Automate application lifecycle management with GitHub Actions

In 2021, each month we will be releasing a monthly blog covering the webinar of the month for the Low-code Application Development (LCAD) on Azure solution. LCAD on Azure is a new solution to demonstrate the robust development capabilities of integrating low-code Microsoft Power Apps and the Azure products you may be familiar with.

This month’s webinar is ‘Develop Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) processes with GitHub Actions and Power Apps.’ In this blog, we will highlight what LCAD on Azure is, the three most prevalent products in the webinar and use cases, and provide supporting documentation for you to learn more about the webinar's content. 

What is Low-code Application Development (LCAD) on Azure?

Low-code application development (LCAD) on Azure was created to help developers build business applications faster with less code, leveraging the Power Platform, and more specifically Power Apps—helping them scale and extend their Power Apps with Azure services. 

For example, a pro developer who works for a manufacturing company would need to build a line-of-business (LOB) application to help warehouse employees track incoming inventory. That application would take months to build, test, and deploy, however with Power Apps, it can take hours to build, saving time and resources.

Read More: MS-900: Microsoft 365 Fundamentals

However, say the warehouse employees want the application to place procurement orders for additional inventory automatically when current inventory hits a determined low. In the past, that would require another heavy lift by the development team to rework their previous application iteration. Due to the integration of Power Apps and Azure, a professional developer can build an API in Visual Studio (VS) Code, publish it to their Azure portal, and export the API to Power Apps, integrating it into their application as a custom connector. Afterwards, that same API is reusable indefinitely in the Power Apps’ studio, for future use with other applications—saving the company and developers more time and resources. 

This is just one scenario that highlights the capabilities of the LCAD on Azure solution. To learn more about the solution itself, read the LCAD on Azure supporting documentation. This month’s webinar will focus on the capability to automate application lifecycle management, like the above scenario, with GitHub Actions to further expedite and streamline the development process for developers. 

Webinar content

The webinar explains ‘Fusion Development’ as a process that leverages the citizen developer to build low-code applications themselves, further reducing strain on development teams, and professional developers meeting citizen developer's half-way by extending these applications with custom code. 

The webinar includes two demos; one on the integration of API management and Power Apps and how to create a continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline using GitHub Actions. 

The integration of API management and Power Apps will cover the no cliff extensibility capabilities of Power Apps and Azure together, how to export APIs to Power Apps, and how to connect API management with Power Apps via Microsoft Teams with no additional licensing costs.

We introduced Azure API Management connectors to quickly publish Azure API Management backed APIs to the Power Platform for easy discovery and consumption, dramatically reducing the time it takes to create apps connecting to Azure services.

This means that enterprises can now truly benefit from existing assets hosted on Azure, by making these available to citizen developers with just a few clicks in the Azure portal, thereby eliminating the additional steps to go create custom connectors in the Power Apps or Power Automate maker experiences.

The GitHub Actions demo will cover developer's ability to build automated software development lifecycle workflows. With GitHub Actions for Microsoft Power Platform, developers can create workflows in their repository to build, test, package, release, and deploy apps, perform automation, and manage bots and other components built on Microsoft Power Platform.

The webinar is currently available on-demand, and the webinar in February will cover the integration of SAP on Azure and Power Apps.

Source: microsoft.com

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Microsoft Certified Professional | Roles and Responsibilities

For many years, Microsoft has been entering the forefront for not incompletely developing world-class software and programs and validation courses to tour with them.

The Microsoft certification you take is dependant on your current position or planned career path. Microsoft certifications are designed to take advantage of specific skills and improve your expertise. Certificates are offered in five areas, each with specialization tracks. Whether you are an application developer, systems engineer, technical consultant, or network administrator, there are certifications for you.

Microsoft Certified Professional

A Microsoft Certified Professional is a trained and certified professional technician accountable for managing an organization’s software programs and technology. Microsoft experienced techs address client issues, set up plans, and respond to customer queries regarding the manufacturer's software products.

Generally, these technicians specialize in setting up, operating, and maintaining client Microsoft applications and programs. Businesses in the Telecom and IT sectors need either full time or freelance certified professionals to assure business productivity.

Certified experts in Microsoft professional give technical support to the organization in different areas such as client operating systems, systems, web design, desktop support, and more. The Microsoft technicians provide constant and qualified support for client-run Microsoft products, servers, clouds, and networks.

The Microsoft Certification professional continues vital for companies and network centers to perform their day-to-day responsibilities.

Basics of What and Who is a Microsoft Certified Professional?

• A Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) is an individual who makes a professional certification program by Microsoft.
• Individuals will become Microsoft certified professionals as soon as they pass one of Microsoft's professional certification exams.
• It is a certification that proves IT professionals and developer technical expertise through rigorous, industry-proven, and industry-recognized exams.
• MCP exams cover a wide variety of Microsoft products, technologies, and solutions.
• Microsoft certified professionals are certified individuals who practice in Microsoft information technology programs and applications.

How to Become a Microsoft Certified Professional?

Microsoft Certified Professionals must first own a degree in computer science, information technology, or related areas. Apart from this specialized degree, the candidate offers a formal training program specializing in the job position and getting this certification by passing a thorough exam. The exam must be prepared for and scheduled in advance.

Microsoft Certification can ease the edge out candidates during a job interview. Companies in a wide range of industries use Microsoft programs, making a certification valuable even through career changes. Professionals in IT to coordinator role in large corporate companies can benefit from certifications to help them stand out from their colleagues.

Besides giving students a better start when job hunting, earning a certification provides students with additional skills to run programs with greater productivity and save time on vital, repetitive tasks. In addition to landing a new job and having more robust skills, those who earn certifications also report making more money.

By earning a certification, students can discover how to build better and professional documents, charts, or presentations. While it is appealing to the eye to have professional-looking documents, it can help win business. Even with all the right points and numbers in an inexperienced looking deck, it can be hard to win new business.

Roles and Responsibilities of Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft Certified Professionals include a kind of different computer and technology-related duties as set by organizational policy.

Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCP) are accredited professionals who concentrate on Microsoft information technology plans and applications. Specialists in Microsoft programs focus their technical maintenance skills in different areas, starting from operating systems to web development.

The traditional roles and responsibilities of Microsoft Certified Professionals include the accompanying:

• Manage IT departments and work as liaisons with applicable departments to recommend software and system upgrades.
• Provide IT support to private employees across the enterprise.
• Perform new employee, workstation setups.
• Complete hands-on fixes at the desktop level via installing and upgrading software and configuration systems and applications.
• Document IT-related rules and workflows.
• Evaluate IT processes and suggest changes.
• Create and maintain historical records by the documentation of hardware and software modifications and revisions.

Conclusion

As we understand, in the fast-growing field of information technology, where technical knowledge and new technologies are consistently growing, getting Microsoft certification shows that the developer maintains up-to-date knowledge and skills that meet industry standards worldwide.

Becoming certified also gives you a way to the Microsoft Certified Professional member site that allows an introduction to career resources, interaction with other certified professionals, and Microsoft's continuing education.

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