When I first was presented the Success by Design methodology from Microsoft, my reaction was - lets phrase it politely - not too enthusiastic. Being into software engineering and project management for two decades, guess how many time I saw the same concepts over and over again, just with new acronyms to learn. But because we have been selected by Microsoft to pilot for the FastTrack Ready Partners Program I just jumped in and started to use it. And well, how fast I changed my mind...
Success by Design is the best toolbox I ever had throughout my entire career
David Gabathuler, FastTrack Recognised Solution Architect
(Microsoft, feel free to quote this)
'll tell you why I love it and how you can get started:
Success by Design is not a project management methodology like Agile or SureStep and does not replace the one you are already using. And that's what I like about it. It is a set of guidelines in a toolbox that help you aks the right questions at the right time during your Dynamics 365 implementations and let you profit from good practices from thousands of FastTrack projects. The shortest summary I can give you what Success by Design is about is this:
Make sure the sh** hits the fan early 😉
Identifying critical topics and addressing them as early as possible is key to successful implementations. I give you an example: If you run into API limits during the initial loads of a go-live it is a bit late to change the architecture of your interface... Maybee you did not even know that API limits exist... Not if you follow Success by Design and addressed all the topics brought up during the various workshops.
I have never seen a better description of my job as a Dynamics 365 CE solution architect than in this 10 hour course I recommend to everyone implementing Dynamics. It does not only explain the methodology in detail, but also teach good practice on each of the topics, including examples and advice. The workshop templates provided are a fantastic tool I now use in every project - not only the FastTrack ones. Check it out, you will not regret it:
And just now, watching the key note to the #MSBizAppsSummit I realize that Microsoft published a 700 page book regarding the Success by Design Implementation Guide:
Well, if you see my with circles under the eyes the next few days, you know what I have been doing all night...
This article has first been published here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-love-success-design-david-gabathuler/?trackingId=z5pPMjmiSqu6Z%2F6aj4nI5A%3D%3D