Five ways to make Power Apps and Low Code Projects succeed

During the kick-off of any new software project, a senior stakeholder will often produce a slide that explains why a high percentage of software projects fail. The intention is often to explain how the soon to be kicked off project will not fail. If you search for “Why software projects fail?”, you will find a variety of failure reasons, such as general people issues, time, lack of testing, unclear requirements, scope creep, inadequate communication, staff retention, poor risk management and more. Continue reading “Five ways to make Power Apps and Low Code Projects succeed” →

Avoiding a Power Platform “Drive-By” using the Centre of Excellence Starter Kit

A few years ago, I wrote about ten different types of Dynamics 365 projects. One of these types of projects I referred to as a “drive-by”. A drive-by implementation is where someone, often a supplier, is interested in getting paid, and getting out as quickly as they can, leaving an implementation project to slowly fail.

You might end up being the victim of a ‘drive-by’ through : Continue reading “Avoiding a Power Platform “Drive-By” using the Centre of Excellence Starter Kit” →

Five ways to become a Software Engineering Multiplier

Just before I started my working career, I completed a social sciences degree in Communication Studies. For the most part, this was  a non-technical IT degree. It was one which made me think deeply about the day to day encounters I have with other people, written, verbal and more. With the job market not being awash with social science jobs at the time, and having hacked around a lot with BBC Basic on an old BBC Micro and Acorn Archimedes in my formative years, I felt a pining for programming again, so I forged a career in the IT industry. I’ve been here ever since. Continue reading “Five ways to become a Software Engineering Multiplier” →

Explainer : Power Platform Licensing in under three minutes

Do you know the difference between perpetual and subscription licensing, or know your multiplexing from your software assurance?

Here’s a quick three minute explainer for Power Platform licensing concepts you should understand if you plan to buy Power Platform or Dynamics 365 licences any time soon.

If you’d like a similar explainer for another Power Platform topic, please let me know.

Returning the Shopping Cart – Being a Good Power Platform Citizen Developer

I normally do my weekly grocery shopping online, however since the Coronavirus lockdown and because of the shortage of home delivery slots, I have the first world problem of visiting the supermarket again in person! After returning from a shopping trip this week, I saw a meme on twitter which reminded me of the dilemma most supermarket shoppers face after unpacking their shopping into their car – namely looking at the empty shopping trolley and wondering where to return it to. To quote the tweet :

Continue reading “Returning the Shopping Cart – Being a Good Power Platform Citizen Developer” →

Five Tips for Running Remote Discovery Workshops during a Pandemic

I really enjoy the early phases of new greenfield Microsoft Business Applications projects. It might be delivering a fixed scope project with expected outputs already defined. It might be formulating and documenting new requirements for a truly agile project. Fundamentally however, it’s about getting into the minds of business users, perhaps building some SFDs and mapping the technology to participants, perhaps unknown, wants and needs. Continue reading “Five Tips for Running Remote Discovery Workshops during a Pandemic” →

Power Platform Enterprise Architecture

There are a myriad of new features being released to Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform right now. It’s tempting to try out new features and, perhaps push a new feature through to production if you or your customer is willing or agile enough. For some larger organisations however, there’s more of an importance placed on standards and governance than ensuring the continued agility of getting new features and new applications quickly to production.

But how do, or how should Enterprise Architecture standards apply to those of us who have invested our time in these newfangled Power Platform based solutions. How can we ensure an organisations approach is both agile and structured?

Continue reading “Power Platform Enterprise Architecture” →

PowerApps and Dynamics Portals Design Decisions

A lot has been said and written about ‘Portals’ since Microsoft bought ADX Studio in 2015. If you are unaware of the background, ADX Studio at the time was the de-facto market leader and default solution for building portals to front and expose data from Dynamics CRM.

With the ADX Studio product being built in a configurable way, it seemed like a good acquisition from Microsoft. This was a departure from earlier acquisitions of  technically different products which had to be integrated to Dynamics – see Parature (cough) or Marketing Pilot (splutter), which have since died a slow death. ADX Studio was a product that, on the face of it, could more easily integrate and slot in to the new approach.

Since 2015, Microsoft has been on a journey to integrate and extend this old ADX codebase onto what has since become Dynamics 365 and, more recently, the Power Platform. ADX Studio in its old form – a .NET website and configurable code framework – is now effectively dead* – the Microsoft shift to the cloud is nearing completion, with new features being added regularly. Continue reading “PowerApps and Dynamics Portals Design Decisions” →