Study guide for Exam MB-500: Microsoft Dynamics 365: Finance and Operations Apps Developer

• Article
• 11/19/2024
• 2 contributors

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In this article

1. Purpose of this document
2. Updates to the exam
3. Skills measured as of December 18, 2024
4. Study resources
5. Change log

Purpose of this document

This study guide should help you understand what to expect on the exam and includes a summary of the topics the exam might cover and links to additional resources. The information and materials in this document should help you focus your studies as you prepare for the exam.Expand table

Useful links	Description
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Take a practice test	Are you ready to take the exam or do you need to study a bit more?

Updates to the exam

Our exams are updated periodically to reflect skills that are required to perform a role. We have included two versions of the Skills Measured objectives depending on when you are taking the exam.

We always update the English language version of the exam first. Some exams are localized into other languages, and those are updated approximately eight weeks after the English version is updated. While Microsoft makes every effort to update localized versions as noted, there may be times when the localized versions of an exam are not updated on this schedule. Other available languages are listed in the Schedule Exam section of the Exam Details webpage. If the exam isn’t available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes to complete the exam.

Note

The bullets that follow each of the skills measured are intended to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. Related topics may be covered in the exam.

Note

Most questions cover features that are general availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.

Skills measured as of December 18, 2024

Audience profile

As a candidate for this exam, you’re a developer who works with finance and operations apps in Microsoft Dynamics 365 to implement and extend applications that meet the requirements of a business. You provide fully realized solutions by using:

• Standardized application coding patterns
• Extensible features
• External integrations

As a candidate for this exam, you do the following:

• Develop business logic by using X++.
• Create and modify finance and operations app reports and workspaces.
• Customize the UI.
• Provide endpoints and APIs to support Microsoft Power Platform apps and external systems.
• Perform testing.
• Monitor performance.
• Analyze and manipulate data.
• Manage implementations by using application lifecycle management (ALM).

You also create technical designs and implementation details, and implement permission policies and security requirements.

You should have a deep knowledge and experience using the underlying framework, data structures, and objects associated with the finance and operations solutions.

You should have experience with products and services that include Microsoft Visual Studio, Azure, Dataverse, Power Platform Admin Center, Power Apps, Power Automate, Azure DevOps, Lifecycle Services tools, Postman, GitHub, Microsoft 365, reporting tools (for example, SQL Server Reporting Services [SSRS], Power BI), and SQL Server Management Studio.

Skills at a glance

• Plan the architecture and solution design (5–10%)
• Apply developer tools (10–15%)
• Design and develop AOT elements (15–20%)
• Develop and test code (15–20%)
• Implement reporting (10–15%)
• Integrate and manage data solutions (15–20%)
• Implement security and optimize performance (10–15%)

Plan the architecture and solution design (5–10%)

Plan for the major components of finance and operations apps

• Differentiate between the cloud and on-premises versions of finance and operations apps
• Reference the key models of the application stack

Implement application lifecycle management (ALM) and Lifecycle Services

• Manage environments by using Lifecycle Services tools and components
• Research and resolve issues by using Issue Search
• Perform activities that require asset libraries
• Prepare deployment packages and deploy packages between environments
• Manage the code upgrade process from previous versions

Apply developer tools (10–15%)

Customize finance and operations apps by using Visual Studio

• Create and manage extension models
• Design and build projects
• Manage metadata using Application Explorer
• Synchronize data dictionary changes with the application database
• Create elements by using element designers
• Perform debugging activities

Manage source code and artifacts by using Microsoft Azure DevOps version control

• Create, check out, and check in code and artifacts and review code
• Branch and merge code
• Compare code and resolve version conflicts
• Choose a version control system
• Implement continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD)

Design and develop AOT elements (15–20%)

Create and extend UI elements

• Add a new form to a project and apply a pattern
• Configure a data source for the form
• Add a grid and grid fields, groups, and other controls to a form
• Create and extend menus and menu items
• Add a form extension to a project for selected standard forms
• Create and use label files

Create and extend the data model

• Create and extend tables
• Add table fields and field properties to a table
• Add field groups, relations, delete actions, methods, and indices
• Create and extend views, queries, and maps
• Create and extend data entities

Create classes and extend AOT elements

• Create a new class or class extension and add new methods
• Add event handler methods to a class
• Add attributes or modifiers to a class

Develop and test code (15–20%)

Develop X++ code

• Implement common structured programming constructs of X++
• Create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) data
• Implement global functions in X++
• Resolve best practice warnings

Develop object-oriented code

• Implement X++ variable scoping
• Implement inheritance and abstraction concept
• Implement query objects and the QueryBuilder class
• Implement attribute classes
• Implement Chain of Command (CoC)
• Implement event handler classes and delegates

Implement finance and operations app framework functionality

• Implement the SysOperation framework
• Implement the workflow framework
• Implement the SysExtensionSerializer framework

Perform testing

• Create unit testing using the SysTest framework and Task recorder
• Run unit tests in Test Explorer

Implement reporting (10–15%)

Select reporting tools in finance and operations apps

• Create and modify report data sources and supporting classes
• Implement reporting security requirements
• Deploy or publish reports
• Differentiate between using Entity store and Bring your own database (BYOD) or Azure as reporting data stores

Design, create, and revise Dynamics 365 reports

• Determine when to use a specific reporting tool or platform
• Create and modify reports in finance and operations apps by using SSRS
• Create and modify finance and operations apps reports by using Power BI
• Create and modify finance and operations apps reports by using Microsoft Excel
• Create and modify finance and operations apps reports by using Electronic Reporting (ER)

Design, create, and revise Dynamics 365 workspaces

• Design and implement key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Create drill-through workspace elements
• Implement built-in charts, Power BI embedded visualizations, aggregate measurements, aggregate dimensions, and other reporting components

Integrate and manage data solutions (15–20%)

Evaluate data integration patterns and scenarios

• Contrast data integration patterns
• Select an appropriate data integration API
• Differentiate between synchronous and asynchronous patterns

Implement data integration concepts and solutions

• Consume external web services by using RESTful APIs and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
• Implement electronic reporting integrations
• Implement custom services and Batch OData API

Implement data management

• Import and export data using entities between finance and operations apps and other systems
• Import and export data using composite and aggregate data entities
• Monitor the status and availability of entities
• Enable change tracking for entities
• Set up a data project and recurring data jobs
• Design entity sequencing
• Generate and modify field mapping between source, staging, and target
• Develop data transformations

Integrate with Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft 365, and Azure

• Integrate Power Automate and Power Apps with finance and operations apps
• Integrate Microsoft Dataverse with finance and operations apps by using dual-write
• Integrate Microsoft Dataverse with finance and operations apps by using virtual entities
• Integrate finance and operations apps with Microsoft Excel by using OData
• Implement business events
• Implement Azure Key Vault

Implement security and optimize performance (10–15%)

Implement security policies and requirements

• Create or modify duties, privileges, permissions, and roles
• Enforce permissions policies
• Implement Extensible Data Security (XDS) policies
• Enforce Microsoft Entra ID authentication

Apply fundamental performance optimization techniques

• Apply caching mechanisms for forms and tables
• Implement the global cache and singleton
• Create or modify temporary tables for optimization purposes
• Assess when to use set-based queries and row-based queries
• Modify queries to optimize performance
• Modify variable scope to optimize performance
• Analyze and optimize concurrency

Optimize performance

• Capture traces by using TraceParser and analyze traces
• Optimize performance for data entities, data source queries, batch processes, and reports
• Implement the Async and Sandbox frameworks
• Create or modify indexes for tables and views

Study resources

We recommend that you train and get hands-on experience before you take the exam. We offer self-study options and classroom training as well as links to documentation, community sites, and videos.Expand table

Study resources	Links to learning and documentation
Get trained	Choose from self-paced learning paths and modules or take an instructor-led course
Find documentation	Dynamics 365 documentation and learning modules Finance home page
Ask a question	Microsoft Q&A | Microsoft Docs
Get community support	Microsoft Dynamics Community
Follow Microsoft Learn	Microsoft Learn – Microsoft Tech Community
Find a video	Exam Readiness Zone

Change log

The table below summarizes the changes between the current and previous version of the skills measured. The functional groups are in bold typeface followed by the objectives within each group. The table is a comparison between the previous and current version of the exam skills measured and the third column describes the extent of the changes.Expand table

Skill area prior to December 18, 2024	Skill area as of December 18, 2024	Change
Implement reporting	Implement reporting	No change in % of exam
Select reporting tools in finance and operations apps	Select reporting tools in finance and operations apps	Minor