The Agile Sure Step Project Type: New Options for Implementing Microsoft Dynamics

For ages, consultants have delivered ERP projects in waterfall fashion, and to be honest, they didn't fare too well as far as project success was concerned. Budget overruns, missed schedules, scope creep or scope reductions - these have been more of a norm than an exception. And even though agile methodologies were gaining momentum, and getting accolades, the ERP world still preferred the thunder of the big-bang waterfall approach.

In its latest release, by offering support for the agile project type, Sure Step has made a giant leap into the realm of agile project methodologies. While Sure Step does not yet fulfill all the ideals of agile methodology, many of the building blocks are now in place to bring positive change to many Dynamics ERP projects.

Agile approach is radically different from the waterfall approach.

In waterfall, the implementation process is divided into distinct phases which are executed in a strict order, without a possibility of ever falling back to a previous phase or stage. All requirements are analyzed first, then functionality is designed, then developed, then tested and finally deployed. It is often also called the big-bang approach, because all the functionality is delivered at once.

A big risk of the big bang approach is that if there is a misunderstanding of a requirement, there are big chances that the solution will not match customer’s need, and this will only be found out very late in the project. Falling back is expensive, if not impossible, and costs of fixing these mistakes are often huge.

Agile methodologies, on the other hand, are iterative and incremental in their nature, focusing on delivering a functional whole through smaller chunks of functionality over a series of relatively short development ...