1.
Workflow vs Flow
Sara Lagerquist

2.
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• community.dynamics365.com
Social

3.
Preventive measures Coronavirus:
Wash your hands regularly with water and soap.
Cough and sneeze in the inside of your elbow.
Use paper tissues, but only once.
Avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes.

4.
Sara Lagerquist
sara@saralagerquist.com
@lagerquistsara
https://saralagerquist.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saralagerquist/

5.
Agenda
• Why change to flow
• Features that differs
• Features that’s missing
• Rookie mistakes

6.
We don’t have full parity nor is
classic workflows deprecated. Why
move to Power Automate?

7.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/power-automate/replace-
workflows-with-flows
Official documentation is not
updated…

8.
Feature is there – but not quite the same

9.
Wait Conditions
▪ Timeout – X amount of time
▪ Wait until date occurs
▪ Wait until value of a field occurs
▪ TIMEOUT (as in abort the run):
▪ Never
▪ Timeout – delay X amount of time
▪ Delay until date occurs
▪ Can not handle delay until values of
a field occurs
▪ TIMEOUT (as in abort the run):
▪ Flow : 30 Days
▪ Logic Apps : 90 Days
▪ CDS Solution Flow : 1 Year
Workflows Flows

10.
The new undocumented wait condition

11.
On Demand
▪ Deploys well
▪ Can not handle input when started
▪ Can not be in a solution = not
deployable
▪ Can handle input when started
Workflows Flows

12.
Run Time
▪ 2 min timeout ▪ Can be configured in Action Settings
Workflows Flows

13.
Visibility and Deployment
▪ All workflows visible under processes
▪ Users can see runs on a particular
record
▪ Deploy: Lookups are not dynamic
data
▪ Flows in solutions not visible in
Flow area
▪ No way to see what Flows that’s
been run a particular record
▪ Deploy of solution-based flow
looks broken
▪ Only works if only used CD (current)
-connector
▪ Needs an unmanaged layer if using
other actions than CDS (current) (for
now)
Workflows Flows

14.
Child-(work)flows
▪ Trigger and Child
▪ Child can’t get output from Parent
and Parent flow can’t get output
from Child
▪ Parent will succeed even if Child fails
▪ Child will not re-run if fails
▪ Only trigger or child
▪ Child Flow can get output from
parent and child
▪ Parent flow will fail if Child fails
▪ Child flow can re-try 4 times (by
default) before failing
▪ Only works in Solutions with CDS
Current Environment Connector
Workflows Flows

15.
Features that are completely missing

16.
List Records
▪ Only with a CWA, not OOB ▪ List Records of an entity and
run
▪ Apply to each
▪ Apply until
Workflows Flows

17.
Trigger on Schedule
▪ Only with a CWA, not OOB ▪ Well YES!
Workflows Flows

18.
Real-time Workflows
▪ Validation and warnings to end user
▪ Run before a change is made 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
Workflows Flows

19.
Trigger conditions – avoiding runs
▪ Workflow always run
▪ Use Stop Workflow action if not
needed
▪ No API-limit or License restriction
▪ Configurable – but without
intelliSense
▪ Can Abort Flow Run too
▪ License restrictions
▪ Using Trigger conditions will
minimize flow runs, but will still
count as an API-call
Workflows Flows

20.
Rollback of Changeset
▪ Steps succeeded will not be rolled
back in asynchronous Workflows
▪ Rollback the whole changeset if
one action in the changeset
fails
Workflows Flows

21.
When a step fails
🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ ▪ Configurable “Run after” on
Actions
Workflows Flows

22.
Test
▪ Trigger from designer
▪ Trigger on data from former
runs
Workflows Flows

23.
Connections outside of Dynamics
▪ Integration is needed ▪ Can handle connectors to
different data sources and
actions
Workflows Flows

24.
Tips and Tricks (and Rookie Mistakes)

25.
Two CDS Connectors
▪ You need to define what environment
your Flow runs in
▪ Can only trigger on one event
▪ Can not run Child Flows
▪ Can populate Lookups with only
dynamic content
▪ Doesn’t handle N:N relationships in List
Records
▪ Trigger OnDemand
▪ Needs change tracking enabled
▪ Solution based – runs in the environment it’s
deployed to or created in
▪ Have a combined trigger for several events
▪ Can run Child Flows
▪ Lookups are not as easy as just dynamic
data
▪ Can handle N:N relationships
▪ Can list records with FetchXML <3
▪ Related record information in just one Action
▪ Will not work in “Copied Environment”
▪ Deploys as ON if only connector in the Flow
▪ Run Actions for ex: Close Opportunity
CDS CDS Current Environment

26.
Always use the CDS Current
Environment connector when possible

27.
Use Comments
▪ Add hidden settings in Trigger/Action comments

28.
Use Expressions
▪ Expressions and some Actions are the same
▪ Avoid “Apply to each” by using for example
first(“dynamic content”)

29.
Avoid Nested Conditions
https://jonasr.app/2019/03/flow-guards/

30.
Rookie Mistakes

31.
Dynamics 365 Connector is
Deprecated

32.
Name your Trigger and Actions

33.
Don’t forget the “Get Record”-action

34.
Always filter your “List Record”-action

35.
Don’t create Loops

36.
Use Compose instead of Variables

37.
Turn on Paging if expecting big
results in “List Records”-action

38.
Turn off your Flows in Trial
environments

39.
Is there still a place for
asynchronous workflows?

40.
Feature Classic Workflows Flows WF Flow
Wait Conditions Wait until field value ---
Wait Conditions Never cancel run Cancel CDS run after 1 year
Run Child --- Outputs from Child
Run Child Parent continues even if child fails Parent will fail if child fails
Run Child Child can retry if fail
On Demand Can’t take inputs when run Can’t be included in Solutions
Visibility Can see WF runs in App No visibility in App
Lookups WF use static GUIDS for Lookups Lookups can be dynamic data
Deployment Tried and tested Flows in solution still work in progress
Take action on related records Only with custom code (CWA) List records an apply to each/until
Trigger on Schedule Only with custom code (CWA) Yes
Realtime workflows Provide feedback to user if failed
Connections to other sources Need code integration Have 300+ OOB Connections
Transaction Rollback Async WF does not run in transaction Flows can run in a batch transaction
Error handling WF fails Configure “after run”
Testability Must test inside App Can test in Designer
Trigger Conditions --- Can avoid unnecessary runs

41.
Tack!

42.
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