CRM Release Management Best Practices at CRMUG Reading

For those that couldn’t make it to my presentation for CRM Release Management Best Practices at Microsoft Reading HQ  https://crmug.uk/2016/02/24/20160316agenda I have uploaded the Slides on the following links;

CRM-Solution-Release-Management-Best-Practices-By-Razwan-for-CRMUG.pdf

Managed Vs Managed Solutions

Improvements in Solutions with Dynamics CRM 2016

The Presentation addressed the following issues;

• The reality of today’s CRM implementations requires Agile release processes to keep upto pace with business changes and technology updates
• Sprint Planning should consider involve solution design to prevent solution dependencies, performance factors and reduce risks
• Being aware of certain gremlins that can occur in solutions during customisations among teams of developers
• Manage Solution Dependencies in a base solution to support parallel release management to support concurrent projects
• Using collaboration such as  Data dictionary will help prevent customisation errors/conflicts during dev
• Address Risks & Performance considerations during solution design to avoid issues being missed in UAT / QA Agile may delay underlying issues from being resolved, always best to factor in risks during design to prevent occurrence
• Use Tools such as Configuration Manager to migrate Config Items not included in solution
• Solutions are Additive in nature, Removing managed customisations already deployed is not so straight forward & requires holding solution
• Managed Vs Unmanaged – The way we choose to export our solution may involve additional complexities such as solution layering and merge behaviours, and how the clients crm project team and I.T. infrastructure will determine if they are prepared to maintain manged solutions as well as a partner can.
• Using Source control such as TFS & Package Deployer for Regular backup streams for all solutions
• TFS / Source Control useful for Rebuilding Development environments as well as Collaboration, Comparing & Tracking Solution changes
• Using Powershell such as that included in the ALM toolkit can significantly improve release management and save resources. ALM toolkit is now free to use, Reduce time spent managing development environments and deployments
• Release Automation and Continuous integration may take time to implement at first but will save time & resources over long term, “CRM is Forever”

The ALM for Dynamics CRM served as the primary reference and subject matter that was addressed and can be downloaded from the following link https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=39044