When to use Scrum for Microsoft Business Applications – YouTube
Is Scrum the perfect approach for every Microsoft Business Application? No! Many, but not all, Dynamics 365, Power Apps, and Power BI applications benefit from a Scrum approach. Find out in this video when to use Scrum and when to adopt an alternative approach. Take my free Agile Foundations for Microsoft Business Apps mini-course at https://customery.com/foundations. source
Fixing Your Scrum with Ryan Ripley
Ryan Ripley joins me in Scrum Dynamics 46 to discuss his new book, Fixing Your Scrum. Ryan is a Professional Scrum Trainer with Scrum.org. We also discuss The suitability of Scrum for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform projects. Is the Scrum framework appropriate for enterprise Dynamics 365 ERP projects and smaller Power Apps projects? Ryan’s advice for line-of-business managers… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Live inside my daily scrums
This is a special, bonus episode of Scrum Dynamics with a live recording from inside my current Scrum teams’ daily scrums. Take a sneak peek as my development teams share their progress with each other and adjust the sprint backlog as they learn more about they’ve accomplished. Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog Live inside my daily scrums This is a special, bonus episode of Scrum Dynamics with a...
Agile is Dead
Someone sends me an “Agile is Dead” article at least once a year. Are these articles with their clickbait headlines just opinion pieces with no data to back up the authors’ claims or are they well-researched and thought-provoking journalism? Here’s one, Agile software development is dead. Deal with it. It was written by Jason Bloomberg and published in SiliconANGLE. In Scrum Dynamics 44, I… Continue...
G'day to the Belfast Power Platform User Group! – YouTube
A special g’day message to the new Belfast Power Platform User group in my homeland. I wish I could be there to join your inaugural meetup, but I can’t understand your strange accents any more, so I sent this message instead. source
EY Kalman and CRM success at Orbis Investment Advisory
EY Kalman, also known as the CRM Ninja, joins me in this episode of Scrum Dynamics to reveal the critical factors behind the success of his Dynamics CRM project at Orbis Investment Advisory. Listen in as he reveals his critical success factors on this project. Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog EY Kalman and CRM success at Orbis Investment Advisory EY Kalman, also known as the CRM Ninja, joins me in this...
All Your Scrum Team Questions Answered
The topic for this episode is scrum teams. The composition and the characteristics of your scrum team remain fundamental to you having any success with an agile approach when you’re implementing business applications. I recently refreshed the content of the scrum team section in my Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps course. In this refresh, I added a new video which answers frequently asked… Continue Reading Neil...
Managing Requirements in Azure DevOps with Tricia Sinclair
Lots of Microsoft Business Applications teams use Azure DevOps Repos and Pipelines for managing their source code and automating their code integration, build and deployment processes. But what about using Azure DevOps Boards to plan, track and collaborate on your work in a Dynamics 365, Power Apps, Power Automate or Power BI project? Tricia Sinclair, a CRM Pre-Sales Consultant at DXC… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Scrum Theory – YouTube
My Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps course kicks off by explaining the theory that underpins Scrum, and its pillars core values. Understanding and embracing these principles is key difference between ‘doing agile’ and ‘being agile’. source
Scrum course introduction – YouTube
To help you get the most out of the course, I’ll give you a quick tour of the course components and explain the two different ways that successful students usually complete the course. Your success starts here. source
Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps – course overview – YouTube
Everyone should have a perfect project on the Microsoft Power Platform. I can show you how. By using the Scrum agile software development framework you can reduce costs, shrink your timeline, minimise risks and have more fun delivering software that everyone loves. source
Estimating bugs in Scrum – YouTube
When we’re implementing Microsoft Business Applications using Scrum, how should we handle bugs? When should we estimate them? When should we fix them? In this video, I describe the two common practices for dealing with defects: Bug Estimators and Bug Zappers. Find out which practice I recommend for your biz apps Scrum team. Grab the infographics at https://customery.com/40 source
40 – Estimating Bugs in Scrum
There are two ways of handling bugs in Scrum: Bug Estimators treat bugs like any other product backlog item. They write a card, estimate it, add it to the product backlog, prioritise it and work on it during a future sprint. Bug Zappers try and avoid writing cards for bugs and they never estimate them. Instead, they try and zap bugs as soon as they are discovered. Mike Cohn is a Bug… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article...
39 – Definition of Next
Imagine you’re a member of a development team implementing Microsoft Business Applications using the Scrum framework. What do you do when you’ve completed the item you’re working on? Inspired by my favourite TV show of all time, The West Wing, here’s the Definition of Next that my team uses to answer the question, “What’s Next?” Thanks to The West Wing Weekly podcast and to my scrum...
Definition of Next – YouTube
A Definition of Next for your Scrum team implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365, PowerApps, PowerBI or Flow can guide them what to work on next when they’ve completed working on a product backlog item. Visit https://customery.com/39 to download my Definition of Next checklist and use it to inspire your own. Thanks to Matthew Venamore for his ‘Looking For Work?’ checklist that inspired the Definition of Done....
Agile Foundations for Microsoft Business Apps – YouTube
My new free mini-course, Agile Foundations for Microsoft Business Apps, is for team members involved in Dynamics 365, PowerApps, PowerBI or Flow projects wondering if an agile approach will benefit their project. You can join at https://customery.com/foundations source
38 – Agile Foundations Course Launch
If you’re brand new to agile software development and are wondering how an agile approach can be applied to your Dynamics 365, PowerApps, PowerBI or Flow project, I’ve launched a new free mini-course: Agile Foundations for Microsoft Business Apps. The course is ideal if you are interested in learning about agile software development and how business apps projects can benefit from an agile… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
37 – Steve Brooks from Cooper Parry IT Solutions
Steve Books is the consultancy director of Cooper Parry IT Solutions, this year’s winner of the Microsoft Partner of the Year award for Dynamics 365 Business Central. Cooper Parry is a mid-market accounting firm based in the UK. They’ve had a lot of success with the partner-to-partner business model that has eluded so many other Microsoft partners. Steve also shares his insights into Cooper… Continue Reading Neil...
36 – David Conti and Monadelphous
David Conti surprised me with the size of Velrada’s project that was a finalist in the 2019 Microsoft Partner of the Year for Dynamics 365 Field Service awards. I had always assumed that PotY awards were a recognition of complex, enterprise projects successfully delivered by Microsoft’s finest. Listen in as David reveals the size of Velrada’s project at engineering maintenance company,… Continue Reading Neil...
34 – Mohamed Mostafa and Eagle Housing
Mohamed Mostafa is the Solutions Director at TechLabs London, best known for iPropertyCloud, a suite of business applications for property companies. In this episode, Mohamed joins me to discuss the successful implementation of iPropertyCloud at Eagle Housing*. Eagle Housing is a rapidly-growing social housing organisation that manages 11,000 properties across the UK. Eagle Housing was… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
34 – Andrew Bibby and Devon Financial Services
In Scrum Dynamics 34, I chat with Andrew Bibby about his successful Dynamics 365 project at Devon Financial Services*. Andrew is a Microsoft Business Applications MVP with over 12 years’ experience implementing Dynamics CRM and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement for several Microsoft partners and through his own company as an independent project advisor. The CRM project at Devon Financial… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
33 – Migrating to Business Central with NAB Solutions
In Scrum Dynamics episode 33, I’m joined by Johan Ademark and Carolina Edvinsson from NAB Solutions. NAB Solutions is a finalist in the 2019 Microsoft Partner of the Year awards for the innovative work migrating 25 Dynamics NAV customers to Dynamics 365 Business Central within just a few months. Johan and Carolina share their experience undertaking so many cloud migrations and how they’ve… Continue Reading Neil...
32 – Measuring Customisations
Have you ever been asked, “How much have you customised Dynamics 365?” “Is our CRM system customised more or less than average?” “Have we customised our system too much?” I’ve heard this question lots of times from IT leaders who want to know whether our Dynamics 365 system will continue to be supportable, extensible, updateable and performant. But how should we answer it? Continue Reading...
31 – Scrum Disaster
Have you ever had a Dynamics 365 project disaster? In Scrum Dynamics 31, I share the tale of my failed Dynamics 365 Portals project. It got cancelled by the client before we released to production. What went wrong? Are there warning signs that you can spot to avoid a Dynamics disaster of your own? Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog 31 – Scrum Disaster Have you ever had a Dynamics 365 project disaster? In...
Emergent Design – YouTube
Emergent design is an advanced agile software development engineering practice. Find out why I try and resist upfront design and love emergent design as an alternative. My team used emergent design to integrate Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement with Adobe Campaign — find out how that went in this episode. source
30 – Emergent Design
Emergent design is an advanced practice for Microsoft Business Application team experienced in Scrum. What is emergent design? When we practice emergent design, the development team designs the solution to meet the users’ needs just before we build the feature. The opposite of emergent design is up-front design. This is when the solution is designed in the Design phase of the project,… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Scrum Dynamics 29 – Done with the PowerApps Solution Checker – YouTube
Can you use a definition of done for a sprint? In Scrum Dynamics 29, I outline six ideas for a definition of done for a user story and three ideas for a definition of … source
29 – Done with the PowerApps Solution Checker
Can you use a definition of done for a sprint? In Scrum Dynamics 29, I outline six ideas for a definition of done for a user story and three ideas for a definition of done for a sprint. According to the Scrum Guide, the definition of done helps us agree on when a product backlog item is complete. A sprint, on the other hand, is a time-boxed event so it’s done when the time is up. But my teams… Continue Reading Neil...
Dynamics 365 Developers, Power-up Your JavaScript Skills – YouTube
If you’re a .NET developer working with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement then now is a great time to level up your JavaScript for Dynamics 365 skills and get my Scrum for Dynamics 365 course for free. https://buff.ly/2LdhOZB source
Scrum Dynamics 28 – Shawn, Stop Estimating Effort In Days – YouTube
Shawn Tabor wants to know whether to estimate project effort in days or story points. Aren’t they the same thing? Neil has used four ways of estimating effort in his Dynamics 365 projects: 1. Counting cards 2. Days 3. T-shirts 4. Story points Estimating in days is an absolute estimation method, whereas t-shirts and story points are both relative estimation methods. This means that we compare the relative size of items using a...
28 – Shawn, Stop Estimating Effort in Days
Shawn Tabor wants to know whether to estimate project effort in days or story points. Aren’t they the same thing? I’ve used four ways of estimating effort in my Dynamics 365 projects: Counting cards Days T-shirts Story points Estimating in days is an absolute estimation method, whereas t-shirts and story points are both relative estimation methods. This means that we compare the relative… Continue Reading Neil...
Scrum Dynamics 27 – User Story Maps – YouTube
The Scrum Dynamics podcast and vlog is back! In this episode, Jonas Wauters from KPMG Belgium, asks for advice on pitching Dynamics 365 with Scrum to prospective clients who always want to know: What is going to be delivered? When is it going to be delivered? How much is it all going to cost. When the scope, timeline and costs are fixed in agile projects, how can we possibly answer these questions? Listen in to find out....
27 – User Story Maps
Jonas Wauters from KPMG Belgium has a challenge pitching a Dynamics 365 project using Scrum to a prospective client. In particular, he’d like to know how to handle it when clients ask those three little questions: What are you going to deliver? When are you going to deliver it? How much is it going to cost? Neil’s advice is to avoiding assuming that if a client is familiar with agile that… Continue Reading Neil...
26 – Sprinting
Dan Barber, from the Customery Crew, wanted to know what it would be like inside some of Neil’s scrum events. In Scrum Dynamics 26, Neil walks Dan through one of his recent ten-day sprints day-by-day from sprint planning on Monday morning to the sprint review two weeks later. Here’s how it went… Day One. Sprint planning is at 3pm for two hours on Monday afternoon. We finalise the sprint… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
25 – Written Answers
Neil is attempting a little experiment with a short, single question episode on the CRM.Audio podcast network and on Youtube. Let’s see if he can answer your questions about Scrum for Dynamics 365 in ten minutes or less. The question in this episode is from Ruan Kilian, a Dynamics 365 developer in Brisbane, Australia. Ruan asks, “Is it acceptable for a developer to prepare and write down… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
24 – Scrum Role Antipatterns
Neil covers his top 10 antipatterns for Scrum roles in Dynamics 365 projects. An antipattern looks like a good idea to a situation you were facing but wasn’t the best option when you look back on it. Antipatterns are traps that we want to help others avoid. Here are Neil’s top ten antipatterns for Scrum roles: Uncommitted product owner. If your senior project stakeholder is too… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
23 – Hiring a Coach for Your Dynamics 365 Scrum Team
Neil is joined by co-host Dermot Ryan to discuss when Microsoft Dynamics customers and partners should consider hiring a scrum master or agile coach for their project. What is an agile coach and how is this role different from a scrum master? A scrum master is a coach for the development team, the product owner and the organisation. Dermot reckons a scrum master can coach up to three teams. An… Continue Reading Neil...
22 – Scrum Event Antipatterns
Some ideas turn out to be great ideas. Some ideas look like great ideas at the time but don’t turn out so well in hindsight. Those are antipatterns. A pattern is a repeatable idea that solves a common problem, and should be adopted by others. An antipattern seems like an answer to a problem, but turns out badly and should be avoided by others. There are hundreds of Scrum antipatterns you’ll… Continue Reading Neil...
21 – Azure DevOps with Mark Christie
Mark Christie, who specialises in Dynamics 365 for Field Service at eBECS, uses Azure DevOps (formerly known as Visual Studio Team Services). He’s from Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland. On 25 January he’ll be celebrating Burns Night where the haggis is introduced to the table with bagpipes. Dynamics 365 Saturday Scotland runs on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 January, and its speakers… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
20 – Scrum in Public Sector with Seth T. Bacon
Seth Bacon and Neil catch up to discuss Scrum in the public sector. You can connect with Seth Bacon on LinkedIn and @SethTBacon on Twitter. Check out Seth’s blog/vlog, The Bacon Bytes, for Dynamics 365 administrators. Seth’s having success implementing Dynamics 365 in city, county and state organisations in health and human services. Seth and Neil discuss how to sell agile projects in… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
19 – Optimising Scrum Teams
We’re on a mission to ensure every Microsoft customer and partner successfully implements Dynamics 365 using the Scrum framework. Do you have a question for the Scrum Dynamics podcast? Visit Customery.com and click on the Send Voicemail button to have your question feature on the show. Dermot and Neil discuss how to optimise Scrum teams on a Dynamics 365 project. Todd Mercer, from MD… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article...
18 – Successfully Implementing Dynamics 365 with Scrum
Neil recently presented a live session on YouTube for the Dynamics 365 Community Corner. He recorded this special version of his presentation for the podcast covering: His first Dynamics CRM project using Scrum at Premier Medical Group How and why he switched from Microsoft Dynamics SureStep to Scrum after publishing the functional requirements document The horrors of basing a project plan… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
17 – What To Track
Dermot and Neil discuss what to measure in your Dynamics 365 projects when you’re using Scrum. Tracking velocity is the basic measure of progress. Velocity is the total number of story points of ‘done’ stories in each sprint and should be averaged over several sprints (usually 3 to 5 sprints). Using velocity within the team to plan the capacity for the next sprint, and by the product owner for… Continue Reading...
16 – Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective
Dermot and Neil talk about the last two events in a sprint: the sprint review and the sprint retrospective, including: The format of sprint reviews and retrospectives How these events are structured Who should attend How to tailor them for Dynamics 365 projects What challenges have you had applying Scrum to your Dynamics 365, PowerApps, PowerBI or Flow projects? Get involved in the… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article...
15 – More Listeners' Q&A
Dermot’s picked up his Professional Scrum Master II and Professional Scrum Product Owner certifications. Good timing, Dermot, because our first question was from Dick Clark at eBECS who has a client project who wants to get certified in Scrum. Neil has recorded the Scrum Guide as an audio stream on SoundCloud to help Dermot get to sleep at night, and they debate whether holding a Scrum… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
14 – Launching Jupiter
Neil provides a behind-the-scenes peek into ‘Orientation Week’ in his Dynamics 365 project kicking off this week, the Jupiter Programme. Orientation Week (O-Week) is designed to onboard two Scrum teams so that they can start delivering the Dynamics 365 workstream of an enterprise programme as quickly as possible. I talk through some of the planned O-Week activities and provide my… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on...
13 – Sprint Planning
Neil covers all aspects of sprint planning for Dynamics 365 projects: What is sprint planning and when does it take place? Who attends sprint planning, and what to do if the product owner can’t make it? How long is sprint planning? What happens during sprint planning? Sprint goals, sprint backlog forecasting, Dynamics 365 feature design. What’s needed for sprint planning? Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog 13...
12 – The Sprint Backlog
Co-hosts, Neil and Dermot (yes, he’s back!), discuss the sprint backlog. What is the sprint backlog and how does it relate to the product backlog? Who is responsible for the sprint backlog and who can change it? How the development team and the product owner negotiate the contents of the sprint backlog, with the help of the scrum master. The effect of swapping items out of the sprint backlog…. Continue Reading Neil...
11 – Estimating Product Backlog Using Planning Poker
Estimating product backlog items using planning poker is the topic for this episode. The benefits of planning poker: gain a shared understanding of the work, bring diverse perspectives to the estimation process and estimate the work as we learn about the Dynamics 365 system. Who plays planning poker: the role of Scrum team developers, the product owner and proxy product owners in estimation…. Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
10 – The Product Backlog
Neil compares the to-do list on his 100-year old house to the product backlog and goes on to describe: Using epics to capture your project scope Getting your product backlog started Estimating backlog items using story points and not t-shirt sizes or ideal days User stories, spikes, chores and bugs The product backlog in sprint planning and sprint reviews Refining the product… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on...