Good morning – My macro isn’t working and I need some help.  I reached out here a bit ago and someone created this macro to help updates/made this format a bit more PowerBI friendly.

I have my original report in the OR Report Scrubbed 2019-2024 file, then I head to the 2016-2023 OR Data.PowerBI format file and update the link in the PARAM tab, and then refresh the table.

I was wondering if you could help fix this macro/table so it will refresh with the most recent data!

This is the error that I’m getting:

​Good morning – My macro isn’t working and I need some help.  I reached out here a bit ago and someone created this macro to help updates/made this format a bit more PowerBI friendly. I have my original report in the OR Report Scrubbed 2019-2024 file, then I head to the 2016-2023 OR Data.PowerBI format file and update the link in the PARAM tab, and then refresh the table. I was wondering if you could help fix this macro/table so it will refresh with the most recent data! This is the error that I’m getting:    Read More

​

How to create a CoPilot and use it in your Blog with your blog’s Data

Intro

Today, we’re going to embark on an exciting journey of creating our very own AI assistant, or ‘Copilot’, using the powerful Copilot Studio. But that’s not all! We’ll also learn how to seamlessly integrate this Copilot into our WordPress site, transforming it into a dynamic, interactive platform. Our WordPress site will serve as the primary data source, enabling our Copilot to provide personalized and context-aware responses. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a tech enthusiast, this guide will offer a step-by-step approach to leverage AI capabilities for your WordPress site. So, let’s dive in and start our AI adventure!

Preparation

Luckily we can try the Copilot Studio with a trial license. So head on to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/sign-up-individual and find all the details. You will have to sign in with a Microsoft 365 user email. You need a Microsoft 365 Tenant as you understand!

For those who are actively using Power Apps i suggest to have a god look at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/environments-first-run-experience, so you can grasp the details regarding Environments.

Creation

Once we are ready, head over to https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com and you can start working with new Copilots!

Let’s create one shall we ? Select the upper left Copilots menu, and New Copilot. Add the name you want and add your BlogSite where the Copilot will get it’s data. Go to the bottom and select Edit Advanced Options and check the “Include lesson topics…”, select a icon and leave the default “Common Data Services Default Solution”.

Once you create the Copilot you will find it in the left menu on the Copilots section:

Configure

The first thing we are going to do is to change the Copilot message for salutation. There is a default one which we can change once we click on the Copilot and inside the chat box of the Copilot message. We will find on the left designer area the predefined message which we will change to our preference.

Remember to Save your changes!

Topics

The most important element of our Copilot are the Topics. Topics are the core building blocks of a chatbot. Topics can be seen as the bot competencies: they define how a conversation dialog plays out. Topics are discrete conversation paths that, when used together, allow for users to have a conversation with a bot that feels natural and flows appropriately.

In our Copilot we have 3 Topics that we do not need, so from the Topics menu, select each Lesson Topic, from the dotted selection and disable it. You can also delete completely these three unneeded Topics.

It is also important to disable Topics that we don’t need otherwise we have to resolve any errors on the existing Topics, since we are making changes. The Topics we need to disable are in grey :

 Before starting deep we also changed a standard Topic named “Goodbye”. You will understand that we may need to make it simpler so here is a proposed version:

As you can see we just changed the end of the Chat with a simple “Thanks for using …”

We also propose to change the Greeting to Redirect to the Conversation Start for a unified experience !

Let’s create a simple Topic, where the Copilot responds to specific questions. You can add your own phrases as well. From the Topics menu select “Create” – “Topic” – “From Blank”

Add the Trigger phrases you wish. We have selected the following :

What do you do?, What is your reach?, What can you tell me?

Add a node with the Message property and add the text which the Copilot will use to answer. You can add the name of the Copilot by selecting the variable icon inside the node. Add a final node that ends this topic:

You can edit the name of your Topic in the upper left corner, and save it ! Before anything you can always test it on the left chat box! Now let’s do something more creative ! Let’s ask the user if they would provide their email so we can send a summary of the conversation ! The Copilot should make it clear that it is optional and should not interrupt the conversation. So the first thing we need to do is to add a new Topic where we can get the user’s email address and store it as a variable. Since the user can request to provide the email later, we can offer this option as well, with the trigger. Here is our Topic:

Pay attention to the closing node and the comment. We have added a Redirect to the Greeting Topic, so we can avoid falling in the Loop of the Start Conversation. To do that we add a new node, Topic Management – Go to another Topic. Now let’s build the the request with a condition, by editing the Conversation Start Topic ( the one we edited at the beginning ). From the Topics menu select All and find the Conversation Start Topic. Add a new Node after the Message with a question. We have this text so the user is aware about the options they have:

Would you like to provide an email so you can get a summary of our Interaction? It is optional and you can add it later by simply saying “Get my Email”!

In this Question Node, select the Multiple Choice options and add the YES and NO possible answers, while saving the answer on a variable. You can rename the variable if you want to. The next node is an “Add a Condition” node and when the answer is YES we send the conversation to the Get User’s Email Topic, while the opposite we send it to the Greeting. Here is our design for the Topic:

Save the Topic, and you can test your Copilot on the left Chat box. You will notice that we can’t redirect the user without a validation message. So we can edit the Get User’s Email Topic with a Message Node like this:

Now we have the basic idea of the Topics ! Play around and create your paths ! Be careful not to fall under loops and always try the Copilot !

We can expand to Power Apps for Data operations , like storing the Email to a Table or creating a Flow in Power automate but that’s not our focus.

Authentication-Channels

Once we are happy with our Copilot we need to make it available to our Channels, specifically to Web Sites. If we select Channels from the left menu we will get a message about Authentication:

So we have to follow a straight forward process to configure Authentication for our Copilot to be available in all Channels. Unless we want users to Sign in we won’t activate that option but you can always change that option. We will enable Entra ID as our Service Provider.

The following part is from Microsoft Documentation

Source:

Configure user authentication with Microsoft Entra ID – Microsoft Copilot Studio | Microsoft Learn

Create an app registration

Sign in to the Azure portal, using an admin account in the same tenant as your copilot.Go to App registrations, either by selecting the icon or searching in the top search bar.

Select New registration and enter a name for the registration.It can be helpful later to use the name of your copilot. For example, if your copilot is called “Contoso sales help,” you might name the app registration “ContosoSalesReg.”Under Supported account types, select Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Microsoft Entra ID directory – Multitenant) and personal Microsoft accounts (e.g. Skype, Xbox).Leave the Redirect URI section blank for now. Enter that information in the next steps.Select Register.After the registration is complete, go to Overview.Copy the Application (client) ID and paste it in a temporary file. You need it in later steps.

Add the redirect URL

Go to Authentication, and then select Add a platform.

Under Platform configurations, select Add a platform, and then select Web.

Under Redirect URIs, enter https://token.botframework.com/.auth/web/redirect and https://europe.token.botframework.com/.auth/web/redirect.

 Note

The authentication configuration pane in Copilot Studio might show the following redirect URL: https://unitedstates.token.botframework.com/.auth/web/redirect. Using that URL makes the authentication fail; use the URI instead.

In the Implicit grant and hybrid flows section, turn on both Access tokens (used for implicit flows) and ID tokens (used for implicit and hybrid flows).

Select Configure.

Generate a client secret

Go to Certificates & secrets.In the Client secrets section, select New client secret.(Optional) Enter a description. One is provided if left blank.Select the expiry period. Select the shortest period that’s relevant for the life of your copilot.Select Add to create the secret.Store the secret’s Value in a secure temporary file. You need it when you configure your copilot’s authentication later on.

 Tip

Don’t leave the page before you copy the value of the client secret. If you do, the value is obfuscated and you must generate a new client secret.

Configure manual authentication

In Copilot Studio, in the navigation menu under Settings, select Security. Then select the Authentication card.

Select Manual (for any channel including Teams) then turn on Require users to sign in.

Enter the following values for the properties:Service provider: Select Microsoft Entra ID.Client ID: Enter the application (client) ID that you copied earlier from the Azure portal.Client secret: Enter the client secret you generated earlier from the Azure portal.Scopes: Enter profile openid.Select Save to finish the configuration.

Configure API permissions

Go to API permissions.Select Grant admin consent for <your tenant name>, and then select Yes. If the button isn’t available, you may need to ask a tenant administrator to do enter it for you.

 NoteTo avoid users from having to consent to each application, a Global Administrator, Application Administrator, or Cloud Application Administrator can grant tenant-wide consent to your app registrations.Select Add a permission, and then select Microsoft Graph.

Select Delegated permissions.

Expand OpenId permissions and turn on openid and profile.

Select Add permissions.

Define a custom scope for your copilot

Scopes allow you to determine user and admin roles and access rights. You create a custom scope for the canvas app registration that you create in a later step.

Go to Expose an API and select Add a scope.

Set the following properties. You can leave the other properties blank.Expand tablePropertyValueScope nameEnter a name that makes sense in your environment, such as Test.ReadWho can consent?Select Admins and usersAdmin consent display nameEnter a name that makes sense in your environment, such as Test.ReadAdmin consent descriptionEnter Allows the app to sign the user in.StateSelect EnabledSelect Add scope.

Source: Configure user authentication with Microsoft Entra ID – Microsoft Copilot Studio | Microsoft Learn

You can always make the Copilot more secure by adding required Authentication and SSO. Read the Documentation to see how you can also add scopes on the Copilot.

Now it’s time to Publish ! Hit the Publish from the menu and publish your Copilot. If any errors occur it will mostly be a Topic. Read carefully our instructions and of course you can make your own routes since you got the concept ! Once Publishing is done, the Channels menu will activate all channels and from the Custom Website you can grab the embedding code and add it in a Post on your WordPress or your Webpage !

You can also see it in the Demo Website if you have not enabled “require secure access”.

Here it is in the actual WordPress using the embedded code:

Closing

With Copilot Studio, building a custom AI assistant and seamlessly integrating it into your WordPress site is simpler than you might have imagined. It empowers you to create a more dynamic and personalized user experience. Whether you’re looking to automate tasks, provide intelligent insights, or offer a more conversational interface on your site, Copilot Studio provides the tools and straightforward process to get you there. Remember, the possibilities are endless. Experiment, refine, and watch as your WordPress site becomes a hub of unparalleled AI-powered engagement!

References

Create Copilots with Copilot StudioManage Topics in Copilot StudioAI-based copilot authoring overviewQuickstart guide for building copilots with generative AIMicrosoft Copilot Studio overview

​How to create a CoPilot and use it in your Blog with your blog’s Data  IntroToday, we’re going to embark on an exciting journey of creating our very own AI assistant, or ‘Copilot’, using the powerful Copilot Studio. But that’s not all! We’ll also learn how to seamlessly integrate this Copilot into our WordPress site, transforming it into a dynamic, interactive platform. Our WordPress site will serve as the primary data source, enabling our Copilot to provide personalized and context-aware responses. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a tech enthusiast, this guide will offer a step-by-step approach to leverage AI capabilities for your WordPress site. So, let’s dive in and start our AI adventure!PreparationLuckily we can try the Copilot Studio with a trial license. So head on to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/sign-up-individual and find all the details. You will have to sign in with a Microsoft 365 user email. You need a Microsoft 365 Tenant as you understand!For those who are actively using Power Apps i suggest to have a god look at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/environments-first-run-experience, so you can grasp the details regarding Environments.CreationOnce we are ready, head over to https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com and you can start working with new Copilots!Let’s create one shall we ? Select the upper left Copilots menu, and New Copilot. Add the name you want and add your BlogSite where the Copilot will get it’s data. Go to the bottom and select Edit Advanced Options and check the “Include lesson topics…”, select a icon and leave the default “Common Data Services Default Solution”.   Once you create the Copilot you will find it in the left menu on the Copilots section: ConfigureThe first thing we are going to do is to change the Copilot message for salutation. There is a default one which we can change once we click on the Copilot and inside the chat box of the Copilot message. We will find on the left designer area the predefined message which we will change to our preference. Remember to Save your changes!TopicsThe most important element of our Copilot are the Topics. Topics are the core building blocks of a chatbot. Topics can be seen as the bot competencies: they define how a conversation dialog plays out. Topics are discrete conversation paths that, when used together, allow for users to have a conversation with a bot that feels natural and flows appropriately.In our Copilot we have 3 Topics that we do not need, so from the Topics menu, select each Lesson Topic, from the dotted selection and disable it. You can also delete completely these three unneeded Topics.   It is also important to disable Topics that we don’t need otherwise we have to resolve any errors on the existing Topics, since we are making changes. The Topics we need to disable are in grey : Before starting deep we also changed a standard Topic named “Goodbye”. You will understand that we may need to make it simpler so here is a proposed version: As you can see we just changed the end of the Chat with a simple “Thanks for using …”We also propose to change the Greeting to Redirect to the Conversation Start for a unified experience !Let’s create a simple Topic, where the Copilot responds to specific questions. You can add your own phrases as well. From the Topics menu select “Create” – “Topic” – “From Blank” Add the Trigger phrases you wish. We have selected the following :What do you do?, What is your reach?, What can you tell me?Add a node with the Message property and add the text which the Copilot will use to answer. You can add the name of the Copilot by selecting the variable icon inside the node. Add a final node that ends this topic: You can edit the name of your Topic in the upper left corner, and save it ! Before anything you can always test it on the left chat box! Now let’s do something more creative ! Let’s ask the user if they would provide their email so we can send a summary of the conversation ! The Copilot should make it clear that it is optional and should not interrupt the conversation. So the first thing we need to do is to add a new Topic where we can get the user’s email address and store it as a variable. Since the user can request to provide the email later, we can offer this option as well, with the trigger. Here is our Topic: Pay attention to the closing node and the comment. We have added a Redirect to the Greeting Topic, so we can avoid falling in the Loop of the Start Conversation. To do that we add a new node, Topic Management – Go to another Topic. Now let’s build the the request with a condition, by editing the Conversation Start Topic ( the one we edited at the beginning ). From the Topics menu select All and find the Conversation Start Topic. Add a new Node after the Message with a question. We have this text so the user is aware about the options they have:Would you like to provide an email so you can get a summary of our Interaction? It is optional and you can add it later by simply saying “Get my Email”!In this Question Node, select the Multiple Choice options and add the YES and NO possible answers, while saving the answer on a variable. You can rename the variable if you want to. The next node is an “Add a Condition” node and when the answer is YES we send the conversation to the Get User’s Email Topic, while the opposite we send it to the Greeting. Here is our design for the Topic: Save the Topic, and you can test your Copilot on the left Chat box. You will notice that we can’t redirect the user without a validation message. So we can edit the Get User’s Email Topic with a Message Node like this: Now we have the basic idea of the Topics ! Play around and create your paths ! Be careful not to fall under loops and always try the Copilot !We can expand to Power Apps for Data operations , like storing the Email to a Table or creating a Flow in Power automate but that’s not our focus.Authentication-ChannelsOnce we are happy with our Copilot we need to make it available to our Channels, specifically to Web Sites. If we select Channels from the left menu we will get a message about Authentication: So we have to follow a straight forward process to configure Authentication for our Copilot to be available in all Channels. Unless we want users to Sign in we won’t activate that option but you can always change that option. We will enable Entra ID as our Service Provider.The following part is from Microsoft DocumentationSource:Configure user authentication with Microsoft Entra ID – Microsoft Copilot Studio | Microsoft LearnCreate an app registrationSign in to the Azure portal, using an admin account in the same tenant as your copilot.Go to App registrations, either by selecting the icon or searching in the top search bar.  Select New registration and enter a name for the registration.It can be helpful later to use the name of your copilot. For example, if your copilot is called “Contoso sales help,” you might name the app registration “ContosoSalesReg.”Under Supported account types, select Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Microsoft Entra ID directory – Multitenant) and personal Microsoft accounts (e.g. Skype, Xbox).Leave the Redirect URI section blank for now. Enter that information in the next steps.Select Register.After the registration is complete, go to Overview.Copy the Application (client) ID and paste it in a temporary file. You need it in later steps. Add the redirect URLGo to Authentication, and then select Add a platform.  Under Platform configurations, select Add a platform, and then select Web.  Under Redirect URIs, enter https://token.botframework.com/.auth/web/redirect and https://europe.token.botframework.com/.auth/web/redirect. NoteThe authentication configuration pane in Copilot Studio might show the following redirect URL: https://unitedstates.token.botframework.com/.auth/web/redirect. Using that URL makes the authentication fail; use the URI instead.In the Implicit grant and hybrid flows section, turn on both Access tokens (used for implicit flows) and ID tokens (used for implicit and hybrid flows).  Select Configure. Generate a client secretGo to Certificates & secrets.In the Client secrets section, select New client secret.(Optional) Enter a description. One is provided if left blank.Select the expiry period. Select the shortest period that’s relevant for the life of your copilot.Select Add to create the secret.Store the secret’s Value in a secure temporary file. You need it when you configure your copilot’s authentication later on. TipDon’t leave the page before you copy the value of the client secret. If you do, the value is obfuscated and you must generate a new client secret. Configure manual authenticationIn Copilot Studio, in the navigation menu under Settings, select Security. Then select the Authentication card.  Select Manual (for any channel including Teams) then turn on Require users to sign in.  Enter the following values for the properties:Service provider: Select Microsoft Entra ID.Client ID: Enter the application (client) ID that you copied earlier from the Azure portal.Client secret: Enter the client secret you generated earlier from the Azure portal.Scopes: Enter profile openid.Select Save to finish the configuration. Configure API permissionsGo to API permissions.Select Grant admin consent for <your tenant name>, and then select Yes. If the button isn’t available, you may need to ask a tenant administrator to do enter it for you.   NoteTo avoid users from having to consent to each application, a Global Administrator, Application Administrator, or Cloud Application Administrator can grant tenant-wide consent to your app registrations.Select Add a permission, and then select Microsoft Graph.  Select Delegated permissions.  Expand OpenId permissions and turn on openid and profile.  Select Add permissions. Define a custom scope for your copilotScopes allow you to determine user and admin roles and access rights. You create a custom scope for the canvas app registration that you create in a later step.Go to Expose an API and select Add a scope.  Set the following properties. You can leave the other properties blank.Expand tablePropertyValueScope nameEnter a name that makes sense in your environment, such as Test.ReadWho can consent?Select Admins and usersAdmin consent display nameEnter a name that makes sense in your environment, such as Test.ReadAdmin consent descriptionEnter Allows the app to sign the user in.StateSelect EnabledSelect Add scope.Source: Configure user authentication with Microsoft Entra ID – Microsoft Copilot Studio | Microsoft LearnYou can always make the Copilot more secure by adding required Authentication and SSO. Read the Documentation to see how you can also add scopes on the Copilot.Now it’s time to Publish ! Hit the Publish from the menu and publish your Copilot. If any errors occur it will mostly be a Topic. Read carefully our instructions and of course you can make your own routes since you got the concept ! Once Publishing is done, the Channels menu will activate all channels and from the Custom Website you can grab the embedding code and add it in a Post on your WordPress or your Webpage ! You can also see it in the Demo Website if you have not enabled “require secure access”. Here it is in the actual WordPress using the embedded code: ClosingWith Copilot Studio, building a custom AI assistant and seamlessly integrating it into your WordPress site is simpler than you might have imagined. It empowers you to create a more dynamic and personalized user experience. Whether you’re looking to automate tasks, provide intelligent insights, or offer a more conversational interface on your site, Copilot Studio provides the tools and straightforward process to get you there. Remember, the possibilities are endless. Experiment, refine, and watch as your WordPress site becomes a hub of unparalleled AI-powered engagement!ReferencesCreate Copilots with Copilot StudioManage Topics in Copilot StudioAI-based copilot authoring overviewQuickstart guide for building copilots with generative AIMicrosoft Copilot Studio overview  Read More

​

Hi, 

I want to change the email language for the Automated investigation and response (AIR) after a phishing report. 

I found the page where you can set a custom email “Body” and “Footer”. This works, but I also need to change the other parts of the email or at least find a way to translate it in french.

Right now, there’s a mix of english and french (The body and footer I configured) but I need the whole thing to be in french.

I would appreciate a hand on this issue.

Thank you !!

PS : See the screenshot for the part I want to translate.

​Hi, I want to change the email language for the Automated investigation and response (AIR) after a phishing report. I found the page where you can set a custom email “Body” and “Footer”. This works, but I also need to change the other parts of the email or at least find a way to translate it in french.Right now, there’s a mix of english and french (The body and footer I configured) but I need the whole thing to be in french.I would appreciate a hand on this issue.Thank you !! PS : See the screenshot for the part I want to translate.   Read More

​

In this guest blog post, Asif Sharif, Founder and Chief Technologist of Modern Requirements, describes how DevOps product owners can overcome several challenges by using Copilot4DevOps Plus, an essential AI tool for Azure DevOps.

A recent survey by Scrum Master Toolbox showed the most common problem product owners face is a lack of time. Causes include handling multiple projects, lacking required skills for certain duties, and mixing duties with other roles.

Challenges like these lead to several downstream requirements management issues in a DevOps context, including:

Wasted time because of the lengthy process of requirements completion
Insufficient time for thorough analysis and customer engagement
Incomplete or incorrect requirements because of human error or a skills gap
Employee burnout or dissatisfaction throughout the command chain

These issues create stakeholder dissatisfaction, inaccurate scope, more errors, and higher costs for the company. According to the Project Management Institute, incorrect requirements and poor scope management are key reasons projects fail. In software development, these errors can cause havoc, costing U.S. businesses an estimated $30 billion or more a year.

The costs of these errors increase significantly depending on when the error is caught, so it’s important to detect them early in the project lifecycle.

Figure 1. Catching errors earlier helps lower overall project costs.*

Product owners tend to use traditional requirements management tools to manage their workloads, but these tools can have steep learning curves, limited features, and difficult onboarding. They typically do not integrate well into a product owner’s workflow, leading to manual copy-pasting that can introduce errors.

Traditional requirements management tools also don’t streamline manual tasks like analyzing requirements, writing user stories, summarizing documents, and identifying compliance gaps. Product owners have been turning to ChatGPT for help with these tasks. But ChatGPT has limitations.

ChatGPT is not enough for product owners

While ChatGPT can generate new requirements from vague descriptions and analyze existing requirements for quality among other tasks, it has several disadvantages:

Good prompting can be hard

AI prompting is a significant advancement in human-machine interaction, but it is a mix of art and science. Two common challenges product owners might face when using ChatGPT are over- or under-specification of prompts and AI interpreting prompts literally. For instance, ChatGPT can misinterpret commands like “give me a brief answer” or “give me credible sources.” Exactly how short is brief? And what determines a source is credible? Additionally, adjusting AI output is also tough and may require switching between AI models and losing chat context, and employees who don’t follow AI elicitation best practices may generate inaccurate or vague responses from the AI.

Workflow disconnection
ChatGPT isn’t integrated with DevOps workflows. A product owner must manually copy instructions into its interface, switch tabs, then paste the results back in. They also might have to take the extra step of posting the answer into a Word document to reformat it before finally pasting it into their ALM. This manual, time-consuming process can mitigate or even reverse the time saving-benefits of using ChatGPT.
AI security concerns
In enterprises, it’s often uncertain who uses personal ChatGPT accounts on sensitive data, and whether they’ve disabled the training from chat data. An enterprise-sanctioned AI tool with a non-data-collecting API is preferred.

An AI tool that is secure by design and provides the benefits of ChatGPT without its drawbacks can solve these challenges. An ideal tool would integrate seamlessly within product owners’ DevOps workflows and have a familiar UI.

AI tailored for product owners

Incorporating AI into DevOps provides a powerful competitive edge. A Forbes poll showed 59 percent of workers thought AI increased their job satisfaction. OMFIF’s study of 5,000 agents showed AI assistance can increase worker productivity by 14 percent in white-collar jobs, particularly with novice and low-skilled workers.

Figure 2. AI assistance has affected a wide variety of white-collar worker tasks.**

Modern Requirements’ Copilot4DevOps Plus, available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, empowers product owners to access the benefits of generative AI within their Azure DevOps workflow.

Figure 3. Copilot4DevOps Plus is natively built into Azure DevOps and has several features designed to make projects easier.

A simple user interface makes it easy for product owners to get consistent, high-quality results without prompt engineering. It is also integrated directly into Azure DevOps and into the DevOps product owner workflow. Here is how its features match the challenges product owners face:

Product owner challenges
Relevant Copilot4DevOps Plus features

Wasted time because of the lengthy process of requirements completion.
Elicit complete, high-quality requirements and test cases in seconds.

Insufficient time for requirements analysis.
Analyze work item data for quality using the 6C method.

Long requirements documents that are tedious to read.
Summarize high-level requirements into concise, readable segments.

Good prompting on ChatGPT can be hard. Improper prompting reduces output quality and consistency.
Pre-configured prompts help maintain quote quality and consistency. Custom instructions available for further tailoring.

Time-consuming copy-pasting between tabs, which introduces errors.
Seamless integration into the familiar Azure DevOps UI.

Cross-functional communication with distributed teams speaking different languages across the world.
Translate work items and requirements into over 40 languages, enhancing collaboration.

Time-consuming creation of user stories and Gherkin plain text language that balance technical details with clarity.
One-click generation of user stories and Gherkin from requirements.

AI security concerns, use of personal accounts on sensitive data.
Securely handle sensitive data without training on it. Inherits all Azure DevOps, OpenAI, and Azure OpenAI service security protocols and updates.

Copilot4DevOps Plus offers several other powerful features Business Analysts (BAs), Quality Assurance (QAs), developers, and other DevOps professionals can use:

Dynamic prompts: Allows workers to apply tailored prompts to perform actions on selected Azure DevOps queries.
Pseudocode generation: Automatically generates pseudocode in many programming languages to help developers streamline coding tasks.
Test script creation: Generates test scripts in multiple programming languages, significantly reducing the time needed for test preparation.

Better together with Microsoft

Figure 4. Copilot4DevOps Plus extends the productivity benefits of Azure DevOps.

Copilot4DevOps Plus takes advantage of several Azure DevOps and Azure Marketplace benefits to drive significant business impact for product owners, including:

Azure OpenAI Service: When users choose to work with GPT-4 or GPT-4o, they get results though the Azure OpenAI Service API. This API typically has lower latency than the OpenAI API, and the data submitted is not transferred to OpenAI.
Inherited Azure DevOps security and compliance benefits: By inheriting Azure DevOps’ security and compliance benefits, Copilot4DevOps Plus ensures your data is protected and easily accessible. For instance, you have access to the same SSO capabilities. Microsoft has also obtained more than 100 compliance certifications, including ISO 27001, SOC 2, FedRAMP, PCI DSS, HIPAA, CCPA, Australia IRAP, and EU GDPR.
Familiar UI/integrated into Azure DevOps: Most enterprise customers use Microsoft products in some form, including Microsoft 365. The integration of Copilot4DevOps Plus into the familiar Azure DevOps interface makes it easy for teams to adopt and use Copilot4DevOps Plus.
Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment benefits: Copilot4DevOps is available in the Azure Marketplace, meaning customers may be able to apply their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) credits toward buying licenses, reducing upfront expenses, and streamlining the procurement process.

AI empowers product owners to do more

Product owners face significant time constraints managing multiple projects and overlapping responsibilities, which often lead to erroneous or incomplete requirements. These issues can result in dissatisfied stakeholders, failing projects, and additional costs. Addressing these challenges is crucial for improving productivity and project success.

Copilot4DevOps Plus addresses these issues to speed up project execution, improve the quality of outcomes, and reduce errors. It is available in the Azure Marketplace and Visual Studio Marketplace.

Please visit the Copilot4DevOps Plus website for more information or to request a demo.

* Figure 1 source

** Figure 2 source

​Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More 

Azure Monitor introduces Dynamic Thresholds also for Log Search Rules, revolutionizing how you set up log and monitor search alerts. Say goodbye to manual threshold tuning and hello to intelligent, adaptable monitoring.

Here’s why dynamic thresholds are a game-changer:

Automatic Calibration: Dynamic thresholds calculate the right alert levels for you. They adjust as your system evolves, ensuring timely alerts without false positives.
Smart Learning: Dynamic thresholds analyzing historical data, learning patterns and trends. They adapt to your application’s unique behavior, whether it’s daily spikes or weekly lulls.
Alerting At Scale: Create a single rule for any multi dimensions alert. Dynamic thresholds define different alert threshold band for every dimension combination.
Effortless Setup: Just enable dynamic thresholds, no need to have a specific knowledge of the data to setup alert thresholds.

Dynamic thresholds empower you to stay proactive, minimize downtime, and keep your systems running smoothly.

Use Cases

Here you can find use cases for dynamic threshold:

Use Case: Monitoring CPU Behavior in Virtual Machines

Background: Users can now calculate guest VM metrics using the Perf table in Log Analytics, enabling the creation of a single alert rule for all your VMs across different regions using dimensions. Previously, customers could only set up dynamic threshold metric alerts for host CPU usage.

Goal Statement: The primary goal of this use case is to monitor the CPU behavior within virtual machines (VMs) and detect irregular patterns that may indicate performance issues.

Scenario definitions:

Problem Identification:

The team wants to ensure optimal performance and identify any CPU-related issues promptly.

Use Case Description:

The CPU utilization data is being collected from each VM.
The system using the model analyses the CPU behavior over time, looking for deviations from the expected pattern.
Deviations may include sudden spikes, prolonged high usage, or unexpected drops in CPU utilization.

Trigger:

Azure monitor triggers a log search alert once the CPU is higher than the regular patterns, which means that the alert is out of the upper boundaries.

Benefits:

Early detection of CPU-related problems helps prevent performance degradation.
Proactive monitoring ensures efficient resource utilization.
Improved system stability and responsiveness.
In Perf table there is an option to monitor other “Counter Value” instead of CPU. Examples can be found here.

ARM template example: {
“$schema”: “https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#”,
“contentVersion”: “1.0.0.0”,
“parameters”: {
“scheduledqueryrules_PerfDemoRule_name”: {
“defaultValue”: “PerfDemoRule”,
“type”: “String”
},
“workspaces_PerfDemoWorkspace_externalid”: {
“defaultValue”: “/subscriptions/XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX/resourceGroups/XXXX/providers/Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/PerfDemoWorkspace”,
“type”: “String”
}
},
“variables”: {},
“resources”: [
{
“type”: “microsoft.insights/scheduledqueryrules”,
“apiVersion”: “2024-01-01-preview”,
“name”: “[parameters(‘scheduledqueryrules_PerfDemoRule_name’)]”,
“location”: “eastus2”,
“properties”: {
“displayName”: “[parameters(‘scheduledqueryrules_PerfDemoRule_name’)]”,
“severity”: 3,
“enabled”: true,
“evaluationFrequency”: “PT5M”,
“scopes”: [
“[parameters(‘workspaces_PerfDemoWorkspace_externalid’)]”
],
“targetResourceTypes”: [
“Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines”
],
“windowSize”: “PT5M”,
“criteria”: {
“allOf”: [
{
“query”: “Perf | where CounterName == “Available MBytes” and InstanceName == “_Total” | project TimeGenerated, CounterValue, Computer,_ResourceIdn”,
“timeAggregation”: “Average”,
“metricMeasureColumn”: “CounterValue”,
“dimensions”: [],
“resourceIdColumn”: “_ResourceId”,
“operator”: “GreaterThan”,
“alertSensitivity”: “High”,
“criterionType”: “DynamicThresholdCriterion”,
“failingPeriods”: {
“numberOfEvaluationPeriods”: 1,
“minFailingPeriodsToAlert”: 1
}
}
]
},
“autoMitigate”: false
}
}
]
}

Use Case: Monitor Behavior Network in Application Insight Virtual Machines

Goal Statement: The primary goal of this use case is to monitor the network write behavior within virtual machines (VMs) and detect irregular patterns that may indicate performance issues or anomalies.

Scenario Definitions:

Problem Identification:

The team aims to ensure optimal performance and promptly identify any network write-related issues within their VMs.

Use Case Description:

The system periodically collects network write data from each VM using dynamic thresholds models.
The models analyze the network write behavior over time, specifically looking for deviations from the expected pattern.
Deviations may include sudden spikes, prolonged high usage, or unexpected drops in network write activity.

Trigger:

Azure monitor triggers a log search alert when network write behavior exceeds the regular patterns, indicating that the alert is beyond the upper boundaries.

Benefits:

Early detection of network write-related problems helps prevent performance degradation.
Proactive monitoring ensures efficient resource utilization.
Improved system stability and responsiveness.

ARM template example:  

{
“$schema”: “https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#”,
“contentVersion”: “1.0.0.0”,
“parameters”: {
“scheduledqueryrules_LogSearch1ActionGroup_name”: {
“defaultValue”: “LogSearch1ActionGroup”,
“type”: “String”
},
“components_ACME_Portal_externalid”: {
“defaultValue”: “/subscriptions/XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX/resourceGroups/XXXX-XXXX/microsoft.insights/components/ACME-Portal”,
“type”: “String”
}
},
“variables”: {},
“resources”: [
{
“type”: “microsoft.insights/scheduledqueryrules”,
“apiVersion”: “2024-01-01-preview”,
“name”: “[parameters(‘scheduledqueryrules_LogSearch1ActionGroup_name’)]”,
“location”: “eastus”,
“properties”: {
“displayName”: “[parameters(‘scheduledqueryrules_LogSearch1ActionGroup_name’)]”,
“severity”: 3,
“enabled”: true,
“evaluationFrequency”: “PT5M”,
“scopes”: [
“[parameters(‘components_ACME_Portal_externalid’)]”
],
“targetResourceTypes”: [
“microsoft.insights/components”
],
“windowSize”: “PT30M”,
“criteria”: {
“allOf”: [
{
“query”: “InsightsMetrics| where Origin == “vm.azm.ms”| where Namespace == “Network” and Name == “WriteBytesPerSecond”| extend NetworkInterface=tostring(todynamic(Tags)[“vm.azm.ms/networkDeviceId”])|summarize AggregatedValue = avg(Val) by bin(TimeGenerated, 15m), Computer, _ResourceId, NetworkInterface,

“timeAggregation”: “Average”,
“metricMeasureColumn”: “AggregatedValue”,
“dimensions”:[
{
“name”: “Computer”,
“operator”: “Include”,
“values”: “[[parameters(‘computersToInclude’)]”
},
{
“name”: “NetworkInterface”,
“operator”: “Include”,
“values”: “[[parameters(‘networkInterfacesToInclude’)]”
}
],
“operator”: “GreaterThan”,
“alertSensitivity”: “High”,
“criterionType”: “DynamicThresholdCriterion”,
“resourceIdColumn”: “_ResourceId”,
“failingPeriods”: {
“numberOfEvaluationPeriods”: 1,
“minFailingPeriodsToAlert”: 1
}
}
]
},
“autoMitigate”: false
}
}
]
}

How to create Dynamic Threshold ARM template

You can easily change a log search rule (with a static threshold) template to be a dynamic one by making the following changes:

In the “allOf” condition:

Addition of “criterionType”: “DynamicThresholdCriterion”
Addition of “alertSensitivity”.
Removal of “threshold” parameter.

Update api-version in template to be “2024-01-01-preview”

Summary

In the world of monitoring and alerting, precision matters. Enter Dynamic Thresholds—a game-changer for Log Search Rules. Here’s why they’re essential:

Anomaly Detection:

Dynamic thresholds rely on advanced algorithms to calculate expected performance ranges based on historical data.
They identify anomalies—sudden spikes, drops, or irregular patterns—that warrant attention.

Efficiency Boost:

No more manual threshold tuning. Dynamic thresholds adapt automatically.
Scale alerts across hundreds of dimension combinations series with a single rule.

Stay Ahead:

Early detection prevents performance degradation.
Proactively manage resource utilization for improved stability and responsiveness.

Dynamic thresholds empower you to be proactive, responsive, and precise.

​Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More