implementation team best practices?

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Posted on by andrew_W

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Hey guys/gals, happy Friday. Hope everything is going well with all of you.

I'm in the begging steps of planning a dynamics implementation and was wondering if there are any known 'implementation team' best practices. I'm tasked with defining what resources we'll need for the project, and I'm wondering just how big of a team I'll need. I've read the Implementation Planning Guide (well most of it, it's 250 pages) and came away with a list of skills needed, but not a good understanding of the number of resources I'll need.

My initial thought is:

PM: (Me, one person)
dev lead (.net focus)
devs (2, .net focus, dynamics experience a plus)
Report dev (me)

Does that seem like overkill? Not enough resources? How important is it to have a DBA, the guide makes it seem like there's a fair amount of work to do in the SQL database. Do I need this resource? Does he/she need to be fully dedicated to the project?

Thanks guys, and by the way I'd love to hear any success tips, or "wish I would have know" experiences with planning and implementing Dynamics. Thanks!

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DaxNigel 2,574 on at

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The size and skill set of the team will depend on how many modifications you plan to make, what parts of the system you plan to use, and the size of your implementation.

PM is a given

X++ developers will range from 1 to 4 typically, depending on number of modifications. It may be more if the people are junior

SSRS (report) developers, typically this will be 1-4, depending on the number of reports. Again if Junior might be more

Most projects dont need .net focus people, but that will depend of the requirements.

SAL DBA is most system for AX2012 is a must. Monitoring and fine tuning SQL, and helping the develops maximise performance is a big job, but again this depending on the size of your system.

Also you may need BI for cube reporting. This is a big area and an area most implementation dont invest enough time into.

Last area is SharePoint and web developers, but this will depend if you are going to use Enterprise portal or web interfaces.

The bottom line is the team will be fairly large, but not necessary all required at the same time, and some will be contractors, or part time roles. But also realise that this can change during the project as you find out new things and the scope changes, and it will!!!

Hope this helps.

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lally 8 on at

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In your post just mentioned about the developers only .

What about the Application consultant/Functional Consultant/Solution Architect. In every implementation big area /pain part is Application consultant , who has the experience and strong knowledge about the ERP product. Ax is gaint product and most of the functionality /client requirements can be achieved by setup/configuration in the respective modules , So if you do not have much experienced Application consultant in your implementation unnecessarily need to go for many customization for the client requirements , in fact that functionality is already available in the standard /out-of -box functionality in the Ax application.

In my feeling first area which you need focus to have the application consultants also like Finance Consultant , T&L consultant and Manufacturing consultant , whose has strong knowledge about Ax application and should aware of the changes latest versions .

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Weaveriski 23,620 Moderator on at

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This is from the perspective of the customer I presume?

Are you aware of SureStep?

The other posts have this kind of covered, but I wrote this and then saw the replies, so thought I would leave it as my initial thoughts..

You will need business decision makers from each department that feed into any process analysis/re-engineering and mapping back to AX. These are usually resource bottlenecks as you need them to be 80% committed to the project but are usually 20%.

Teams or people responsible for Security, Data Migration, Report Writing, Integration Writing, Development (You have elements of these covered, but they need management and resourcing). I would also recommend people are put in charge of testing - creation of testing plans and UAT roll outs, and Training generally. Project admin is a headache so help there is good. You will need representation at a Steering level as well - so senior management stake holder buy in and support.

Just scratching the surface really....

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Kumar Gaurav @ MS on at

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Hi Andrew,

Besides all the suggestions mentioned below you may want to see Sure Step 2012 for AX implementation. It will answer your queries like resources and execution. Success tips for AX implementation according to me is Design more, code less and Test most. Spend good time designing and thinking about the system before writing the first line of code.

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