4. Key Questions
Any Flow showstopper ?
Do I need to use a third party tool ?
Robust ?
Very easy ? Expensive ?
Here is our experience after 3 years
and 9 enterprise flow projects…
12. State machine pattern or Controller patternNo State Machine
No custom task
forms
Max 5,000 iterations in Do until –> Create embedded
loops
Max 5,000 iterations in For each (100,000 in Plan 1)
Loops
Create nested flows or raise a ticket250 actions/flow
Flow Approval
duration : 30 days
Flow duration :
30 days
No guest access
Controller pattern
In the roadmap for Flow & PowerApps
ALM/devops
weak
I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you…
Custom approval actions
Cannot resume
flow
In the roadmap
13. Boss validates the final document
Secretary validates style
Advisors validate content
User Publishes a new “legal” document
Why State
Machine ?
14. State Machine and
> 30 days
« Flow Controller
Pattern »
Controller
Launcher flow
SecretaryAdvisor Boss
escalate
timeout
approved
rejected
in vacation
timeout
approved
rejected
redirect
in vacation
timeout
approved
rejected
escalate
Normal flow
Service flow
18. Started from
Excel
Started from SP
New Expense
from App
Trigger : Excel for a
selected row
Trigger :
SharePoint for a
selected row
Existing Expense
from App
Trigger :
SharePoint : when an item is
created
Proxy Flows
Service Flow
20. • the url might change, we want to use a stable vanity url like
https://flowdemo.azure-api.net
• you might need to protect it : authentication
• throttling
• restricting the callers to some specific network locations
• ….
25. Adapt retry policy
Reduce flow concurrency
Use several connectors
Error HTTP 429 : « I’m too busy » come later (in 10 sec)
Flow throttled by the Service (like SharePoint) and by
the Connector (600 calls/min)
26. 202 ACCEPTED
The request has been accepted for
processing, but the processing has not been
completed.
Long Call Duration
Pattern
Requires P1
32. Conclusions
You can, but it will be much much more expensive
Do I need to use a third party tool ?
Is it robust enough for enterprise business processes ?
Is Flow is very easy to use and not expensive (Office 365 license)
Easy : Yes but it sometimes requires “advanced” skills
Cheaper than anything else but be careful with P1
Very robust engine (Logic Apps) – we’ve tested it on thousands of
flows 24x24x365
Reliability depends on the connector and on your architecture
Error handling and Flow monitoring
Start with Flow in a first place, your prototype might survive
33. Conclusions
I ALWAYS define UML Use Cases
I often define UML Activity Diagrams
I often define RACI matrices (Responsibility assignments)