Technical instruction to How to Streamline Customer Requests and Improve Consultant Productivity.
One of the solutions that I demonstrated in my session is how to use Power Automate to automate the creation of tasks in Azure DevOps from customer emails. This way, we can save time and effort and serve the customer in their preferred channel. Here are the steps that I followed:
- Create a shared mailbox for the customer requests, such as [email protected]
- Create a Power Automate flow that triggers when a new email arrives to the shared mailbox
- Use the Azure DevOps connector to create a new work item in the backlog, using the email subject as the title, the email body as the description, and the email sender as the requester
- Use the Teams connector to send a notification to a group chat with the consultants, using an adaptive card that shows the details of the new task and allows them to take action, such as assign, comment, or complete
- Optionally, use the Outlook connector to send a confirmation email to the customer, thanking them for their request and providing them with a link to the task in Azure DevOps
![](https://www.karlex.fi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-4-1024x890.png)
Many times developers struggle with email attachments – when there are some but the bytes are not there, remember to set the setting to get them on in the trigger
![](https://www.karlex.fi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-5.png)
Azure DevOps
Get Current Iteration
You want to create tasks for the current sprint – otherwise the tasks just disappear in the backlog. Get the ongoing iteration with HTTP request to Azure DevOps
![](https://www.karlex.fi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-6.png)
Request Access Policy
If there is problems getting answer, maybe your Azure DevOps does not have Request Access Policy turned on. Turn it on
![](https://www.karlex.fi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-7.png)
Then you need to initialize flow parameters
outputs('Send_an_HTTP_request_to_Azure_DevOps_-_Get_Current_Iteration')?['body']['value'][0]['path']
Create Task with Iteration
And finally create the task in the backlog
![](https://www.karlex.fi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-8-898x1024.png)
Next you will figure out that you are missing pictures and attachments in your tasks. See the next blog post hos to add
Solution blog post collection
- How to Streamline Customer Requests and Improve Consultant Productivity
- Use Power Automate to automate the creation of tasks from customer emails requests
- Add attachments and pictures to Azure DevOps tasks from email
- Use AI Builder to analyse the request problem and create solution for it
- Use Teams group chat for notifying developers of new tasks in backlog