Dynamics 365 – Understanding The Teams Member Licence Restrictions
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity. Douglas Horton The story of Team Member licence < p id=”da14″>The Team member licence has had a roller coaster ride with Dynamics 365. As soon as Microsoft released the generous first Team Member licence they realised they had made a mistake because it let users too do much. This lead to a stampede of users buying team…...
Why is low code software development and Power Apps exploding?
The ability to deliver software fast and by citizen developers is changing the software development world Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels Low code is eating the world, developers have a choice joining the feast or getting eaten Low code developer is like YouTube to television or twitter to blog posts. It’s growing fast because you can create solutions without code and… Continue Reading Hosk’s...
Momentum in software development is never a straight line
Development does not move forward with purpose like a marching band. It weaves, stumbles and staggers like a drunk heading towards the kebab shop #HoskWisdom Projects don’t move in a straight line and project plans are rarely accurate. Software development is full of surprises, new requirements and changes no one ever predicts. It’s only the simplest projects with a clear scope… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
The greatest danger to developers
hai-sharks “the greatest danger you face is your mind growing soft and your eye getting dull.” ― 50 Cent, The 50th Law < p id=”ffa2″>The greatest danger to developers is to stop being curious, stop learning and stop keeping up with new technology. The day you stop learning is the day you start your journey towards retirement. Slow death How do you slowly make development harder? falling… Continue Reading...
Development can be torturous
Egg Hammer Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine. Jack Ma < p id=”4dff”>Douglas Adam the brilliant writer of the awesome — Hitch Hikers guide to the galaxy at times felt writing a torturous process, to the extent he wrote himself a note to pick himself up, featured in this article in the Guardian. “Writing isn’t so bad really when…...
Evolution of solutions in Dataverse/Dynamics 365
Evolution “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains” Rosa Luxemburg < p id=”bc20″>Dynamics 365 professionals see every problem as something to be solved by Dynamics 365 plugin or workflow. The environment has changed and now the best solution might not need Dataverse database but just a Canvas app. This article — Aliens in our midst made me think about how we think about solutions… Continue...
Why experienced developers are worth the money
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted .” ― Randy Pausch Development experienced is earned the hard way by trying, failing and trying again until you get it right. Developing isn’t easy and anyone who says it is will soon be humbled by the process. Senior developers are expensive but inexperienced developers will cost you more with late projects…. Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
What’s your fifth risk? — Unexpected problem cause big problems
Gladson Xavier “Life is not what you expect: it is made up of the most unexpected twists and turns” — Ilaiyaraaja < p id=”aa30″>Projects are fertile breeding grounds for problems. Ingredients such as groups of people working to tight deadlines, using new technology/features with no experience and lots of activities happening at the same time. Some problems go off like a hand grenade, grab… Continue Reading...
Know where you are an expert and where you are an idiot
Geralt Most people are expert in a few areas, get overconfident and think they are experts in everything. #HoskWisdom It takes confidence to admit you are not an expert in all areas and you should defer to someone who is. There is no shortcut to becoming an expert, it takes years of learning, experience and practice to have a deep level of understanding on a subject. Don’t tell an… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
Why IT projects are underestimated
image from reshot We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction. Bill GatesThe UK government’s response to Covid shows how easy it is to underestimate a project and how you can overestimate your effort. Project takes longer, costs more and can often fail. <p… Continue Reading...
How to discuss ambitious project plans
picture from here “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” — Warren Buffett There is a time on most projects, where the project plan is going wrong and the deadlines won’t be met. The pressure is to change the plan to deliver on time, add more people, work faster, pull out all the stops and hit the date. The simple… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog How to...
Thinking beyond the project
Focus on business, people, customers and then technology, in that order #HoskWisdom when we focus on a delivering the project, we miss the goal of the project. Think beyond the project, focus on the helping the business be successful and use technology to help. Project Projects involve people, time and expense, they take time and effort. The measurement of success becomes… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog...
Are people on the project waving or drowning?
Sometimes it’s those who don’t ask for help, who need it most #HoskWisdom The difference between someone in water waving and drowning is small, but the difference could lead to life and death. How many times do you see people and teams complaining, but are they waving or drowning? Conflicting teams IT projects are stressful, delivered to tight deadlines. Teams need to get… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog Are...
Projects evolve to create the right solution
Requirements create estimates, estimates create plans, plans create projects, projects create problems because the requirements, estimates, plans and projects were wrong #HoskCodeWisdom IT projects go wrong, you can’t avoid it but you can prepare for mistakes, get feedback helps you learn, improve and create a solution suited to the customer needs. You can’t get all the requirements… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
Defining your project problems, helps you avoid them
All I want to know is how this project will fail, so I can avoid doing that #HoskWisdom Project plans have goals, milestones and deliverables. They have optimistic paths into the future and run into trouble when the inevitable problems jump up and smash you in the face. Predict your potential problems and you can resolve them before they become problems. Focus on what might go wrong… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
Things to consider when using Flows for data migration
“Show me a ten-foot wall and I’ll show you an eleven-foot ladder” ― Peter Bevelin Using Flow for data migration is easy but has limitations you should consider, these limitations can cause problems left the data migration in limbo, whilst waiting for the api limits for each day and Flows waking up and running When you hit the daily limit for Flows, they stop working until the… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
Avoid certainty and embrace inquiry
You control the decision, not the outcome #HoskWisdom There are no right answers, there is only questions and finding out why. There is no certainty, we have questions, ideas and our ability to make good decisions. The more you think you know, the less you question and the more assumptions affect your decisions. When you believe you are an expert, you stop listening to other… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog...
Dynamics 365 October 2020 wave 2 error — Mobile Offline Profiles import: FAILURE: Mobile Offline Profiles import: FAILURE
I was on a project which was manually applying the October 2020 Wave 2 update and after saying this never go wrong, what happens, yep, it goes wrong. The question is what do you when this happens. In reality you can only raise a Microsoft support ticket. I raise a P1 with premier support and Microsoft do not reply for 2 and half hours, clearly their idea of a P1 is different to mine. <p… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article...
Why you should listen more than you talk
“Never give reasons for what you think or do until you must. Maybe after a while, a better reason will pop into your head.” General William T. Sherman When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike…. Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
Make time to invest in yourself
My new cat William It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau The days go fast, it’s easy to be busy all day but is being busy good and are meeting short-term goals coming at the cost of your long-term career goals. We start work, read emails, start doing something, attend meeting then more work, emails, meetings,… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog...
What I learnt working on IT projects
Don’t build solutions on assumptions, ambiguity and ignorance #HoskWisdom IT projects are a challenge, a good deal of fail and all of them are difficult. IT project can need lots of people, time, ideas and hard work. Projects face obstacles, problems and changes of priorities, these changes can defeat you or you look at them as opportunities to make the solution better, the quote… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
Management and leadership books I read in the last 4 years
In 2016 I become a Scrum master on a enterprise project and was tasked with helping create a great Dynamics 365 team and I started out on my journey to improve the skills needed to lead. I started reading books on the following subjects Management Leadership Coaching Presence Communication Scrum/Agile DevOps Persuasion I read autobiographies of business people, football coaches… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
What the winningest NFL coach (Don Shula) can teach us about IT projects
I read Don Shula: A Biography of the Winningest Coach in NFL History, Don Shula coached in the NFL from 1958 to 1995 and won more games than any other NFL coach and the super bowl twice. Shula was successful over a long period, he evolved and adapted to different environments, people and situations. Adaptable Environments, customers, people and technology changes. The actions that… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
SQL 4 CDS - querying teamroles
In my previous post on the SQL 4 CDS XRMToolbox tool, Dynamics 365 tool you should use — SQL 4 CDS, I used it to check for deactivated workflows, get versions and export data. I have been using it to verify my releases have worked correctly. After I run a release I check for deactivated workflows and business rules. I am using AD Group and AAD Security group teams (Dynamics 365… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
Dynamics 365 - mobile offline profile error
I have a love/hate relationship with Mobile offline and today it threw an error in one environment that wasn’t occuring in the any of the other environments with the same Mobile offline profile setup. Exporting Mobile Offline When you add a mobile offline profile to a solution and export, it will automatically add any entities that are linked by Metadata. In my mobile offline… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
Dynamics 365 and AD security groups
Dynamics 365 has some security features which integrate Dynamics 365 with AD Groups. AD Groups can be used to grant and restrict access to a Dynamics 365 environment and with AAD security teams you can automatically add users to teams. I hate doing manual tasks (Dynamics 365 — The cost of manual deployments activities) and if it can be automated it should, so AAD security teams offer… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
Dynamics 365 - MB-200 Microsoft Power Platform + Dynamics 365 Core study notes
I recently passed the the MB-200 certification and here are my study notes. The notes are best used once you have gone through all the skills required and our in the final week of studying for the exam and our trying to lodge the data in your mind. They don’t cover all the parts of the exam but focus on the areas I needed a refresh. I have notes which are for past Config and customisation… Continue Reading Hosk’s...
Hosk’s top articles of the week - 17th June
I want problems to punch me in the face, not sneak up behind me and kick me on the butt #HoskWisdom Articles of the week < p class=”graf graf–p”>on being lost — strategy and context Long and interesting article on business strategy Top 10 articles of the week Inversion — James Clear Richard Feynman and mental models How I’m learning Machine Learning (without being a math genius) habits of high…...
Dynamics 365 tool you should use - SQL 4 CDS
SQL 4 CDS is a XRMToolBox tool from Mark Carrington that will change the way you query data in Dynamics and can speed up query multiple environments. You can create scripts which you can quickly run in any environment. Data When you are an experienced Dynamics 365 user the GUI can slow you down, when maintaining the system you want to view certain data that highlights problems. The first… Continue Reading Hosk’s...
Remove unnecessary requirements and deliver the project on time
If functionality isn’t a clear yes then make it a clear no #HoskWisdom User want everything that will make their work easier, but what do they really need. If you can remove those unnecessary requirements, you increase the probability of delivering the project on time and reduce the complexity. Wish lists When gathering requirements and creating a solution,… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog...
The two skills of modern developers are creating solutions without code and deploying them automatically
The two skills of modern developers. Creating solutions without code and deploying them automatically. The driving force of successful projects is being able to deliver solutions into production, to get projects over the finish line. To deliver a project on time, stick to out of the box (if you can), is a good in theory but in reality companies processes can’t always align with out of the… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article...
Dynamics 365 - Different environment, different country label
Whilst setting up a new environment I ran into an odd and annoying currency problem. The Problem Created new environment Imported base solution (entities, views, fields, security roles etc) — worked Imported processes (workflows, Flows, Plugins, etc)- mostly worked After the import I saw that 30 workflows were in a draft state (always check for workflows in a draft state, this… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog...
Dynamics 365 solution error - Components are missing, import the managed solution with these Components (Active)!
Importing managed solution is more of an art than a science #HoskWisdom Sometimes importing a managed solution without getting an unhelpful dependency error can feel like skiing down a black run blindfolded, on one leg and with the sun in your eyes. Even though I have experienced different errors whilst, there is always a new one to baffle me. You can get error exporting… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog...
40 Tips to help you improve as Dynamics developer
You shouldn’t write code, you are not willing to test #HoskWisdom I have compiled a list of tips to improve as a Dynamics developer made up of blog posts I have written and blog posts I should have written. Get certified to broaden Dynamics knowledge –The benefits of Dynamics certifications Answer forum questions Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community Forums, CRM forum Know what value to… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
Dynamics 365 - The cost of manual deployments activities
We can create a customisation that meet customer requirements quickly but they must be maintainable and moved between environments without manual tasks or you create a growing maintenance backlog. The creation of a customisation is only half the work needed. Lets walk through an example which will show the cost in time of manual data and customisations. Scenario We create a workflow which… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article...
Dynamics 365 - Document templates, guids and workflows
When it comes to guids, take your lead from the boy band NSYNC #HoskWisdom I had a problem with Document templates, guids and getting out of sync between environments. When guids are out of sync, manual work is needed every time you deploy, this can add up to a lot time of the course of a project. Document Templates are an impressive feature that allows you to create Word or Excel… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
Creating a Flow which triggers where regarding field = lead
I was writing a flow my SMS entity, like the email entity the regarding can be any type. I wanted my Flow to only trigger if the Flow was of type lead. There is a useful looking Dynamics content Regarding (Type) Regarding (Value) Behind the hood, it’s looking up the logical name (I think) The values in the output body of my Flow “_regardingobjectid_value”:… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog Creating a Flow...
Hosk’s top articles of the week - 17th May
You have more to fear from friends than from enemies — Robert Greene Articles of the week Coronavirus — the basic dance steps everyone can follow Top 10 articles of the week I Just Heard That Monoliths Are The Future Of Software Development Change the Way You Persuade 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice The Burden Of Skepticism 5 books every developer must read before… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog Hosk’s...
Dynamics 365 and ALM/DevOps Information to get you started
ALM takes the boredom out of development #HoskWisdom ALM and automated release management has moved from a nice to have to a must have for enterprise projects in Dynamics 365. The more developers you have working on a project the more important setting up ALM and release management. ?Without ALM you will waste hours manually deploying and having merge and build problems. There is an… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on...
Woohoo - You can query Dynamics 365 (CDS) with SQL….again
When was the last time you heard anyone getting excited about SQL? #HoskWisdom It’s a crazy world when Microsoft announces NEW functionality of being able to Use SQL to query data in CDS and the Dynamics/Power Platform community get excited about it. Some things go together to make something beautiful, Strawberries and cream Chaz and Dave Nerds and computers Now after a… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog...
How will IT projects change when the lockdown ends
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. Alan Watts After much of the world has been in lockdown for the last month or more, the curve has been flattened and plans are being made to reduce the lockdown, go back to work and restart the economy. What will it be like? Can we go back to normal until everyone is… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog How will IT...
Why are you so busy? And what can you do about it?
“It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”– Henry David Thoreau Whenever you ask someone how they are, they often reply busy. Everyone is busy, to-do lists grow longer each day, meetings take up half the day, and that’s before any problems appear from now where to cause disruption. What about if I asked a different question? Are you… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
Dynamics 365 — how solution layering can help you resolve solution updating problems
A problem clearly stated is a problem half solved. Dorothea Brande I was importing a managed solution into my test environment, only to find it wasn’t updating the Canvas App. There can be many reasons for solutions not updating and this post will discuss the cause and the solution. Environment setup Below are the environments we use. Dev → Dev Master → QA/UAT/Training < p class=”graf… Continue Reading Hosk’s...
How development used to be (15 years ago)
Sometimes it pays to stay in bed on Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday’s code. — Christopher Thompson I was listening to the Orb song little fluffy clouds and it made me think of what development was like when I was young. Whilst on lockdown and working from home, it highlighted how much the world has changed for developers. I have been a developer… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
Dynamics 365 and creating a reporting database
Data migration takes at least 4 times longer than everyone estimates #HoskWisdom It’s a common requirement to create a different data source for reporting this allows data to be aggregated and reduces the load on your production instance of Dynamics 365. This post will look at the options to replicate your Dynamics 365 database to a SQL database. Azure SQL database < p id=”0fd1″ class=”hp hq ap by hr b hs it hu iu...
20 things you know only if you have worked on an IT project
Plans are worthless. Planning is essential~ Dwight D. Eisenhower The road to a late project is paved with extra requirements Trying to cleanse data in a legacy system is as easy as staring at the sun ERD’s are always wrong but no one wants to fix it 5 minutes after creating a project plan it’s out of date The sales team always over sold the solution Data migration takes… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their blog 20...
Why adding more people to a project doesn’t make it go faster
At no point in an IT project I have seen time made up without removing large parts of functionality. The common reaction to a project failing behind is to add more people to it but Brook’s law reminds us “adding manpower to a late software project makes it later” Federick Brooks This article will look at the reasons adding more people to a project does not speed it up and… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...
Advice to Dynamics 365 developers who want to improve
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been.” —T.D. Jakes It’s a great time to be a Dynamics 365 and business apps developer with opportunities to take on enterprise projects with companies digitising legacy applications. Complex projects need developers who do more than write code and create customisations. This article is the advice I… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article...
The code you take away as important as the code you write
“Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.” ― Greg McKeown < p class=”graf graf–p”>The code you take away, helps as much as the code you add. Good developers remove code and improving the quality and maintainability of the code base but no one tells you that when you start your journey as a software engineer. Code only what is necessary Once code is released to production, you can’t…...
one simple tip to improve you development and project estimates
It isn’t just developer who underestimate tasks, it’s everyone and it’s all the time #HoskWisdom When we estimate tasks, we underestimate the time it takes because we overestimate our abilities and believe our future involves fewer problems. Most estimates assume no problems, mistakes, other activities will distract us. Using the outside view (similar examples), can help avoid this… Continue Reading Hosk’s Article on their...