code-u-like

The usefulness of Checklists If you use standard 'flowchart' notation to describe how to make a cup of tea, you'll get something very linear, like this: A lot of space in a standard flowchart is taken up describing what order things should happen in. But actually, for some of the steps, the order is not that important. We certainly have to wait for kettle to boil before pouring the water into the mug, but the order in which we add milk and sugar doesn't matter. If we re-draw the process using a notation that allows for certain steps to happen in any order, we get something like this: If you look at real world business processes, you'll probably find the same thing: although there are certain steps that do have to be ordered, a lot of them can be split into 'stages' and then tackled in any order. In many cases a series of checklists is a much better model for business processes than a classic flowchart. The CRM Process Control Someone at Mic

I wrote a few months ago about the coming changes in Dynamics CRM 2013 (previously codenamed Orion). At the Worldwide Partner Conference a few weeks ago, Reuben Krippner did a good demo of the new features. And this time it was a proper live demo, not just prepared screenshots. Its on YouTube : The actual demo starts at 38:55 , before that its roadmap and scene setting. Around 46:20 Reuben uses a custom process called "Unexpected Baby" to great effect to show the flexibility of the new/improved process features. At 49:23 there is a demo of the Surface app, and at 51:18 there is a demo of the iPad app, wherein Reuben treads a delicate path between showing that Microsoft take the iPad seriously, while also making sure he gets in a few jokes at Apple's expense. And when is this coming to CRM Online customers? This post by PowerObjects says that: Microsoft intends to upgrade all CRM Online customers to CRM 2013 between October and early January 2014. An emai