Amazing Apps - learn how to build agile Dynamics 365 and Power Platform business apps using Scrum

#113. Vivian Voss joins me to discuss her upcoming Scottish Summit session, From the Basement to the Cloud - Your Journey from CRM on-premises to Dynamics 365 CE . Register today for Scottish Summit . Congratulations to Yacob Shenkute from Power Platform School for achieving his Scrum.org PSM1 certification . Resources Vivian Voss on LinkedIn  Vivian Voss on Twitter Vivian's blog Customer Exp...

#112. Dani Kahil interviews Paddy Byrne about the Power Platform's role in enabling Scotland's new recycling scheme for single-use drinking containers. Scots people are famous for being careful with their money so I imagine any program to pay them for recycling containers was always going to be a big hit. Learn about Paddy's Power Platform team: Meeting public-sector's accessibility and security r...

#111. Start here to learn why, when and how to use an agile approach to build Dynamics 365 and Power Platform applications. In this episode, you'll learn: Why I use an agile approach building Dynamics 365 and Power App When an agile approach is suitable and when it's not The benefits that Microsoft customers and partners experience using an agile approach What agile actually means, the history of...

#110.  My current team is stuck in Limbo. We've finished development of a Dynamics 365 application for a local government department and we're tapping our fingers waiting for acceptance testing to start. What should agile testing look like on a Dynamics 365 or Power Platform project? I describe my agile testing Heaven, and the next best thing, Elysium. And what it's like to be stuck in Limbo....

#109. In this special episode, I'm interviewed by Dani Kahil about my experience delivering an enterprise CRM project at RACQ (the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland). RACQ is a membership organisation serving two million people in Queensland with roadside assistance, insurance and banking services. In 2018, they set out to replace two legacy systems with Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Ap...

108. If you're considering starting a Dynamics 365 or Power Platform podcast in 2022, or just wonder what's involved in producing a podcast episode, join me for a behind the scenes look at my four step episode production process. If you have any questions about starting a business apps podcast, I'd love to do my best to help. Email me at amazingapps@customery.com . Resources Some of these resource...

#107. What would you do if you ran a Microsoft partner business and your customer wanted to stack your scrum their with their developers? This is the story of Selina who runs Gotham Heroes. Her customer, Bruce at Gotham Orphanages, wants Selina to include a couple of the orphanage's developers onto the team. But the developers don't have any experience with Dynamics 365 or Power Platform. And Seli...

#106. You and the Microsoft Business Apps product owner are on Teams going through the product backlog. You two are working on it together because that’s how it has always been done. And yet, when you look back at the last few sprints, you realize that is not getting the desired results. It’s not your fault; it’s a systemic problem. The problem is that it is incredibly common for only one stakehol...

#105. Dan Foster, a senior consultant and solutions architect at CRM Dynamics, asks, "Have you found much benefit from your being a scrum master? If so, how did you get that training?" I've taken the Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster training and certification and the Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master training and certification. Find out which one I recommend for Dynamics 365 and Power Platfo...

#104. Should we assign items to a developer during sprint planning? Some of my scrum teams building Dynamics 365 and Power Platform applications assign sprint backlog items to a named developer during the sprint planning event. Is that a good idea or not? That’s the question we’re going to be answering in this episode of Amazing Applications. Resources "The New New Product Development Game&qu...

103. 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 j...

#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 business What is takes to achieve FastTrack Recognized Solution Architect Which is better: FTRSA award or MVP award? Building amazi...

#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 DynamicsCon Lipi Sarkar on LinkedIn Samit Saini and Eric McKinney on LinkedIn Building a Digital Future by Lipi Sarkar and Vinny (Amazing affiliate link) South Coast Summit conferenc...

#100. Are you looking for better ways to manage your Dynamics 365 and Power Platform 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 stories Using a definition of ready to manage your backlog Is requirements approval an anti-pattern? Usin...

#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. Resources Mary Ann Castro on LinkedIn Register for DynamicsCon Special mention to Andrew Butenko , Amey...

#98. 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...

#97. I share 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 categorization. Your require...

#96. 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 owner and a...

#95. 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 Customery Academy Amazin...

#94. 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 2020 edition of t...

#93. 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 ownership, by Geoff Wa...

#92. 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 pe...

#91. 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...

#90. 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...

#89. 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...