Q&A Episodes

126. Thanks for all your questions about estimating business applications. In this episode, I tackle four tricky situations when it comes to estimating Dynamics 365 and Power Platform applications. Should we re-estimate items in our backlog after we’re done because they were easier or harder than originally expected? — Tanika If we don’t complete a story by the end of the sprint, should we re-estimate how much work is remaining and split the story points across the sprints in which the work go...

#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 project manager? Whether the product owner has to accept the developers' increments in the sprint ...

#72. Michael Nunes asks, "When multiple systems are being delivered by different parties, I find that we have to design the details upfront, then use agile for the delivery of the Dynamics 365 systems. Is this your experience too?" Michael's question has two layers that we address in this episode: upfront design and team composition. Upfront design is based on three assumptions: We can know all the requirements upfront. We can design all the components upfront. There won't be any changes. ...

#71. Daniel Kerridge says, "I'm the only developer in my team so I just wondered if there's a special version of Scrum that works in that scenario." There are three sets of accountabilities in the scrum team: the product owner, the scrum master and developers. But how many developers do you need? In the previous version of the Scrum Guide, the recommended minimum number of developers to have a cross-functional team was three. But that minimum was removed from the 2020 Scrum Guide. Guy's & St....

#70. Dan Madden, a program manager at Acensus, asks, "What’s the best way to help bridge that gap between [IT and] the business and ultimately the end-users?" In this episode, you'll learn about the five characteristics of Dynamics 365 and Power Platform projects that have a close relationship between business and IT so that there's no gap in your business applications initiatives. Support the showCONNECT 🌏 Amazing Applications 🟦 Customery on LinkedIn 🟦 Neil Benson on LinkedIn MY ONLINE COURSE...

#69. In this episode, Andreas Dutz, Business Development Manager at HSO from Bavaria, Germany, asks, "Have you defined what agile means? Are your teams trained in the Agile Manifesto and are your teams applying it today?" The Manifesto for Agile Software development has some flaws you should be aware of. Instead of memorising it and applying it word for word, your teams should consider it and devise your own Manifesto for No-Code/Low-Code Application Development. Resources Andreas Dutz on Link...

#68. What does the structure of a scales business application project look like? What groups and roles do you need when you've got 50 or more team members working together for a year or more to build a large, complex application? In this episode, you'll learn about a model project structure so that you can compare it to yours or use it as a baseline when establishing your own enterprise project team. Resources 6 Roles Every Enterprise Business Applications Project Should Have poster Large-scal...

#67. In this Q&A episode, Stephen Price , Digital Solution Architect at ITK Consulting in Canada, asks, "How should we manage scope creep within a sprint in an agile project?" The scope of our product is defined by the product backlog, and the scope of our project is a subset of the product backlog. Both are managed by the product owner: the single person responsible and accountable for the product backlog. In my Dynamics 365 and Power Apps projects, the product owner also manages the project sc...

#66. Matt Venamore, scrum master at RACQ, asks about how to handle data migration on agile Dynamics 365 projects. My recommended approach is for the data migration team to conduct a proof-of-concept or prototyping exercise (just like many business apps teams do) to uncover challenges, test their assumptions and learn as much as possible about the data. Then work closely with the business applications team to iteratively and incrementally prepare the data and the migration procedures. Resource...

#64. 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 scrum master. But in Scrum, the role that is closest to the role of a project manager in a traditional pr...

#63. 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 planned to reuse over and over again in my specifications. But it didn't work out that way for ...

#62. 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 team each sprint. ERP teams working on Dynamics 365 Business Central, Finance & Operations, Sup...

#42. 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 questions about scrum teams. I thought it would be a good idea to share some of those FAQs with the S...

#19. 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 Financial Management in Ottawa Canada, asks “What to do motivate a team to operate at peak capacity for a...

#15. 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 certification or having experience is more important for scrum masters. Squads, Tribes, Chapters and Gui...

#8. Dermot and Neil answer questions submitted by podcast listeners about: Estimating chores to reduce technical debt (Todd Mercer). Prioritizing items with dependencies and the principle of emergent design (Alan Rachid). Whether business analysts are part of the development team or not (Greta Sharples). Planning agile projects, especially in the sales cycle (Jeffry van de Vuurst). You can submit your questions by tweeting @customery or clicking on the Send Voicemail button anywhere on the ...