Microsoft FastTrack Success by Design with Seth Kircher
The Microsoft FastTrack Success by Design implementation guide was first published in May 2021 and has refreshed this month (October 2021) in the 2021 Wave 2 update .What is Success by Design? Is it the latest incarnation of the Dynamics SureStep methodology or is it a new framework that all Dynamics 365 partners should consider adopting for their enterprise projects?To find out, I'm joined by… Continue Reading Neil Benson...
"OMG, I love your new system. It's so easy to use!" with Bruce Sithole, 365 Mechanix
#102. Bruce Sithole's team at 265 Mechanix built a Power Portal application for a business to business lender that earned some serious kudos for his customer. Find out how in this episode of Amazing Applications.We also cover: Starting your own Microsoft partner businessWhat is takes to achieve FastTrack Recognized Solution ArchitectWhich is better: FTRSA award or MVP award?Building amazing… Continue Reading Neil Benson and...
How can Microsoft partners PRICE Scrum projects to build Dynamics 365 or Power Platform apps? – YouTube
Here’s my 8-step formula for working with your Microsoft customer’s product owner to build a user story map that will help you propose a compelling price for your project to build a Dynamics 365 or Power Platform application. Find out more at Customery Academy: https://customery.academy source
Business Transformation with Microsoft Business Apps with Lipi Sarkar
#101. DynamicsCon starts next week. Lipi Sarkar is presenting two sessions at DynamicsCon and joins me to share the highlights from her presentations as well as her book, Build a Digital Future.Resources Register for DynamicsConLipi Sarkar on LinkedInSamit Saini and Eric McKinney on LinkedInBuilding a Digital Future by Lipi Sarkar and Vinny (Amazing affiliate link)South Coast Summit conference
Mastering Dynamics 365 Requirements in Azure DevOps with Dani Kahil
#100. Are you looking for better ways to manage your Dynamics 365 and Power Platfom requirements in Azure DevOps? Join me and Dani Kahil as we explore what it takes to master your requirements. Why use Azure DevOps to manage requirements?Structuring requirements into epics, features and user storiesUsing a definition of ready to manage your backlogIs requirements approval an anti-pattern?Using… Continue Reading Neil Benson and...
How to Design Forms for Amazing User Experiences with Mary Ann Castro
#99. We all know that good form design is important especially when we're building model-driven Power Apps and Dynamics 365 apps. But what actually makes a good form design?Join me as Mary Ann Castro shares her secrets of effective form design from her upcoming presentation at DynamicsCon.ResourcesMary Ann Castro on LinkedInRegister for DynamicsConSpecial mention to Andrew Butenko, Amey Holden… Continue Reading Mary Ann...
Hello, My Sweet Chatbot 🥰 with Dian Taylor
Hey everyone, Dian Taylor is here! Dian is a two-time MVP and a director of pre-sales at RSM US. She's presenting, 'Getting Started with Power Virtual Agents' at DynamicsCon on 20 September. So I invited Dian onto the Amazing Apps show to tells us all about Power Virtual Agents and give us a sneak peek into her presentation.We discuss the summer weather in Florida and the easy life of… Continue Reading Dian...
5 Reasons To Avoid Analysis in Advance
In this solo episode, I'm going to be sharing five reasons why I think you should avoid analysis in advance when you're building Dynamics 365 and Power Platform applications. My five top reasons: Peak ignorance. You're analyzing the requirements during the period when your stakeholders know least about Microsoft business applications and your analysts know least about their needs. Priority… Continue Reading Neil...
The Product Owner – YouTube
Neil introduces the role of the Product Owner in Dynamics 365 projects, including: • The primary responsibility of the Product Owner • Five ways the Product Owner manages the Product Backlog • Characteristics of great Product Owners • How a Product Owner spends their time • How to use Proxy Product Owners • Top ten tips for Product Owners • Where do Product Owners come from? Remember to download the Scrum Terms cheat sheet for a handy...
Do We Need to Specify Requirements Upfront for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Apps? – YouTube
We need to specify requirements upfront because it’s hard to make changes later and we need to know the big picture so we can design the best application. Tommy Boisvert, a CRM business analyst from Montreal, has some doubts about adopting an agile approach for building business apps. Tommy’s a student in my Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps course. You can join too: https://Customery.Academy 0:00 Start 0:55 Tommy Boisvert...
The Scrum Framework – YouTube
Neil and Dermot introduce the Scrum framework’s events, roles, deliverables and the Scrum theory. https://amazingapps.show/2 We cover: • Sprints, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective events • Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team roles • Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Product Increment deliverables • Empirical process control, and the pillars and principles of the Scrum theory Download...
Origin Stories – YouTube
This is the premiere episode of Amazing Applications with Neil Benson and Dermot Ryan. If you have heard of Scrum or would like to use it in one of your Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects, you’re in the right spot. • What is Agile? • What is Scrum? • Using Scrum for packaged software vs custom development • Scrum vs Waterfall • Soft skill benefits of Scrum • Sustainable delivery • The role that management plays in Scrum • Budgeting for a...
Origin Stories – YouTube
This is the premiere episode of the Scrum Dynamics podcast with Neil Benson and Dermot Ryan. If you have heard of Scrum or would like to use it in one of your Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects, you’re in the right spot. • What is Agile • What is Scrum • Using Scrum for packaged software vs custom development • Scrum vs Waterfall • Soft skill benefits of Scrum • Sustainable delivery • The role that management plays in Scrum • Budgeting...
How much time do product owners and subject matter experts spend in a sprint? – YouTube
If you’re wondering how much time the product owner or subject matter experts spend each sprint building Power Platform tor Dynamics 365 apps, watch this video to find out. Then join my Agile Foundations for Microsoft Business Apps course: https://customery.com/foundations. 00:00 Start 00:58 Diana, the product owner 01:08 Natasha, the subject matter expert 01:37 Diana’s two-week sprint 01:47 Daily scrums 02:23 Sprint...
Advanced Product Owner Questions
In this solo episode, I continue the deeper dive into the role of the Product Owner with advanced Product Owner questions. This episode covers: Can the product owner role be combined with scrum master or developer?Which product owner certification that I recommend?Making decisions about the product backlog,Whether the Product Owner needs to be technical,What's the difference between a product… Continue Reading Neil...
Showcases or Sprint Reviews? – YouTube
Is there a difference between showcases and sprint reviews for Scrum teams building Dynamics 365 or Power Platform applications? I think there is. This video includes a preview from my Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps online course at https://customery.com/scrum. 0:00 Start 0:20 Candidates keep calling it a showcase 0:35 What’s a showcase in Scrum? 1:00 Sprint review 1:22 Purpose of the sprint review 1:39 Sprint review duration...
Ten Product Owner Myths on Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Projects
In this solo episode, I continue the deeper dive into the role of the Product Owner, who is responsible for maximizing the impact of the application that the scrum team is building. And I think our product owners in Power Platform and Dynamics 365 projects have a couple of twists compared to product owners on other scrum teams. This episode covers 10 myths about Product Owners. Resources
10 Product Owner Myths on Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Projects
In this solo episode, I continue the deeper dive into the role of the Product Owner, who is responsible for maximizing the impact of the application that the scrum team is building. And I think our product owners in Power Platform and Dynamics 365 projects have a couple of twists compared to product owners on other scrum teams. This episode covers 10 myths about Product Owners. Resources
Scrum Product Goals for Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Applications
In this solo episode I dive deeper into getting into the right mindset to build applications. In the last episode, we looked at ten potential candidates for the product owner role in our scrum teams building Power Platform and Dynamics 365 applications. In this episode, we're going to continue the product owner topic by helping the product owner set a product goal. This episode covers: The… Continue Reading Neil...
Product Goals for Power Platform and Dynamics 365
In this solo episode I dive deeper into getting into the right mindset to build applications. In the last episode, we looked at ten potential candidates for the product owner role in our scrum teams building Power Platform and Dynamics 365 applications. In this episode, we're going to continue the product owner topic by helping the product owner set a product goal. This episode covers: The… Continue Reading Neil...
Finding Your Scrum Product Owner
In this solo episode I dive deeper into getting into the right mindset to build applications, including using the Scrum agile approach. This episode covers: Why the Product Owner is the most critical role in the Scrum team.The accountability of the Product Owner.Which type of person within an organisation makes the best Product Owner.Hurdles and roadblocks encountered during the development of… Continue Reading Neil...
040 Finding Your Product Owner
In this solo episode I dive deeper into getting into the right mindset to build applications, including using the Scrum agile approach. This episode covers: Why the Product Owner is the most critical role in the Scrum team.The accountability of the Product Owner.Which type of person within an organisation makes the best Product Owner.Hurdles and roadblocks encountered during the development of… Continue Reading Neil...
Who Makes the Best Scrum Product Owner?
In this solo episode, I dive deeper into getting into the right mindset to build applications, including using the Scrum agile approach. This episode covers: Why the Product Owner is the most critical role in the Scrum team.The accountability of the Product Owner.Which type of person within an organisation makes the best Product Owner. Resources Product Mastery – from good to great product… Continue Reading Neil...
Apps for Winning Awards with Gail Mercer-MacKay
Join me with Gail Mercer-MacKay, the founder and CEO of Mercer-MacKay. They have a unique position in the Microsoft ecosystem: they help Microsoft partners clarify their marketing message and produce compelling digital content that inspires Microsoft customers to take action. Our discussion covers: Why Mercer-MacKay decided to Deploy Microsoft business applications internally.Gail's… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Apps for Winning Awards with Gail Mercer-MacKay, Mercer MacKay Solutions
Join me with Gail Mercer-MacKay, the founder and CEO of Mercer-MacKay. They have a unique position in the Microsoft ecosystem: they help Microsoft partners clarify their marketing message and produce compelling digital content that inspires Microsoft customers to take action. Our discussion covers: Why Mercer-MacKay decided to Deploy Microsoft business applications internally.Gail's… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Power BI Deferred Design with Reza Rad, RADACAD
Join me with Reza Rad, the founder and CEO of RADACAD providing Power BI training and consultancy services to thousands of Microsoft customers and partners every year. Reza's list of achievements is pretty embarrassing. He's not just a 10 times Microsoft MVP. He's a Microsoft Regional Director. He's written over 15 books on data analytics, in addition to dozens of courses on RADACAD. He's… Continue...
Power BI Deferred Design with Reza Rad
Join me with Reza Rad, the founder and CEO of RADACAD providing Power BI training and consultancy services to thousands of Microsoft customers and partners every year. Reza's list of achievements is pretty embarrassing. He's not just a 10 times Microsoft MVP. He's a dual category MVP. The first in Artificial Intelligence. And he's also a Data Platform MVP. He's a Microsoft Regional Director…. Continue...
A developer turned financial advisor turned developer again with Stephen Handley
Join me with Stephen Handley,founder, CEO and chief architect at Fin365, an application development business serving financial services professionals in Australia. Fin365 was born out of need for better data management practice management platform that Stephen identified in his own financial planning business. Our discussion covers: How Stephen's background of being a software developer and a… Continue Reading ‘s...
Building a CRM App for Financial Advisors with Stephen Handley, Fin365
Join me with Stephen Handley,founder, CEO and chief architect at Fin365, an application development business serving financial services professionals in Australia. Fin365 was born out of need for better data management practice management platform that Stephen identified in his own financial planning business. Our discussion covers: How Stephen's background of being a software developer and a… Continue Reading ‘s...
A Power Apps Portal for 1 Million Users in 100 hours with Mohammed Mohsin Khalid, Imperium Dynamics
Join me with Mohammad Mohsin Khalid. And he's the founder, CEO and chief architect at Imperium Dynamics. He and his team built a Power Portal to support a million constituents booking their COVID test appointments, and they did it in less than 100 hours. Our discussion covers: The physical logistics of drive-up COVID testing for thousands of people.Why custom scheduling was used instead of the… Continue Reading ‘s...
Build a Power Portal for 1 million users in 100 hours with Mohammed Mohsin Khalid
Join me with Mohammad Mohsin Khalid. And he's the founder, CEO and chief architect at Imperium Dynamics. He and his team built a Power Portal to support a million constituents booking their COVID test appointments, and they did it in less than 100 hours. Our discussion covers: The physical logistics of drive-up COVID testing for thousands of people.Why custom scheduling was used instead of the… Continue Reading ‘s...
Adopting the Power Platform with Brendan Eger, Partners in Health
Join me with Brendan Eger, an Associate Director of Information Systems and Analytics at Partners In Health in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Brendan's story is a fascinating journey of a small, bootstrapped team adopting the Power Platform. Our discussion covers: Knowledge sharing within teams – invest in team members in a semi-formal structured environment, sharing what they've just… Continue Reading...
Power Platform at Partners In Health with Brendan Eger
Join me with Brendan Eger, an Associate Director of Information Systems and Analytics at Partners In Health in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Brandan's story is a fascinating journey of a small, bootstrapped team adopting the Power Platform. Our discussion covers: Knowledge sharing within teams – invest in team members in a semi-formal structured environment, sharing what they've just… Continue Reading...
Power Apps for 100,000 users with Mandar Zope
Join me with Mandar Zope, a principal consultant at Slalom Consulting from Seattle. Mandar has been busy building business applications that are being used by a hundred thousand users at a global oil and gas company. Our discussion covers: The user adoption approach used to train and communicate with thousands or tens of thousands of users at a time, using Power Apps..Building data import… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Power Apps for 100,000 users with Mandar Zope, Slalom Consulting
Join me with Mandar Zope, a principal consultant at Slalom Consulting from Seattle. Mandar has been busy building business applications that are being used by a hundred thousand users at a global oil and gas company. Our discussion covers: The user adoption approach used to train and communicate with thousands or tens of thousands of users at a time, using Power Apps.Building data import… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Agile Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations with Paul Heisterkamp
Join me with Paul Heisterkamp, a Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations solution architect and developer at GWS in Germany. Paul shares with us his story of a multi-country Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations project for an international automotive parts supplier. Our discussion covers: Phasing long-term international enterprise projects.Adopting an agile approach to ERP.Dealing with the… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Are Microsoft Certifications Causing Projects to Fail? with Julie Yack and Julian Sharp
Join me with Julie Yack and Julian Sharp as we discuss my question " are Microsoft certifications causing projects to fail?" Julie Yack is a founder and the chief operations officer at Colorado Technology Consultants. She's an author, a trainer, a solution architect, and an MVP. Julian Sharp is the founder of Ready 365. He recently received an MVP award and is best known as a prolific… Continue Reading Neil...
3 Big Lessons in Change Management with Britt Damkjaer
Join me with Britt Damkjaer, customer excellence and change management coach and the founder of bd relations in Copenhagen, Denmark as we discuss change management and business applications and other insights from her experience as a product owner and coach. I like how Britt is expanding our minds to thinking not just about our users, but also our end customers and the impact that our business… Continue Reading Neil...
Change Management with Britt Damkjaer
Join me with Britt Damkjaer, a customer excellence and change management coach and the founder of bd relations in Copenhagen, Denmark as we discuss change management and business applications and other insights from her experience as a product owner and coach. I like how Britt is expanding our minds to thinking not just about our users, but also our end customers and the impact that our… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Bonus Extended Interview with Marc Schweigert
Bonus extended interview with Marc Schweigert, principal program manager on the Power Customer Advisory Team at Microsoft as we talk about Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) approaches suited to novices and citizen developers through to professional developers. Bonus Extended Interview: 10 rapid-fire "would you rather" questions 1 Drink Australian wine or Australian beer? 2 Use Scrum or… Continue Reading Neil...
Power Apps ALM Accelerator for Advanced Makers with Marc Schweigert, Microsoft
Join me with Marc Schweigert, a programme manager on the Power Customer Advisory Team at Microsoft as we talk about Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) approaches suited to novices and citizen developers through to professional developers. A healthy application lifecycle process is critical if you're going to build amazing, agile, Dynamics 365 and Power Apps platform applications. I think… Continue Reading Marc...
Agile Application Lifecycle Management with Marc Schweigert
Marc Schweigert | LinkedIndevkeydet (@devkeydet) / TwitterALM Patterns and Practices https://docs.microsoft.com/power-platform/alm?WT.mc_id=BA-MVP-4028946 ALM Toolkit for Makers ALM Accelerator for Makers – Power Platform | Microsoft DocsALM Toolkit for Adavanced Makers coe-starter-kit/GETTINGSTARTED.md at main · microsoft/coe-starter-kit · GitHubScottish Summit: From Zero to ALM in Demos
Pitching Scrum to Microsoft Customers
Gustaf Westerlund CIO and founder at CRM-Konsulterna asks, "How can we get customers to really understand that an agile approach is best for them?"Â Agile is built on trust. Trust that the developing partner will do their best. But if the customer has been burned many times before, this can be hard to gain. And half-hearted trust becomes half-hearted agile." I dive into the detail and expand on… Continue Reading...
Selling Scrum to Microsoft Customers
Gustaf Westerlund CIO and founder at CRM-Konsulterna asks " How can we get customers to really understand that an agile approach is best for them? Agile is built on trust. Trust that the developing partner will do their best. But if the customer has been burned many times before, this can be hard to gain. And half-hearted trust becomes half-hearted agile." I dive into the detail and expand on… Continue Reading Neil...
3 User Story Traps to Avoid with Power Platform and Dynamics 365
Today is a solo episode where I address a listener's question. Richard asks about working with user stories in a Dynamics 365 or Power Platform agile project. I'll spend this episode talking about user stories on Dynamics 365 and Power Platform projects and I’ll share three traps to avoid when working with user stories when building Power Platform and Dynamics 365 apps using Scrum. The first… Continue Reading Neil...
Three Traps to Avoid Working with User Stories and Power Platform or Dynamics 365
Today is a solo episode where I address a listener's question. Richard asks about working with user stories in a Dynamics 365 or Power Platform agile project. I'll spend this episode talking about user stories on Dynamics 365 and Power Platform projects and I’ll share three traps to avoid when working with user stories when building Power Platform and Dynamics 365 apps using Scrum. The first… Continue Reading Neil...
Bonus: Extended Interview with CJ Brooks, MISSION CRM
Bonus extended interview with CJ Brooks, a Fundraising and Engagement Architect at Mission CRM as we talk about how Mission CRM closed the doors on their consulting practice to focus on building the Mission CRM fundraising and engagement application for nonprofit organizations. In this bonus episode, CJ and I try to solve the Elon Musk problem in data verse. Resources CJ Brooks on LinkedIn
Bonus Extended Interview with CJ Brooks at MISSION CRM
Bonus extended interview with CJ Brooks, a Fundraising and Engagement Architect at Mission CRM as we talk about how Mission CRM closed the doors on their consulting practice to focus on building the Mission CRM fundraising and engagement application for nonprofit organizations. In this bonus episode, CJ and I try to solve the Elon Musk problem in data verse. Resources CJ Brooks on LinkedIn
The Making of MISSION CRM with CJ Brooks
Join me with CJ Brooks, a Fundraising and Engagement Architect at Mission CRM as we talk about how Mission CRM closed the doors on their consulting practice to focus on building the Mission CRM fundraising and engagement application for nonprofit organizations. Make sure you stick around until the end of this episode to find out how you can get access to the bonus episode with Neil Benson and… Continue Reading Neil...
Bonus: Extended Interview with Bert Wijns, Power Accelerate
Bonus extended interview with Bert Wijns, a Global Solution Strategy Architect a Microsoft and co-founder of Power Accelerate as we talk about the tool he created which allows you to take a screenshot of a legacy application or database schema and have a Power App built in a few minutes with the legacy data migrated. Sound crazy? Listen on to hear more about Bert Wijns' Power… Continue Reading Bert Wijns’s Article on...