Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2010

Table of Contents

• Preface

• Chapter 1: Background and Concepts
• The business solutions market
• The importance of a methodology
• Why it is critical to have a solid approach for selecting and deploying ERP/CRM solutions
• What is Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step?
• Microsoft Dynamics overview
• What is a project?
• Implementing the solution
• ERP and CRM implementations—facts and figures
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 2: Solution Selling and Driving Due Diligence
• Driving value for the customer and the solution provider
• Value realization and measurement
• What it means to be solution centric
• Solution selling concepts
• Solution selling—buyer's perspective
• Building the trust
• Building the vision
• When to discuss feature/functionality or demo the solution
• Staying aligned with the buyer
• Vision processing—creation and reengineering
• The Microsoft Solution Selling Process
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 3: Managing Projects
• About projects and project management
• Myths and resistance
• Is project management overhead?
• Is project management an obstacle to flexibility?
• Is project management unsalable?
• Why project management?
• The alternative
• Using our own methodology
• Why quality-driven companies prefer project management
• The four pillars of project success
• Communication matters
• Rule number 1: Communication requires interaction
• Rule number 2: E-mail does not equal project communication
• Rule number 3: Be brief
• Rule number 4: Set clear expectations
• Proactive attitude makes the difference
• Rule number 1: Look ahead and prevent
• Rule number 2: Proactive power requires interaction
• Rule number 3: Measure for early warning signals
• Creating a guiding project culture
• The importance of closure
• Project management essentials
• The project lifecycle and phases
• What is a phase?
• Respect the phase-based approach
• Project management processes
• Break it up!
• From estimate to follow up
• The WBS as estimation instrument
• Follow up based on WBS
• The WBS as central concept
• Project management adoption
• The tireless quest for the perfect espresso
• Embracing change
• The indispensable organizational benefits
• A core competency for your company
• Profitable projects
• Satisfied customers and happy employees
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 4: Selling with Sure Step
• The Sure Step Diagnostic phase
• The concept of Decision Accelerator (DA) Offerings
• A repeatable process for the sales teams
• Starting the discovery process with solution positioning
• The first step to envisioning the future state
• Identifying the right solution
• Determining the infrastructure implications
• Estimating the delivery costs, approach, plans, and roles
• Reducing the risk perception
• Estimating the Return on Investment (ROI)
• Developing the project charter
• Closing the sales cycle
• Initiating the delivery cycle
• Other usage scenarios for the Decision Accelerators
• Solution selling to a current customer
• Assessing the upgrade requirements
• Applying the other Decision Accelerators on upgrade engagements
• Supporting the customer's buying cycle
• Defining the organizational needs
• Determining the right solution
• Understanding and mitigating risks
• Approach for upgrading existing solutions
• Positioning the solutions for specific industries
• Manufacturing industry
• The Public Sector industry
• Extended CRM or xRM solutions
• Future industry and cross-industry solutions
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 5: Implementing with Sure Step
• Implementation approaches in Sure Step
• The notion of phases and cross phases
• Waterfall-based implementation project types
• The Rapid project type
• The Standard project type
• The Enterprise project type
• Setting up a program for solution rollout
• Phased solution rollouts
• Multisite engagements
• The Sure Step waterfall implementation phases
• The Analysis phase
• The start of the project
• Start your engines
• Expect some delays
• A chance to establish the project culture
• A look back
• A good project charter is priceless
• Project planning sessions
• Kick-off your communication culture
• Wrapping up
• To train or not to train?
• The uncontrolled Analysis phase
• Real-life analysis scenarios
• Back to square one
• Scope creep sneaking in
• No issues, no risks
• Analyze what?
• Go for interim analysis deliverables
• Managing scope creep during the Analysis phase by means of Fit/Gap Analysis
• Do not forget about data migration
• Interact with the infrastructure department
• The Design phase
• Do we really need a Design phase?
• The risk of a passive Design phase
• All activity in the Sure Step Design phase
• We are implementing a standard package solution
• From requirements to design
• Document and implement
• Initiate testing
• Interact with the infrastructure department
• Don't give up on data migration
• Start planning the deployment
• The Development phase
• Developers only?
• Develop and freeze custom code
• Complete the testing
• Last call for changes
• Can process models still change?
• Start finalizing
• Finalize system configuration and ISV solution setup
• Finalize design updates
• Hand over non-production environments
• The Deployment phase
• What is critical for a successful deployment?
• Trainers, evangelists for change
• Conduct end-user training
• Compose the trainer team
• What about the data?
• The go-live as the user acceptance test
• Your continued key user interaction will now pay off
• Early planning and commitment making the difference
• The focus of the user acceptance test
• Document and analyze the results
• Execute performance tests
• Infrastructure readiness
• Check and cross check
• Ready to take off
• The Operation phase
• Provide post-go-live support
• Some things to do
• Clear pending items
• Finalize knowledge transfer
• Conduct performance tuning and optimization
• Transition the solution to support
• To close or not to close?
• Closing—a nice little job?
• Building it up
• The core challenge
• Sign please!

• The Agile Implementation project type
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 6: Quality Management and Optimization
• Quality management manifestation in Sure Step
• Quality control within the project types
• Quality activities embedded in program management
• Key quality and testing cross-phase activities
• The Sure Step Optimization Offerings Roadmap
• Technical review offerings
• Architecture Review
• Design Review
• Customization Review
• Performance Review
• Upgrade Review
• Health Check
• Project oversight with the Project Governance and Delivery Review offering
• Project Governance and Delivery Review
• How customers and service providers can benefit from the optimization offerings
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 7: Upgrading with Sure Step
• Upgrade assessment and the diagnostic phase
• The Upgrade Assessment Decision Accelerator offering
• When to use the other Decision Accelerator offerings
• Determining the upgrade approach and release schedule
• Delivering the upgrade
• The Analysis and Design phases
• The Development, Deployment, and Operation phases
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 8: Project and Organizational Change Management
• The Sure Step Project Management Library
• The Project Management disciplines
• Risk Management
• Scope Management
• Issue Management
• Time and Cost Management
• Resource Management
• Communication Management
• Quality Management
• Procurement Management
• Sales Management
• Organizational Change Management
• Organizational Change Management in Sure Step
• Define OCM Strategy
• Align and mobilize leadership
• Engage stakeholders
• Align organization
• Enable organization
• The Sure Step "Projects" feature
• Creating projects using the Project Creation Wizard
• Creating projects on a local drive
• Creating projects on a SharePoint server
• Customizing Sure Step templates using the Projects Feature
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 9: A Practical Guide to Sure Step Adoption
• Don't park your brain outside
• Strategy execution
• Change management
• Why change initiatives fail
• The Sure Step adoption program
• The adoption roadmap
• Diagnose
• Analyze
• Design
• Develop
• Deploy
• Operate
• The adoption workshop
• Executing the adoption workshop
• The online adoption assessment
• The cone of adoption
• Map your position
• Headlights on
• The value of the adoption program
• GROW into new behaviors
• Sure Step for Independent Software Vendors
• ISV classification
• How ISVs can benefit from the Sure Step program
• ISV artifacts for Sure Step
• Sure Step and the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics program
• Summary
• References

• Chapter 10: Summary and Takeaways
• What we now know about Sure Step
• The Sure Step value proposition
• A look back at the previous chapters
• The future of Sure Step
• Sure Step 2010 Content Pack 1
• Service industries
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010
• Additional content and feature enhancements
• Sure Step 2010 Content Pack 2
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2011
• Retail industry
• Microsoft Dynamics NAV Role-Tailored Client guidance
• Integrated customer care cross-industry guidance
• Sure Step 2011 and beyond
• Beyond Sure Step 2011
• Key takeaways
• Takeaways for customer due diligence and solution selling
• Implementation takeaways
• Sure Step adoption takeaways
• General takeaways
• Summary
• References

• Index