Recommended Training Paths for AX 2012 R3 Development for Beginners

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Posted on by iridescence

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I was a .NET developer specializing in C# and XAML development and recently got an interest in AX development. I am currently a Microsoft Dynamics AX Technical Analyst Intern in a company. The management gave me training materials, but I also want to see what the community would suggest. I have access to customer source and have studied development materials at https://imagineacademy.microsoft.com/

As I dig deeper in AX, I realized that AX is such a huge area. Being a Technical Analyst, I'd like to ask anyone here which path should I take in learning AX. I don't have any knowledge on business stuffs, like accounting or any Functional features of AX. Do I have to study the Functional feature aside from the Development? If so, please kindly tell me which specific Functional features should I learn, example: Financials, Trade and Logistics, Production, etc. in which that would help make sense of the development tasks that I am working with, and kindly refer me to training materials/sources that could be easily understood by a developer that has no experience in business transactions and/or logics.

Please note that I am currently working with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CU9 version.

Thank you.

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Mea_ 60,284 on at

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Hey iridescence,

There is an exam preparation materials like

mbspartner.microsoft.com/.../1096

mbspartner.microsoft.com/.../1100

they are quite good to get some idea.

After that I think you need to read "Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012".

And finally the best teacher is AX! You have tons of exiting code so before starting any development you can search how it's already done and learn from this examples.

I won't recommend you to learn anything from functional side at this stage because it is a huge topic and usually we have dedicated T&L or financial guys so they should be able to clarify any functional requirements.

You will get a lot of functional knowledge when you will touch particular areas during development so don't worry about it for know.

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mail2vd 1,330 on at

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It would be always good if a Technical analyst has some level of functional knowledge while dealing with ERP. This helps to understand requirement comes from the functional expert for customization or any other issue resolution.

As far as learning AX is concerned, it's ongoing process while you work. It depends on what module of AX you work. Don't run to look at everything at once. You can start from Human resources Management which is easier to understand for a beginner. Gradually you can move to other modules such as AP, AR etc.

You can refer to Microsoft press book for the learning purpose.

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Mea_ 60,284 on at

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It's almost impossible to say what functional area he need to look at because maybe their company never implements HR module or Service or Retails or something else :)

However I have never met AX dev who have not worked with Sales Orders !

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iridescence 115 on at

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I don't have access to partnersource though. Anyway, all I have to do is to analyze AX and its existing functions? Given on what I have learned so far, I guess that's a great idea. Still, the business terms is what slows me down. It's probably because I have never dealt with these before and since I'm more of a programmer guy. I hope I could adjust soon.

"Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012" is among my reading materials. I'll take a good look on that. Thanks.

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Mea_ 60,284 on at

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Here is another resource you can use https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh881815.aspx

And talking about businesses terms don't hesitate to ask for clarification.

Never forget that you are a developer and not a functional consultant so if you are not going to change your position you don't need to know all the business stuff only some basis.

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Martin Dráb 237,967 Most Valuable Professional on at

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If you aren't a partner, check if your company has access to CustomerSource. You can get some materials from there.

Also make sure you use a search engine a lot - many terms and concepts are explained in documentation, blogs of Microsoft teams, blogs written by users, or somebody already asked the same question in a forum.

It may be useful to look at some introduction to main functional areas, but I also don't recommend going too deep, especially in modules that you won't use on your project. Some features are used by almost all companies (general ledger, journals, financial dimensions, products, global address book, sales/purchase orders etc.), but in different ways, so you can't say in advance what exactly you would need to know.

Because AX is so huge, you clearly can't do everything, therefore you should focus on your main area for now. You always broaden your scope later.

Many companies tend to push people to hybrid roles, but then they realize that they're neither good developers nor good functional consults. Building a team of experts in different areas is a more successful strategy.

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