Continuing my blog series on Dynamics and CDS Best Practices, Understanding the Technology.
One of the biggest downfalls to any software solution is not always the solution itself, but the team, department, or company's understanding of that solution. You could have a perfect solution or application that fails miserably. Or, an imperfect solution that thrives. It all comes down to aligning the application to your users' experiences and expectations, as well as documenting your solution as you go, so anyone can step in to maintain it or get up to speed quickly on expected functionality.
Understand your UX and Align to Supportability
Design decisions are a very important part of the project process, and working with a development team who understands the technology when designing a solution is critical.
Following user requests tends to lead to a completely customized system that might be functional at first. However, robust customization needs ongoing maintenance and can limit flexibility for changes in the future.
Alternatively, you could stick strictly to out of the box functionality and provide a system that does not meet expectations and has poor adoption rates.
By providing your team with people who know the technology, and people who understand desired user experience, you are much more likely to deliver a successful business application.
Document as you go
Documentation on any project is incredibly important, but often forgot about or not giving the time it needs. You don't need large manuals for every feature and use case, but it you should maintain a log of changes and expected functionality. Especially with remote or changing project teams, this documentation can prove valuable when it comes to troubleshooting or further development.
