Andrew Wilson's Blog

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How to Set Up Manual Approval for Azure App Service Slot Swaps in Azure DevOps Pipelines

Overview Deploying updates to production environments demands both speed and control. Azure App Service deployment slots, combined with Azure DevOps pipelines, offer a powerful way to manage releases, enabling teams to validate changes in a live-like environment before they go public. However, ensuring that only reviewed and approved changes reach your users is critical for maintaining reliability and compliance. Azure App Service Slots unlock powerful advantages: Site Review. Preview and test your site before it goes live, ensuring everything works as expected.

Posted by Andrew Wilson on Friday, June 6, 2025

Agent Loop | Azure Logic Apps Just Got Smarter

Microsoft Announcement Microsoft has just introduced something quite revolutionary into the world of integration: Agent Loop, a new capability in Azure Logic Apps that lets you build AI-powered agents directly into your workflows. On the surface, it might seem like another incremental feature. But dig a little deeper, and the implications are huge! Let’s break it down. What Is Agent Loop? Agent Loop is Microsoft’s way of embedding advanced AI decision-making into Logic Apps workflows.

Posted by Andrew Wilson on Wednesday, May 21, 2025

The Requirements Ambiguity Paradox

The Requirements Ambiguity Paradox With the context of software requirements, I regularly encounter an understood but often ignored scenario: the less detailed the initial requirements, the more expansive the client’s expectations become as the project progresses. It’s a phenomenon I refer to as the Requirements Ambiguity Paradox. Imagine initiating a project with a brief requirements document, aiming for agility and speed. At first glance, this seems efficient. However, this brevity often leads to divergent interpretations:

Posted by Andrew Wilson on Friday, May 16, 2025

Automating Semantic Versioning in Azure DevOps CI/CD Pipelines with GitVersion

Overview Versioning is the unsung hero of software development—often overlooked but absolutely essential. Imagine trying to manage a project without a clear way to track changes, communicate updates, or ensure compatibility. Chaos, right? That’s where versioning steps in, providing structure and clarity. In this post, I’ll share how I streamline versioning in my projects by combining the power of Semantic Versioning (SemVer) with GitVersion, an automation tool that eliminates the manual effort of version management.

Posted by Andrew Wilson on Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Bicep | Existing Resource Dependencies

Background The Bicep existing keyword is a powerful capability that allows us to reference a resource that wasn’t deployed as part of the current Bicep file. One of the typical use cases that I often see is where a resource is deployed as part of a module called by the parent template, the resource that was deployed as part of the module is then required later in the parent template and therefore an existing resource definition is used.

Posted by Andrew Wilson on Wednesday, March 26, 2025