In the previous section, we discussed the criticality of having a solid approach for selecting and deploying CRM and ERP solutions. Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step provides the users just that—for both customers and service providers. We will introduce Sure Step in this section, and in the rest of the book will talk about how it is designed to deliver on these promises to an organization.

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step is a complete customer life cycle methodology for all Microsoft Dynamics solutions. It provides service providers with comprehensive sales through delivery guidance, project management discipline alignment, and field-driven best practices, while facilitating the due diligence process and a high-quality solution delivery for the customer.

The first release of Sure Step was launched in 2007, and since then Sure Step has evolved to meet the demands of the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem. Existing workflows have been modified and streamlined and new ones introduced. The methodology has also been expanded into a full life cycle methodology that includes the customer's due diligence life cycle as a precursor to the solution delivery process. Also, more content is being made available to the users, with the current release providing over a thousand content pieces, from guidance pages to templates to general project management libraries. The following are the key characteristics of Sure Step, including some of the highlights of the Sure Step 2013 release.

Using six phases, Sure Step covers not only delivery, but also solution positioning and selling. The first phase, Diagnostic, provides guidance and content for service providers to help customers with their due diligence process in selecting the right solution to meet their needs. The remaining phases, Analysis, Design, Development, Deployment, and Operation, provide workflows and content for solution delivery.

Sure Step provides coverage for the entire Microsoft Dynamics solutions suite—Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and Microsoft Dynamics SL. The recent Sure Step releases also extend the general coverage of this content into specific industry and cross-industry solution areas.

Sure Step provides a very flexible approach for delivering the solution, with both waterfall and iterative approaches. The Standard, Rapid, and Enterprise are waterfall project types that scale up or down to match the customer engagement, and the Upgrade project type is also a waterfall approach that caters specifically to upgrading an existing solution. Sure Step also provides the Agile project type for those engagements that lend themselves to an iterative solution delivery approach.

The project types in Sure Step feature a structure that breaks down each engagement into cross phases or swim lanes. The Sure Step cross phases are Program Management, Training, Business Process Analysis, Requirements and Configuration, Custom Coding, Quality and Testing, Infrastructure, Integration and Interfaces, and Data Migration. These cross phases provide users with a functional pivot of the activities or steps for delivering that corresponding area of the solution.

Sure Step includes coverage of the Optimization Offerings for a Microsoft Dynamics engagement. These offerings include proactive quality assurance reviews during the course of the implementation, as well as post Go-Live reviews to help with the ongoing maintenance of the system that has been operational for a period of time.

Other Sure Step features include key process guidance encompassing project management and organizational change management disciplines, as well as the typical roles involved in an engagement, both from the consulting organization and the customer organization. The Sure Step application also gives users the ability to create projects with the initial templates in appropriate folders, either on their local machine or on a SharePoint server to aid with collaboration efforts across multiple project teams.

Sure Step can be accessed in two ways: