.

System Entities vs. Custom Entities

Microsoft Dynamics CRM comes with a rich set of out-of-the-box entities designed to support common business processes. These are known as system entities and include familiar record types like Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity. The MB2-703 expects you to be familiar with these core entities and their intended purposes. However, almost every CRM implementation requires the creation of new, custom entities to model business data that does not fit into the standard structure. A key skill for a customizer is knowing when to use a system entity versus when to create a new custom one.

For example, if you need to track company vehicles, there is no appropriate system entity. In this case, creating a new custom entity called "Vehicle" would be the correct approach. A more nuanced decision involves activity entities. CRM has a special framework for activities like emails, phone calls, and appointments. You can create custom activity entities that participate in this framework, but you must understand the specific benefits and limitations of doing so. The ability to make these design decisions correctly is a hallmark of an experienced customizer and is frequently tested on the MB2-703.

Entity Ownership Deep Dive

One of the most fundamental and irreversible decisions you make when creating a custom entity is its ownership model. The MB2-703 exam will undoubtedly test your understanding of this critical concept. There are two ownership options: User or Team, and Organization. An entity owned by the Organization has records that are accessible to everyone in the company, subject to their security role privileges. These entities are used for data that is not "owned" by any specific person or group, such as postal codes or product categories. There is no concept of individual ownership for these records.

Conversely, entities owned by a User or Team are the most common type. Records for these entities have an "Owner" field that links them to a specific user or team. This ownership is the cornerstone of the CRM security model. It allows you to define security roles that grant different levels of access based on whether the user owns the record, is in the same business unit as the owner, or is in a different business unit. Choosing the wrong ownership model can have profound and difficult-to-correct implications for data visibility and security.

Mastering Field Types

Entities are the containers for data, but fields, or attributes, are where the individual pieces of information are actually stored. CRM 2013 provides a wide array of field types, each designed for a specific kind of data. A significant portion of the MB2-703 will test your knowledge of these field types, their properties, and their appropriate use cases. Basic types include Single Line of Text, Multiple Lines of Text, and Email. Numerical types include Whole Number, Floating Point Number, Decimal Number, and Currency, each with different precision levels.

Other important field types include Option Sets, which provide a predefined list of values for a drop-down menu, and Two Options fields, which are ideal for boolean (yes/no) choices. Date and Time fields are used for capturing date information, and Lookup fields are used to create relationships by linking one record to another. Understanding the configuration options for each of these types, such as setting minimum and maximum values for numbers or defining the format for text, is essential for building a well-structured and user-friendly system.

Calculated and Rollup Fields

CRM 2013 introduced two powerful new field types that reduced the need for custom code: calculated fields and rollup fields. The MB2-703 exam places a strong emphasis on these new features. A calculated field allows you to define a formula that performs a real-time calculation based on the values of other fields within the same record. For example, you could create a calculated field on an order that multiplies the price by the quantity to get the total line item cost. The calculation is performed automatically whenever the source fields change.

A rollup field, on the other hand, allows you to compute an aggregate value from related child records. For example, you could have a rollup field on an Account entity that calculates the total value of all open opportunities related to that account. Unlike calculated fields, which are real-time, rollup fields are updated by a scheduled system job, typically on an hourly basis. Understanding the capabilities, syntax, and, most importantly, the limitations of these two field types is crucial for the MB2-703.

Configuring Field Security Profiles

While security roles control access to entire records, there are often scenarios where you need to restrict access to specific fields within a record. This is accomplished using Field Security Profiles. This feature allows you to define an additional layer of security for sensitive information. For example, you might want all salespeople to see a contact record, but only senior managers should be able to see a "Credit Score" field on that record. This level of granular control is a key security topic for the MB2-703.

The process involves first enabling field security on the specific field you want to protect. Once enabled, you create a Field Security Profile. Within this profile, you grant specific permissions, such as Read, Create, or Update, for that secured field. Finally, you associate the profile with the users or teams who should have those permissions. It's a three-step process: enable on the field, create the profile, and then assign users. Understanding this entire workflow is necessary to answer questions related to field-level security on the exam.

Best Practices for Entity and Field Customization

To conclude our discussion on the core data structure, it is important to consider some overarching best practices. These principles of good design are not only helpful for building maintainable systems but also for developing the right mindset for the MB2-703 exam. Always use a consistent naming convention for your custom entities and fields, including the use of a solution publisher prefix. This avoids conflicts and makes your customizations easily identifiable. It is also critical to provide meaningful display names and descriptions for all components.

When designing your data model, think ahead. While it is easy to add new fields later, changing the fundamental structure, such as the ownership of an entity or a key relationship, can be very difficult. Planning your data model carefully before you begin building is a hallmark of a professional customizer. This structured and disciplined approach to customization is exactly the kind of expertise that the MB2-703 certification is designed to validate.

Shaping the User Experience for the MB2-703 - Forms, Views, and Visualizations

Having established a solid data structure with solutions, entities, and fields in Part 2, our focus now shifts to the user interface. This is a critical aspect of any CRM implementation, as it is the layer through which users interact with the data and processes you have designed. In this third part of our series on the MB2-703 exam, we will explore how to shape the user experience by customizing forms, views, and visual components like charts and dashboards. A well-designed user interface is intuitive, efficient, and aligned with business processes, driving user adoption and productivity.

The MB2-703 exam thoroughly assesses your ability to configure all aspects of the user interface. This includes defining how records relate to one another, designing the layout of forms where users input and view data, creating the list views that allow users to find and work with records, and building the charts and dashboards that provide at-a-glance insights. Mastering these UI customization skills is essential for demonstrating your comprehensive understanding of the platform and for achieving success on the MB2-703.

Mastering Entity Relationships

Relationships are the glue that holds your data model together, defining how different types of records are connected. The MB2-703 requires a deep understanding of the three types of entity relationships in CRM: one-to-many (1:N), many-to-one (N:1), and many-to-many (N:N). A one-to-many relationship is the most common, where one record from a parent entity can be related to many records from a child entity, such as one account having many contacts. The many-to-one relationship is simply the same relationship viewed from the child's perspective.

A many-to-many relationship allows for more complex connections, where many records of one entity can be related to many records of another. For example, a single marketing list could contain many contacts, and a single contact could be on many marketing lists. When configuring these relationships, you must also understand cascading behaviors. These rules determine what happens to child records when an action is performed on the parent record, such as deleting or re-assigning it. A firm grasp of relationship types and cascading rules is a fundamental requirement for the MB2-703.

Customizing the Form Layout

The entity form is the primary interface for user interaction with a single record. The MB2-703 exam expects you to be an expert in using the form editor to design and customize these layouts. The form is structured hierarchically with tabs, which contain sections, which in turn contain the fields. You must be able to add, remove, and rearrange these components to create a logical and uncluttered layout. You can configure sections to have multiple columns to make better use of screen real estate.

CRM 2013 introduced a refreshed, streamlined user interface, and with it came several distinct form types. The main form is the primary form used for detailed data entry in the web client. Quick Create forms provide a simplified form for rapidly creating new records without leaving the current screen. Quick View forms allow you to display data from a related parent record directly on the form of a child record. Understanding the specific purpose and configuration of each of these form types is critical for the MB2-703.

Working with Sub-Grids and Web Resources

Forms are not limited to displaying fields from a single entity. One of the most common requirements is to display a list of related child records. This is accomplished by adding a sub-grid to the form. For example, on an account form, you could add a sub-grid to display all of the contacts associated with that account. The MB2-703 requires you to know how to add and configure these sub-grids, including selecting the entity and the specific view that should be displayed in the grid.

For more advanced UI customizations, you can use web resources. Web resources are files, such as HTML pages, images, or JavaScript libraries, that can be uploaded into CRM and used to extend the user interface. While writing JavaScript is considered a development task and is outside the scope of the MB2-703, you are still expected to know what web resources are and how they can be added to a form. For example, you should know how to add an image to a form as a logo or display an HTML page within an IFrame.

Leveraging Quick Create and Quick View Forms

The introduction of Quick Create and Quick View forms was a significant enhancement to the user experience in CRM 2013, and as such, they are important topics for the MB2-703. Quick Create forms are designed to improve efficiency by allowing users to create new records quickly. When a user clicks the create button on the top navigation bar, a Quick Create form slides down, allowing for the entry of essential information. Once saved, the user is returned to their previous screen, minimizing disruption to their workflow. You must know how to enable entities for Quick Create and how to design these lightweight forms.

Quick View forms serve a different purpose. They are designed to provide context by displaying key information from a related record. For instance, on an opportunity form, there is a lookup field to the parent account. By adding a Quick View form for the account entity to the opportunity form, you can display key details from that account, such as the primary contact's phone number or the account's address, directly on the opportunity record without the user needing to navigate away.

Configuring System and Personal Views

Views are the lists of records that users see throughout the application. They are a fundamental tool for allowing users to find, sort, and work with sets of records. The MB2-703 exam requires a clear understanding of the different types of views and how to configure them. System views are created by a customizer and are available to all users, subject to their security permissions. Examples include "My Active Accounts" or "All Open Opportunities." Personal views, on the other hand, are created by individual users for their own use and cannot be shared as easily.

As a customizer, your focus will be on creating and modifying system views using the view editor. This involves defining the filter criteria to determine which records are included in the view. For example, you might filter for records where the status is "Active" and the owner is the current user. You also configure which columns are displayed in the view, their width, and the default sort order. Creating well-designed views that are tailored to specific business roles is a key skill for improving user productivity.

Building Charts and Dashboards

While views provide data in a tabular format, charts provide a powerful way to visualize that data graphically. In CRM, charts are always based on the data within a specific view. The MB2-703 expects you to know how to use the chart designer to create various types of charts, such as bar, pie, line, and funnel charts. You configure a chart by selecting the field to be used for the series and the field for the categories, as well as an aggregate function like sum or count.

The ultimate goal of many visualizations is to bring them together on a dashboard. A dashboard is a personal homepage for a user, providing an at-a-glance overview of key metrics and data. The dashboard editor allows you to create a layout with multiple components, including charts, lists (which are based on views), IFrames, and web resources. You must understand the difference between system dashboards, which are available to all users, and personal dashboards, which users create for themselves.

UI Customization Best Practices

In conclusion, shaping the user experience is a multifaceted discipline that combines technical configuration with an understanding of user-centered design. When preparing for the MB2-703, it is helpful to keep some best practices in mind. Strive to keep forms clean and organized, placing the most important information on the first tab. Design views that are specific to user roles, showing them the data they need to do their jobs without overwhelming them with unnecessary columns. Use charts and dashboards to highlight key performance indicators and trends, not just to display data.

Ultimately, a good user interface feels intuitive and makes the user's job easier. It should guide them through their business processes and provide them with the right information at the right time. By mastering the tools and techniques discussed in this article, you will not only be well-prepared for the user experience portion of the MB2-703 exam, but you will also be equipped to build highly effective and well-adopted CRM solutions.

Securing the System in the MB2-703 - Business Units and Security Roles

Security is arguably the most critical aspect of any enterprise application. In a Customer Relationship Management system, which houses sensitive customer data and strategic sales information, implementing a robust and granular security model is not just a best practice; it is a fundamental requirement. In this fourth part of our comprehensive series on the MB2-703 exam, we will conduct a deep dive into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 security model. A profound understanding of this model is essential for passing the exam and for successfully deploying CRM in any real-world scenario.

The MB2-703 certification exam will rigorously test your ability to configure the various layers of the security architecture to meet complex business requirements. We will explore the hierarchical structure of business units, dissect the intricate system of security roles with their privileges and access levels, and clarify the important distinction between owner teams and the newly introduced access teams. By the end of this article, you will have a holistic understanding of how these components work together to ensure that users have access to the information they need, and only the information they need.

The Hierarchy of Business Units

The foundational layer of the CRM security model is the business unit structure. Business units are used to model the organizational hierarchy of a company. Every CRM organization has a single, top-level business unit known as the root business unit, which is created during installation. From there, you can create a tree-like structure of child business units to represent different divisions, regions, or departments. For example, a global company might have business units for North America, Europe, and Asia, with further child business units for individual countries within those regions.

The primary function of this hierarchy is to segregate data. While some security configurations can allow users to see data across the entire organization, the business unit structure provides the framework for restricting data access. A user is assigned to a single business unit, and this assignment determines their primary location within the security hierarchy. The MB2-703 will expect you to understand how to create and manage this hierarchy and how it impacts data visibility when combined with security roles.

Deep Dive into Security Roles

Security roles are the heart of the CRM security model. A security role is a collection of privileges and access levels that define what a user is allowed to do with different types of records, or entities. Every user must have at least one security role to be able to access the system. The MB2-703 requires an extremely detailed understanding of the components of a security role. The first component is the set of privileges. There are eight basic privileges for each entity: Create, Read, Write, Delete, Append, Append To, Assign, and Share.

The second, and more complex, component is the access level for each privilege. There are five access levels, often represented by colored circles in the user interface. "None" means no access. "User" level access grants the privilege only for records that the user owns. "Business Unit" level grants the privilege for all records owned by anyone in the user's same business unit. "Parent: Child Business Units" grants access to records in the user's business unit and any child business units below it. Finally, "Organization" level grants the privilege for all records in the entire company.

Combining Privileges and Access Levels

The true complexity and power of the security model come from the combination of privileges and access levels for each entity. Mastering this matrix is non-negotiable for the MB2-703. For example, consider a salesperson. You might grant them "Create" privilege at the "User" level for the Opportunity entity, meaning they can only create opportunities that they themselves will own. You might grant them "Read" privilege at the "Business Unit" level, allowing them to see all opportunities owned by colleagues in their same sales team or business unit.

Simultaneously, you might grant them "Write" privilege only at the "User" level, preventing them from modifying opportunities owned by others. This granular control allows you to tailor permissions precisely to a user's job function. The exam will often present you with a business scenario and ask you to determine the correct combination of privileges and access levels to meet the requirement. Practicing with these scenarios is one of the best ways to prepare.

Default Security Roles and Best Practices

Microsoft Dynamics CRM ships with a set of pre-configured default security roles, such as Salesperson, Sales Manager, and System Administrator. These roles are designed to align with common job functions and provide a good starting point for configuring your security. The MB2-703 expects you to be familiar with the general purpose of these major default roles. However, a critical best practice, and a frequent topic of exam questions, is that you should never modify these default roles directly.

Instead, the recommended approach is to take a copy of the default role that most closely matches your needs and then modify the copy. This practice ensures that you can always refer back to the original default configuration if you encounter issues. It also prevents your customizations from being potentially overwritten during a system upgrade. Adhering to this simple but important best practice demonstrates a professional approach to system customization and is a key piece of knowledge for the MB2-703.

Understanding Teams: Owner vs. Access Teams

Teams provide a mechanism for grouping users together to simplify the sharing of information and collaboration. In previous versions of CRM, there was only one type of team. CRM 2013 introduced a major new concept: the distinction between owner teams and access teams. This new feature is a very important topic for the MB2-703. An owner team is a team that can own records, just like a user can. The team has a security role assigned to it, and it can be the owner of accounts, opportunities, or any other user/team-owned records.

Access teams, on the other hand, are a completely new paradigm. An access team cannot own records. Instead, its purpose is to provide an easy and dynamic way to grant a group of users access to a single, specific record. They are designed for situations where a team of people needs to collaborate on a specific record, like a major sales opportunity or a complex service case. This new feature provided a much more flexible and performant way to handle dynamic, record-level collaboration.

Implementing Access Team Templates

The power of access teams is fully realized through the use of access team templates. To use an access team for a specific entity, you must first create an access team template for that entity. In this template, you define the set of access rights, such as Read, Write, and Append, that the team members will be granted on the record. After creating the template, you add a sub-grid to the entity's main form that is configured for that access team template.

Once this is set up, a user can go to a specific record, for example, a major opportunity, and start adding their colleagues to the access team sub-grid. As soon as a user is added to the grid, they are dynamically granted the permissions defined in the template for that one specific opportunity record. This allows for ad-hoc team formation around individual records without the administrative overhead of creating traditional teams or using manual sharing. Understanding how to create and use these templates is a key skill for the MB2-703.

A Holistic View of the Security Model

In conclusion, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 security model is a layered and comprehensive system. It is not enough to understand each component in isolation; the MB2-703 requires you to understand how they work together. The business unit structure creates the high-level data partitions. Security roles, assigned to users and owner teams, define what actions can be performed at different levels of the hierarchy. Access teams provide a flexible mechanism for collaboration on specific records. Finally, Field Security Profiles, as discussed in Part 2, allow for securing individual fields.

A successful CRM customizer must be able to orchestrate all of these components to build a security architecture that is both robust and flexible, protecting sensitive data while enabling user productivity and collaboration. A thorough and detailed understanding of this entire security framework is one of the most important prerequisites for passing the MB2-703 exam.

Automating Processes for the MB2-703 - Workflows, Business Process Flows, and Business Rules

We have now arrived at the final technical domain in our five-part series on mastering the MB2-703 certification. Having thoroughly covered the data structure, user interface, and security model, we now turn our attention to process automation. A well-configured CRM system does more than just store data; it actively guides users and automates tasks to ensure consistency, efficiency, and adherence to business processes. This is where the true power of the platform to drive business value is often realized.

CRM 2013 introduced several major new process automation tools, and as a result, this topic is heavily featured on the MB2-703 exam. In this final installment, we will review the capabilities of traditional workflows, and then take a deep dive into the powerful new features of Business Process Flows and Business Rules. Understanding the purpose, capabilities, and limitations of each of these tools, and knowing when to use one over the other, is a critical competency for any customizer and is essential for success on the exam.

Classic Workflows: The Automation Workhorse

For many years, workflows have been the primary tool for automation in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The MB2-703 exam expects you to have a solid understanding of their capabilities. Workflows can be used to automate a wide range of business processes without requiring any custom code. A workflow is a series of steps that can be triggered by a specific event, such as the creation of a record, a change in a field's value, or a change in a record's status. They can also be run on-demand by a user.

Workflows can be configured to run either asynchronously (in the background) or in real-time (synchronously). The steps within a workflow can perform various actions, such as creating a new record, updating the current record or a related record, sending an email, or changing a record's status. They also support conditional logic using if-then-else statements. For any server-side business logic that needs to happen in the background, classic workflows remain a powerful and essential tool, and their functionality is a core part of the MB2-703 curriculum.

Introducing Business Process Flows (BPFs)

One of the flagship new features of CRM 2013 was the introduction of Business Process Flows, or BPFs. It is absolutely critical for the MB2-703 to understand that BPFs are fundamentally different from traditional workflows. A workflow is designed for automating tasks in the background. A BPF, on the other hand, is a user interface element designed to guide users through a predefined business process. It appears as a prominent visual guide at the top of a record, showing the user which stage of the process they are currently in and what steps they need to complete.

For example, a company might have a standard lead-to-opportunity sales process. A BPF could be created to guide a salesperson through the stages of this process, such as "Qualify," "Develop," "Propose," and "Close." Each stage can contain a set of key steps, which are simply fields from the underlying entity that need to be completed. BPFs ensure that all users follow a consistent process, improve data quality by prompting for key information, and provide management with a clear view of where each deal is in the sales pipeline.

Configuring and Customizing BPFs

Given their prominence in the CRM 2013 release, you can expect detailed questions on the MB2-703 exam about how to configure and customize Business Process Flows. BPFs are created using a dedicated visual editor. In this editor, you define the sequence of stages for your process. For each stage, you can add one or more steps. Each step is mapped to a specific field on the entity. For a BPF to be useful, it must be activated and the correct security roles must be enabled to use it.

A particularly powerful feature of BPFs is their ability to span multiple entities. For instance, the standard out-of-the-box Lead to Opportunity Sales Process starts on the Lead entity. When the lead is qualified, the process seamlessly transitions to the newly created Opportunity record. This allows you to model and guide users through long-running business processes that involve multiple record types. Understanding how to define stages, add steps, and manage the process flow across entities is a key skill for the MB2-703.

Introducing Business Rules: Declarative Client-Side Logic

The other major new automation feature introduced in CRM 2013 was Business Rules. This feature was a game-changer for customizers, as it provided a way to implement common client-side logic without writing any JavaScript code. The MB2-703 exam places a very strong emphasis on Business Rules. They allow you to define a set of conditions and actions that will be executed directly on the entity form in the user's browser, providing a responsive and interactive experience.

The scope of a Business Rule can be set to a specific form or to all forms for an entity. When the conditions of a Business Rule are met, it can perform a variety of actions. For example, you could create a Business Rule that says, "If the 'Category' field on a case is set to 'High Priority', then make the 'Follow Up By' date field a required field." This kind of dynamic form logic was previously only possible with custom scripting.

Actions and Conditions in Business Rules

To master Business Rules for the MB2-703, you must be familiar with the specific conditions and actions that are available in the editor. Conditions are the "if" part of the rule and are typically based on the value of one or more fields on the form. You can create complex conditions by combining multiple clauses with AND/OR logic. When the conditions evaluate to true, the rule can trigger one or more of the following actions: Show Error Message, Set Field Value, Set Business Required, Set Visibility (Show/Hide Field), and Lock or Unlock Field.

For example, you could create a rule to hide a section of a form unless a specific checkbox is ticked. You could set the value of one field based on the value of another. You could also display a user-friendly error message if a user enters an invalid combination of data. The ability to create this rich, interactive logic declaratively is a powerful feature, and the MB2-703 will test your ability to apply these actions to solve common business requirements.

Dialogs and Actions

While workflows, BPFs, and Business Rules are the main focus, the MB2-703 also expects you to be aware of the other process types available in CRM 2013. Dialogs are wizard-like, interactive processes that can be run on-demand by a user. They present a series of pages and prompts to the user to collect information in a structured way. Dialogs are useful for complex data entry scenarios that require guided input from the user. However, with the introduction of BPFs and Business Rules, their use cases became more niche.

Actions are a more developer-focused process type. They allow you to create new, reusable messages or operations in the system. For example, you could create a custom action called "Escalate Case" that takes a case record as input and performs a series of complex steps. This custom action can then be called from a traditional workflow or from custom code. While you are not expected to write the code, you should understand the purpose of Actions and how they differ from other process types for the MB2-703.

Choosing the Right Automation Tool

A common type of question on the MB2-703 exam will present a business scenario and ask you to choose the most appropriate automation tool to solve the problem. Therefore, it is critical to have a clear understanding of when to use each tool. Use a Business Process Flow when you need to guide a user through a multi-stage process. Use a Business Rule for real-time, client-side logic that needs to happen on a form, such as showing or hiding fields. Use a real-time workflow for server-side logic that needs to happen immediately and synchronously.

Use an asynchronous workflow for any long-running, non-critical background processes, such as sending a follow-up email a week after a case is resolved. Use a Dialog for guided, interactive data collection initiated by a user. Finally, consider an Action when you need to create a reusable business operation that can be called from multiple places. Having this decision-making framework in your mind is one of the most important steps in preparing for the process automation section of the MB2-703.

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