What the Scrum Guide 2020 means for Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 teams
Neil discusses the five most important changes in Scrum Guide 2020 for Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 teams: It’s less strict and less about softwareOne team (except when there’re multiple teams)Commitments clarified – the Product GoalNo more rolesIncrements Customery Academy’s course, Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps, will be updated in time for the new Scrum.org Professional Scrum…...
Why have a scrum master when we could have an agile project manager?
Carolle Bruce, Director of Information Technology at Avcorp Industries in Vancouver, asks, “What’s the best argument for when senior management says, ‘All this agile stuff is great but I don’t see why you’d have a scrum master on your project when you could have an agile PM instead.’?”There are some important differences between the role and responsibilities of a project manager and a...
Should we have a standard set of user stories for Microsoft business applications?
David Mochrie, a Power Platform consultant at Magnetism in Auckland, asks, “Should we have a standard set of user stories for Dynamics 365?”A long time ago, I tried to make it easy to write detailed user interface design specifications for Dynamics CRM using a wireframe prototyping tool called Axure RP Pro.I spent hundreds of hours building replicas of hundreds of Dynamics CRM screens that I… Continue Reading Neil...
How can we adopt Scrum for Dynamics 365 Business Central projects?
Anand Kushalnagar, a project manager at Nexon Asia Pacific in Sydney, asks, “At the moment, we are using a hybrid implementation approach for our projects. How can you deliver Dynamics 365 business central projects in a fully agile methodology when there are so many dependencies between the various modules?”You can transition to Scrum gradually by introducing one or two agile practices to your… Continue Reading Neil...
How can we be sure we've captured all requirements?
Mark Llewellyn, Director of Technology at Osmosys Software Solutions in London asks, “How can you be sure you’ve captured all the requirements?”Traditional approaches, like Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step, pretend that we can capture all the requirements upfront at the start of a project before we’ve started development.Upfront requirements analysis doesn’t work. You can’t capture requirements...
Scrum Guide 2020 launch event
This year, Scrum is celebrating its 25th anniversary. To celebrate, the Scrum Guide 2020 is being published at a free global launch event at 10:00 EST on Wednesday 18 November 2020. Click here to register for the Scrum Guide 2020 launch event The launch event is being hosted on Zoom, and the largest Zoom plan has an attendee limit of 1,000. Register for the event today, and join the session early… Continue Reading Neil...
Q&A: Product Owners and Dynamics 365
Welcome to a season of Q&A episodes on the Amazing Applications podcast where Neil Benson, Microsoft MVP, will do his best to answer your questions about building amazing applications.Neal Carty, a Business Solutions Consultant at Traction On Demand in Toronto asks: How does the Professional Scrum Product Owner certification compare to the Professional Scrum Master certification, and is it… Continue Reading Neil...
Have you ever fired a client?
I had to fire a client this week.I felt terrible that I wasn’t able to help, yet relieved that I stuck to my approach and my principles.Listen in to find out what happened. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/amazingapps) Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog No Title No Description Blog Syndicated with Neil Benson’s...
Dynamics 365 for Talent with Ana Inés Urrutia de Souza
Join me with Ana Inés Urrutia de Souza, a Dynamics 365 HR consultant at FourVision and a rising star in our Power Platform community. Ana shares the story behind the amazing Dynamics 365 for Talent application her team deployed at Centria, in Lima, Peru.Ana came from an HR administrator role and today is an HR application functional consultant at FourVision.Ana’s project team created a… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Dynamics 365 for Talent at Centria with Ana Inés Urrutia de Souza
Join me with Ana Inés Urrutia de Souza, a Dynamics 365 HR consultant at FourVision and a rising star in our Power Platform community. Ana shares the story behind the amazing Dynamics 365 for Talent application her team deployed at Centria, in Lima, Peru.Ana came from an HR administrator role and today is an HR application functional consultant at FourVision.Ana’s project team created a… Continue Reading Neil Benson’s...
Dynamics Con 2020 with Molly Fuschel
The biggest online community event of the year, Dynamics Con 2020, is just around the corner: Wednesday 9 to Thursday 10 September. I’m joined in this special episode by a special guest to discuss this special event — the event’s director, Molly Fuschel.You can register for free today at DynamicsCon.com.I’m presenting “Tell Me a Story”, which will be packed with proven practices for managing…...
Relative Estimation with Harry Potter books – YouTube
What can Harry Potter teach us about the relative estimation of Microsoft Business Applications? My son, Jensen, has just finished reading his first Harry Potter book and drops in to explain relative estimation. source
BDD: Behaviour-driven development for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Apps – YouTube
What is behaviour-driven development (BDD) and how can we use it to improve the quality of our Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform apps? Join my free Agile Foundations mini-course: https://customery.com/foundations. — Behavioural test is an acceptance test written in plain language that users can write and understand — Explain the context, event and outcome in given-when-then format — Can be written before,...
Estimating: how long and how much
In this second episode on estimating Microsoft Business Applications we answer your financial sponsor’s two favourite questions: How long is it going to take?How much is it going to cost? If you’re a Dynamics 365 or Power Platform project manager, business analyst, solution architect, pre-sales consultant, developer, or in business development, you’ll find out how to answer those key questions… Continue Reading...
Lives Lived Well with Dani Kahil
I’m joined by Dani Kahi, Microsoft Business Applications practice lead at Empired, who shares the story behind one of his client projects, Lives Lived Well. How the Lives Lived Well CRM project started with a review of the high-level requirementsAdopting Scrum gradually during the course of the projectThe benefit of having a scrum master (or a project manager) who is familiar with ScrumDani’s… Continue Reading Neil...
Estimating Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Applications
If you’re building Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate or Power Virtual Agent applications, when and how should you be estimating your requirements, releases and applications? For full show notes and transcription, visit: https://customery.com/002 We need to estimate our requirements for two reasons: time and moneyWe don’t always need to estimate our applications, but… Continue Reading Neil...
Advice if your business applications career is impacted by a recession
For this special episode, I asked 15 industry leaders how they were coping with the coronavirus restrictions and what advice they’d give to their younger selves if their career was affected by the impacts of an economic recession. James PhillipsSarah CritchleyKathrine HogsethNeil ParkhurstMohamed MostafaElaiza BenitezDian TaylorLeon TribeFrieda MaherDalia RaphaelAndrew BibbyLisa CrosbieCedrick… Continue Reading ‘s...
Amazing Apps Show trailer
Welcome to the new Amazing Apps Show. This episode is a bonus episode for previous subscribers of the Scrum Dynamics podcast explaining the reasons behind the name change and gives you a sneak preview of the new theme music. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/amazingapps) Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog No Title No Description Blog Syndicated with Neil Benson’s...
Benefits of Scrum for Microsoft Business Applications – YouTube
Here are the top 10 benefits for Microsoft customers or partners building Dynamics 365, Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, Power Automate or Power BI apps. 1. Better business software 2. Faster release cadence 3. Higher return on investment 4. Greater user satisfaction 5. More visibility and confidence 6. Efficient allocation of capital 7. Less risk 8. More control 9. Empowered collaboration 10. More rewarding This video is part of my...
Mercury XRM with Chris Kendrick
Chris Kendrick is the founder and CEO of Mercury XRM, who develop recruitment software on Dynamics 365 Sales. We discuss parsing resumes (and fine-tuning your own resume), as well as entity model designs, ISV product development, implementation approaches, remote training and user adoption incentives. Full show notes at https://customery.com/49. Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog Mercury XRM with Chris Kendrick...
Scrum certification for Microsoft Business Apps – YouTube
The two most popular Scrum training and certification bodies are Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org. Find out which certification I recommend for Microsoft Business Apps professionals, and discover my tips for passing the certification assessment. This video is an excerpt from my online course, Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps (https://customery.com/scrum). source
Agile Architects with Gus Gonzalez and Joel Lindstrom
I’m joined by Gus Gonzalez and Joel Lindstrom to discuss the role of solution architects in agile teams implementing Microsoft Business Applications. For full show notes visit: https://customery.com/50. Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog Agile Architects with Gus Gonzalez and Joel Lindstrom I’m joined by Gus Gonzalez and Joel Lindstrom to discuss the role of solution architects in agile teams...
Power Apps prototyping with Clément Olivier
My guest is Clément Olivier from Javista in Nantes, France. Clément was recently awarded a Power Platform FastTrack Recognized Solution Architect designation. He was one of 8 first-time Power Apps architects and 5 Power BI architects to be recognised, in addition to a new group of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and Customer Engagement architects. It’s a recognition from the Microsoft… Continue Reading Neil...
When to Use Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps
Is Scrum the best approach to use for every Microsoft Business Application? No! Join me, as we explore the Stacey and Cynefin models that help us make judgements about which types of applications are suited to a Scrum approach and which aren’t. Continue Reading Neil Benson’s Article on their blog When to Use Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps Is Scrum the best approach to use for every Microsoft Business Application? No!...
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...
