AX 2012 and the impact on Design with the new Security Model

With the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, one of the great new things, at least by my own opinion, is the role based security model. To help understand the impact of what this brings with AX 2012, I think it's important to understand what existed before AX 2012.

With AX 2009 and even before that in 4.0, the security for AX was basically around security keys.


Security Keys in AX 2009

With this, there was then Security domains, in which could span all, or some companies within AX, and finally User groups, that tied permission, to security keys in AX.


User Groups in AX 2009

With this, we had a very granular approach to permissions for users, and honestly for a lot of implementation projects this was an after thoughts, or something that was done closer to go live. Before the security profiler tool, this was a huge pain at times.: Dynamics AX 2009 Security Profiler tool

Now we have a whole new approach to security, based on Roles. This is a huge improvement that brings a lot of new scope possibilities actually, like segregation of duty, rule based-date effective assignment of privileges, and so forth. Because of this fact, security has a larger impact on design time, for when implementing AX 2012 for a client.

The very first impact that this has, is around customization and gap scope that comes out of discovery phase of a project. Typically a project creates functional requirements documentation as well as functional design documentation. This is driven by functional consultants, and role based security should be looked at now from a functional level.

This is no longer mostly a technical issue, but a functional need. Understanding what you can do with the new Role based security, can impact a functional design, and possibly even the nature of a process.

Going back to our first impact then, and what focus needs to be around the functional requirements and design documentation. Sessions should exists at this level, that list at least what Roles, Process Cycles, Duties & Privileges might be affected, or even need to be created as part of the design process.



Further, if as part of the initial go live, segregation of duty will impact the customer that AX is being implemented for, then the new functionality that enables this needs to be looked at. This is where a company can setup, based on privileges, which are high, medium and low risk, when a user is granted such privileges.



This focus at the functional requirements and design level, will help when it comes to the actual technical design, setup, modeling and development efforts. Doing this, will enable the technical engineer or architect to correctly lay out a technical design that meets the requirements, that has security at the forefront of such designs.

This is very important, and this impacts reports, forms, services, tables, etc. etc. It is a good point to state, that security keys still exists in AX 2012, but only for backwards compatibility. These are no longer used to help define role based security instead: privileges roll up into duties. Duties then in turn roll up into process cycles. Finally process cycles role up into Roles.

Since this is the case, when someone is developing or modeling custom scope, and artifacts, the level in which security is implied lives within a new Security tree node, as part of the AOT.



This deserves further dives, specifically around code permissions, and other topics that need real attention, more than they have ever needed before. There is real value however, that comes from understanding the impact that the new Role based security has on AX. Having this understanding means, great ROI for customers, and that my friends is the bottom line we are all after.

Well that's all for now, check back soon as a whole lot more to come. Till next time!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - At your Service

Yesterday, I talked about Business Operations Framework for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

This touched on a new concept, that will take us away from RunBaseBatch, and other concepts in AX, and move us towards some of the new features, that have never existed before, with the SysOperations Framework, and into true SOA approaches within, and extending AX.

Today, a new post from Microsoft, that continues a series well into the launch event for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, has arrived. I'm talking about the following post.: At Your Service: Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 Integration and Web Services


Caption: In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, inbound ports provide a logical grouping of services, which model specific integration points between the ERP solution and an external system.

From the post.:
"Standards-based web services are undoubtedly the programming model with the widest possible reach across platform boundaries. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, we have greatly emphasized the role of services, both in integration with other line-of-business applications and as a programming model to expose the rich functionality of the application. We believe these enhancements will benefit our customers by significantly reducing the time it takes to develop custom applications and by enabling the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to reach the entire organization."

Service are for sure the future with development, inside Dynamics AX, as well as extending AX, and other LOB applications reaching into AX. This is the vision and the desired goal.

Embracing this now, as an Architect, Developer, and general AX consultant or company, will help you and your clients reach their full Dynamic Potential that drives business value, while taking advantages of the latest technology advancements.

Is critical, that we take into consideration all that Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 brings to the table. Doing so will help shape the business world, from the older, strict, and cumbersome business systems of the 90's that so many Dynamics Competitors shove down their clients throats, and bring to the forefront what end users, and business users need, today. Dynamic, Flexible & Scalable business processes, that adapt and grow, as the business that implement and need them.

That's all for now, but check back soon, as a whole lot more to come, including interviews, blog spotlights, continued dives into AX 2012, and more! Till next time!



"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Dynamics AX 2012 - Table & Type Hierarchies

One of the huge, underlying changes from a architecture, and really database design point of view for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is the use of Type or Table Hierarchies.

This is actually extending upon the type hierarchy system that already existed within Dynamics AX, however to a whole new level!


[Image Source: techmaniac1, Rodrigo Fraga while attending #DAXCONF 11]

As you can see from above, thanks to Techmaniac1, the screen shot shows off the Type Hierarchy of a given table. This is actually showing from within the Dev workspace, looking at the AOT as a new add-in for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

With this concept, OO Design is being forced onto Relational data. I know, I know, that statement seems like it would be an oxymoron. I mean how can relation data truly be and live with OO attributes, design concepts, and adhere to such rules that govern things like: inheritance & polymorphism?

The answer to that is super normalization! That is what is taking place with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and type hierarchies for Table objects.

Because Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 manages it's relation database, through a meta layer, then through the combining of these two concepts, such things as inheritance and polymorphism can be applied.

So with this, we now have new attributes of tables, called: concrete or abstract, as well as if a table inherts from another table or not.

In doing this 'extending from' at a table level, the table that extends from an abstract table, inherits the fields and methods of the super or base table being inherited from.

This new approach along, plus just adhereing to BP, means that you should *never* access to the database of an Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 instance directly. So many reasons why, and with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, so many more reasons will exists.

And this is true today actually, should not have direct access to the DB of an AX instance, however it's still done today in certain cases.

That's all for now on the continued coverage from the #DAXCONF 11. I hope that I have your wheels turning, and thinking about the possibilities this means, and doors this opens from an Architecture and Design POV. Also, what this means for outside development that may directly access the database of an AX instance today.

This leads me into my next focus, which is OData Feeds and EDM, and how they will enable secure, easy access to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 data and business logic, without ever needing direct access to the DB again!

See you next post!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Coverage of AXUG Software Architect SIG at Convergence 2010

One of the sessions that I was lucky enough to attend at this years Convergence was the AXUG Software Architects SIG (Special Interest Group) for Dynamics AX.

This was a very, very interesting session that spanned a lot of different topics. This session was headed by John Smith and Jason Thorpe. Both AXUG members that are actively involved with helping promote and foster the AX community.

This was not a typical session in which you had a single speaker or two driving the whole time, but more of a round table session. Jason and John help keep the session going, and help start it, however allowed plenty of driving by the many people that attended this.

This SIG's focus is about AX Architecture, development, and being able to allow fellow Architects to share and build upon past exp. and current facing needs to help one another.

Some of the top topics discussed in this SIG were.:

• Change Management / Version Control. (A topic I have wrote about recently.: Using the Version Control Integration with Microsoft Team Foundation Server and Integrating Third party VCS with Dynamics AX 2009)


• Code Promotion


• AX Upgrades: Time for upgrades, estimating upgrade length, Functional Testing scripts and tools


• Agile development methodology, including project estimation


• Optimizing AX, SQL Server Performance, DMV's, IDM, use of SAX XML Processor vs. MSXML (XMLDOM)


• AIF, Integrations with AX, .Net BC vs. AIF - where and when

These were some of the hot and major topics covered in this session. There was some great points, and interesting things that customers were facing, and it seemed more than just one customer was facing some similar questions, and answering these questions in similar fashions.

It does seem to be that, from the techical Architect's side, either large or small companies, that similar trends and needs, along with upgrades, performance, change management with version control, integration seem to be the highest of priority.

With this post, I would like to kick off a series that covers these topics. To help dig deeper into these subjects, talk about what is being done now, what can be done, and what in AX 6 and beyond will help with these areas.

Check back soon, and feel free to leave comments, questions, and your own thoughts into this. If you were at the session, I would love to hear from you as well.

I would also like to thank Jason and John for thier time in hosting this SIG session. It was well worth the effort, and time attending this event.

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"