One of our goals in the Dynamics FastTrack team is to identify problems which may impact the success of our customers’ implementation before they cause any real disruption. Identifying and mitigating potential issues require a proactive approach to ensure they can be resolved in a planned and structured fashion. This concept underpins the Success by Design framework, and we see it as crucial for driving project confidence and ensuring success.
The topic of performance is often a challenge in customer implementations as we see many project teams take a much more reactive approach to dealing with performance issues. Our customers rightly expect acceptable performance from our software, and it can be difficult to discuss the risk of performance issues at an early stage.
However, the reality is that performance is a complex topic across all software development, including Dynamics 365 projects. There are a multitude of reasons for this due to the number of variables which contribute to the performance of a given implementation. For example:
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Users are often distributed across the globe using a multitude of devices and networks of varying quality.
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The volume of users, integrations and the data held within these systems is often significant.
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The flexibility to customize the software opens up the potential to introduce sub-optimal code and other performance problems.
The list is long and differs across projects. This is often complicated further by an inability to clearly articulate what acceptable performance actually means. The system should just be as fast as possible, right? Unfortunately, that’s not a realistic expectation.
Taking a reactive approach to performance is fraught with danger. Without clear goals, realistic expectations and careful management, not only can risks turn into real performance problems, but worse still, they can surface at the worst possible time in the project: close to or just after go-live. This can cause a real strain on the implementation team at a crucial point, and significantly impact user adoption and system reputation.
A more proactive approach to performance involves considering these points as early as possible during planning and deciding how to mitigate any risks throughout the entirety of the project. With the right prioritization, performance issues can be identified and addressed during the earlier stages, where the implementation team have the time and resources to resolve them, keeping any project disruption and stress on the implementation team to a minimum.
Learn more about the importance of prioritizing performance in the performance chapter of the Dynamics 365 Implementation Guide
Dave & The FastTrack for Dynamics 365 Applications Team
