Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Comparison of PSA's security roles

Security is amongst the most important aspects in Dynamics 365. It takes good and careful planning to implement a comprehensive security model that allows users to access Dynamics 365 without hindering daily work. Project Service Automation has introduced seven new security roles to Dynamics 365:

•    Practice Manager
•    Project Approver
•    Project Billing Administrator
•    Project Manager
•    Project Resource
•    Project Service Automation app access
•    Resource Manager

While these roles are heavily tied to PSA, they also take into account some aspects of other modules in Dynamics 365 like Sales and Customer Service. As security models differ between customers, you might find a need to use other security roles in conjunction with the roles released with PSA. Another approach is to make adjustments to some of the seven new roles. When editing the out of the box roles, it's always a good idea to copy the original role and make the necessary changes to the copy instead of the original OOB security role. This way you can always revert to the OOB version if something goes wrong.

The purpose of this blog post is to compare the different security roles introduced with PSA on a high level. I recommend using a knowledgeable Microsoft Partner especially when starting to build a security model in a new implementation. As mentioned, this post provides a high level overview of the seven security roles instead of being a guide to building a security model or telling you which roles to use in your business. I have compared the Project Service Automation entities found on docs.dynamics.com with those found under security roles in Dynamics 365. If you feel there is a relevant entity missing from the comparison, please post a comment on my blog. The Project Service Automation app access security role is intentionally left out from the comparison as it only provides app access.

You can download the security role comparison from the links below:

Security role comparison with grid lines
Security role comparison without grid lines

I hope this comparison helps you take more out of Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation.

Disclaimer: 
All my blog posts reflect my personal opinions and findings unless otherwise stated.