A lot has already been written about Fusion Teams in combination with the Power Platform and low-code development. In fact, Microsoft has devoted nearly 200 pages to it in their Ebook: Fusion development approach to building apps using Power Apps.
And for those who find reading 200 pages too much time consuming, a nice alternative has been made available by SketchTheDocs.
Why dedicate this blog to it anyway?
Because I still don’t see enough attention from upper management for these kind of teams.
I come from the ERP software corner and see that many developers apply the learned pro-code techniques and used data models 1-on-1 to low-code applications, which are therefore built and controlled far too complicated and thus do not work as a customer expects of an app.
In addition, there is also a high level of expectation from the customer, as they already use all kinds of apps on their smartphone, so why are ours behaving different.
It is all about change.
Change the mindset of developers to become more business savvy, change the structure of a team, change the orchestration in the organization and finally change our behavior.
And change needs time.
Hopefully this blog speeds up the change.
A cultural change is needed
Effective deployment models thrive on the exchange of knowledge among diverse groups, fostering a culture where those with expertise willingly share insights with their peers. The challenge in establishing robust Fusion Teams models primarily lies in people and process dynamics, rather than technical intricacies.
Failures in Power Platform deployments often trace back to inadequate resource orchestration rather than technical shortcomings. Cultivating successful Power Platform cultures demands strategic investments in training, hackathons, adoption initiatives, certifications, hands-on prototyping, and enveloping these efforts within well-defined processes.
Without the establishment of such cultural nurturing models and strong executive sponsorship, the adoption and utilization of the Power Platform tend to remain suboptimal, irrespective of the platform’s technical capability to meet organizational use cases.
A Fusion Team
A Fusion Team represents a dynamic blend of developers, users, and business leaders, pooling their diverse skills and expertise towards a shared objective. Leveraging their individual disciplines and staying abreast of cutting-edge technology, Fusion Teams streamline product development for faster and more efficient outcomes.
This approach signifies a paradigm shift in your organizational workflow. Taking a comprehensive approach, Fusion Teams, employing agile strategies, shepherd projects from inception to integration within the overarching digital strategy. The agility inherent in this methodology empowers continuous testing and refinement based on user requirements.
This adaptability allows teams to pivot plans, redefine decisions, and address critical business challenges without the usual constraints of organizational and financial impediments. By granting teams the autonomy to determine their approach to problem-solving, you foster an environment conducive to innovation and effective solutions.
Meet the team
- Citizen Developer
- Pro Dev
- Business Analyst
- UX Designer
- ML/AI Expert
- AI Prompt Engineer
- Tester
- Scrum Master Product Manager/Product Owner
Probably many more roles/functions can be added, but as usual you don’t want to have a team that can’t be managed. As Jeff Bezos said “…if you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large..”.
In one of my former roles we had a Fusion Team working on developing apps for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and this was my first time working with a UX designer.
A world really opened up for me, the UX designer had absolutely no experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, but came up with all kinds of improvement points that we as techies would never have thought of.
A new role, that we added to a Fusion Team during the European Power Platform Conference in Dublin (June 2023), is AI Prompt Engineer, I think everybody want to be one or thinks has the knowledge to become one.
This new role is not only about writing usefull prompts, but also guards the lenght of prompts, as at Microsoft you pay per prompt, and defines what kind of prompt are used or even better are not allowed.
Benefits
Financial benefits are plentiful and also endorsed by studies conducted by Forrester and Gartner, but in addition there are many others to name.
Citizen development grows and improves business processes.
More people are solving more problems just at different levels of complexity, I like this one.
Business units becomes more IT savvy, IT becomes more business savvy, who doesn’t want that to happen.
And as last one, a financial one, done well and done at scale is measurably the largest Return on Investment strategy for low code platforms
Challenges
Navigating the orchestration and collaboration, especially in siloed organizations, poses a substantial challenge at the executive level. A robust methodology is imperative to seamlessly unite the realms of business and IT, fostering a cohesive and synchronized operation.
The essential cornerstone of this strategy lies in comprehensive training and adoption initiatives that cultivate competency across the entire organization. Achieving this demands a strategic and well-executed change management initiative, considering the scale of behavioral shifts required.
In essence, it calls for a transformative approach that aligns both the technological and human facets of the organization, ensuring a unified front in the pursuit of strategic goals.
My experience and opinion
I have worked in different types of teams and had the opportunity to work with low-code and pro-code developers in one team.
Within these Fusion Teams there was healthy discussion about how to solve the problems we encountered, and we also learned from each other, so the team grew.
In addition, you saw that the team was open to each other’s opinions and that real fusion occurred.
So, start Cooking your Fusion Team.
Links
Ebook: Fusion development approach to building apps using Power Apps: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/guidance/fusion-dev-ebook/
Or, much easier to read: The Illustrated Guide to Fusion Dev by SketchTheDocs https://sketchthedocs.github.io/ig-fusion-dev/