The Inevitable Underestimation of Power Platform Projects
#161. Whether you’re an internal developer working for a Microsoft customer or a consultant working for a Microsoft partner: every Power Platform or Dynamics 365 project you have ever worked on has been underestimated.Because no one wins overestimated projects...Mentioned in this episode:Estimating Business Apps: EOFY25 offerMy Estimating Business Apps course will help you up level up your agile practice and answer those two frequent questions: 'How long is it going to take?' and 'How much is it going to cost?'. Normally priced at U$199, it’s designed to give you full confidence when scoping and sizing Dynamics 365 and Power Platform work. Estimating Business Apps is just U$50 if you go Pro before 30 June 2025. That’s a $149 saving to help you finish the (Australian financial) year stronger – and smarter. Don’t miss your chance to master the complete estimation process and quote your work like a pro.Estimating EOFY2025
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Preparing for the First Sprint: Design Thinking and Discovery with Hamish Sheild
#160. Hamish Sheild is a Microsoft MVP and Power Platform consultant specialising in applying Design Thinking practices to our apps and projects to make them more human-centred. Hamish and I discuss the different activities and artifacts we've experimented with before starting the delivery phase of our Power Platform and Dynamics 365 projects. Join us as we discuss:03:43 Design thinking exercises and goal setting08:45 Inclusion of developers in the discovery phase09:48 Importance of day in the life sessions11:59 Exploration of design sprints17:10 Creating customer and user journey maps18:48 Utilizing user story maps for clarity24:21 The role of prototyping in projects25:11 Developing solution blueprints with Dynamics 36530:18 Size and refinement of initial product backlog32:02 Establishing environments32:48 Business process maps35:35 Crafting stakeholder maps for project successHAMISH SHEILDHamish Sheild on LinkedInAppRisingDesigning Business Applications RESOURCESAvion for user story mappingStoriesOnBoard for user story mappingMiro for visual collaborationRECOMMENDED EPISODES130 Sprint 1 is Done!120 Defining Requirements for Complex Power Apps with Hamish Sheild👋 LET'S CONNECT🌐 Subscribe to Customery Academy newsletter for new episode announcements and special offers🟥 Subscribe on YouTube🟦 Follow on LinkedIn🟦 Neil Benson on LinkedIn🦋 Neil Benson on BlueSky⭐ RATE AND REVIEW THE SHOW👍 Rate Amazing Apps👨💻 MY ONLINE COURSES🚀 Agile Foundations for Microsoft Business Apps 🏉 Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps 📐 Estimating Business Apps
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Here's when to use a waterfall approach with Power Platform
#159. Should you use a traditional, waterfall approach to build Power Platform apps? In this episode, I break down six situations when you might be tempted to use a waterfall method and share my thoughts on whether that's really the best approach.Highlights00:11 Everyone should try waterfall at least once.02:18 When to adopt a waterfall approach02:53 #1 Predictable and well-defined requirements04:19 #2 Regulated industries05:49 #3 Fixed-price contracts06:59 #4 Small or simple projects08:02 #5 No agile experience08:59 #6 Lots of dependencies10:09 Recap `ResourcesEstimating Agile Business Apps: learn how to quickly, accurately and confidently estimate how long it'll take and how much it'll cost to build your Power Platform or Dynamics 365 app. Cynefin Model: learn how to approach different problems from simple to complex.Successful Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps: learn the Scrum framework, prepare for certification and discover my proven practices for successfully applying Scrum for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.Team Topologies: Matthew Skelton discusses how different team topologies can reduce the impact of dependencies across an organisation.
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What is Scrum and why should Power Platform teams care?
#158. It's 2025, and I still meet Power Platform and Dynamics 365 professionals that don't know what Scrum is or have an incomplete understanding of what Scrum is. Especially in job interviews!In this short episode, you'll learn:What Scrum really isWhy it's a framework and not a methodologyA simple hack for remembering the 18 components of Scrum🚀 Agile Foundations for Microsoft Business Apps: Learn the basics and benefits about adopting agile approach to building business applications. https://customery.com/foundations
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Are Scrum Masters Overrated?
#157. Rethink the role of the scrum master. Two recent events—a thought-provoking article by agile coach Maarten Dalmijn and a leave of absence by Matthew, a beloved scrum master in my team—prompted me to question if scrum masters might be overrated.Comparing scrum teams to sports teams like Ultimate Frisbee, where players self-regulate without referees. Imagine a world where your scrum team operates the same way, holding each other accountable and mastering the game without a dedicated scrum master.You'll learn about Maarten's controversial stance: in startups and scale-ups with fewer organizational impediments, having a scrum master might be unnecessary overhead. Instead, Martin suggests that with a deep understanding of scrum, your team could self-manage effectively.I share my own team's bold experiment—replacing a traditional scrum master with a hybrid scrum master-developer. Spearheaded by Sapan, who has extensive experience in both development and scrum, this experiment offers surprising results. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution for all Power Platform teams. But it does highlight the importance of being open to new practices and continuous experimentation in agile development.Keep experimenting 🧪-NeilRESOURCESMaarten Dalmijn on LinkedInMaarten Dalmijn, 'Are Scrum Masters Too Much Overhead?'
Om Amazing Apps - learn how to build agile Dynamics 365 and Power Platform business apps using Scrum
Amazing Apps is for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform builders who want to use the Scrum framework to build amazing business apps that everyone will love.
The podcast is hosted by Microsoft MVP, Neil Benson, and produced by Customery.
[Dynamics365, D365, Power Apps, PowerApps, Power Pages, Power Apps Portals, Power Automate, Flow, Power Virtual Agents, PVA, PowerBI]
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