Scoping Workshop for Dynamics 365 Success

Scope the Solution that Champions Your Business

What is Opsis' Dynamics 365 Scoping Workshop?

Your Dynamics 365 scoping workshop defines your Dynamics 365 project. Think of the scoping workshop as starting your project on the right foot.  It describes what should and perhaps more importantly what should not be included in the project. Your scoping workshop is how you ensure that the Dynamics 365 implementation that you provide to your team or organisation does what it needs to do in order to support their needs.  It must champion your business.

What should your Microsoft Dynamics 365 scoping include?

Scoping is far more than a woolly list of vague requirements.  It should look at:

• The key aims of the project - what must be delivered if the project is to be deemed a success
• Your customer-facing business processes
• The reports and dashboards that you need to manage your customers - outputs
• The data that may need to be brought in to Dynamics 365
• Any documents that you may be able to get Dynamics 365 to help you produce
• The users who will be using Dynamics 365

As in many other areas of life, the Pareto principle applies here, i.e. 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. The scoping workshop will allow you to identify the low-hanging fruit - the areas where you will get a lot of benefit for relatively little effort. For the vast majority of Dynamics 365 projects, at least 70% of requirements can be met out of the box using the only simple configuration. The real challenge comes when working out the best way to implement the requirements since there are always multiple ways to implement each requirement.

Gartner has named effective scoping as one of the primary contributing factors to the success (or failure) of a Business Process project.

Scoping is essential whichever project methodology you are planning to use.  Some people believe that an 'agile' project does not require a scope - that the scope can emerge as the project develops.  This is only true if you have a bottomless wallet and no real timeline.

This may seem a strange thing to highlight since every project has to have a valid scope. The reason it was listed specifically for this sort of project (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics 365) is because it is a wholly different exercise with a wholly different impact on project success than the scope for a more traditional IT project.

What happens during the Scoping Workshop?

Surprisingly to many people, we do not discuss the technology during the workshop. The focus of the workshop is your business - specifically its challenges and how you want it to work moving forward.

During the scoping workshop, we use our unique IP to guide a conversation about your business and how you want it to function going forward.

To do this, we look at how your business runs, at your business processes, the reports that you need Dynamics 365 to give you, the data that you have already collected, the communications that you have with your clients and prospects, the users who will be using Dynamics 365, where most of your current blockages are and any dates that will influence how the project is planned.

After the Workshop - what then?

Once the workshop is complete, we use the information that we gathered to document your requirements and then design your Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution.  This means that once you start to use Dynamics 365 your users can:

• Start using Dynamics 365 with their existing data already in it
• Update the data easily
• Easily see what they need to do - next, today, this week etc.
• Use templates for recurring correspondence from inside Dynamics 365
• Access reports structured as you need them with a few clicks, not requiring data manipulation in spreadsheets.

This includes a scope document that shows you how Microsoft Dynamics 365 will fit your business and will support it going forward. It will also give you a timeline for your Microsoft Dynamics 365 project and will let you know when you are needed in the project.

From this, we are able to give you an accurate cost estimate for delivering the functionality to you and ensuring that it works and delivers what you expect for you, your team and your business.

What does the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Scoping Workshop cost?

This depends on:

• The size of your business
• The number of users
• The level of your Dynamics 365 thinking

After an initial complimentary conversation, we will be able to give you a firm price for your Microsoft Dynamics 365 scoping workshop.

If you'd like to use our workshop format yourself, you can download the Opsis workshop resources here.  Just make sure you have a good facilitator who is trusted by all participants, so you get the best possible input from your team.

If you invest in some Subject Matter Expert Microsoft Dynamics 365 training or Guide Me Guru (our free walkthrough of Microsoft Dynamics 365 functionality) as part of your project scoping phase, you will be able to easily identify those processes that can be quickly implemented with little or no customisation. Having a few members of your team with the knowledge of your business and your chosen technology will pay huge dividends in the speed of project delivery, the overall cost of the project and the quality of the new solution.

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 scoping workshop also ensures that we understand your business and the requirements that you have for your Dynamics 365 project. To ensure that your Dynamics 365 project delivers the maximum to your business it is essential that the business processes that you will use going forward are effective and appropriate.

If your Dynamics 365 simply automates broken or ineffective ways of doing business, you cannot get the maximum benefit from your investment in Microsoft Dynamics 365. As well as avoiding automating broken and ineffective processes, the scoping workshop gives you the opportunity to confirm which are the most important processes in your business.  

It also gives you a chance to confirm that you really do need each process, or as one of our clients said, "to avoid creating a bright and shiny version of the rubbish that we currently have".

There is more detail in the video below.

The Opsis Dynamics 365 scoping workshop gives you the opportunity to review your processes and to ensure that they are as you want them to be going forward before we implement them into your new solution.

Scoping should be the backbone of your

• solution design
• testing scripts or scenarios
• user training

Why should you do a Scoping Workshop?

Often when I'm discussing this with a client, they will say "but you are the expert - don't you know what we need?". We are experts, but in the same way that your doctor is an expert.  When you visit your doctor, you still expect him to take enough time to understand your current problem or concern, and not just to treat you as he has treated a recent patient.

Your business is unique in the same way that your DNA or genetic makeup is unique. Yes, perhaps 99% of your DNA is the same as mine or anyone else's. But it is those small areas of difference that are important and that make you who you are. So it is for your business - and for your Dynamics 365 solution.

Many business owners and business people initially feel that all businesses are the same, or at least have the same requirements of their Dynamics 365.  

It is the very nature of your business's uniqueness that means that you should invest in a scoping workshop to ensure that your strategy is right for your business.