6 minute read

Introduction

In the fast-paced world of software development, the initial rush of quickly building and deploying a solution can be exhilarating. However, the true challenge lies in keeping your great idea alive and ensuring its sustainability over time. This article explores how to build a sustainability model that not only keeps your solution relevant but also engages the community and stakeholders in the process.

Analogy: From Paper Airplane to Commercial Jet

Lets look at an analogy of building paper airplane versus a commercial jet to give us an example we can build on to discuss the right sustainability model needed.

Rapid Ideation: The Paper Airplane

In the early stages, building a solution is like creating a paper airplane. Quick prototyping and testing allow for rapid ideation and learning from failures. This phase is crucial for refining the idea and ensuring it meets initial requirements.

Building for Scale: The Commercial Jet

If the solution matures beyond just personal productivity an can transitions from a paper airplane to a some of the aspects of commercial jet. This phase can involve meeting rigorous standards and requirements, ensuring safety, reliability, and performance. Building for scale requires a robust infrastructure, comprehensive testing, and continuous improvement to keep the solution flying high.

Starter Discussion Questions

As you read this article consider how do you currently ensure the sustainability of your solutions after the initial deployment?

  • What challenges have you faced in engaging stakeholders throughout the development process?
  • How do you handle the handover to support teams, and what strategies have been effective for you?
  • What monitoring tools do you use to maintain the health of your solutions over time?
  • How do you approach scalability and flexibility in your solutions?
  • What role does automated testing play in your development process, and how has it impacted your projects?
  • How do you integrate continuous integration and deployment practices into your workflow?
  • Can you share any examples of viral growth strategies that have worked for your solutions?

Answering these questions are designed to prompt thoughts and feedback from the community and stakeholders, fostering a collaborative discussion on building sustainable applications.

Addressing Questions

As you evaluate the role of testing the following questions may be relevant to also consider:

  • How can I start implementing automated testing in my current project if I have never done it before?
  • What are some recommended tools for automated testing that are easy to integrate with existing projects?
  • How do I balance the need for rapid prototyping with the implementation of automated tests?
  • Can you provide examples of how automated testing has helped in scaling a solution?
  • What are the best practices for creating comprehensive documentation that includes automated tests?
  • How can I ensure that my automated tests remain relevant as the solution evolves and business requirements change?
  • What strategies can I use to engage stakeholders who are not familiar with technical aspects like automated testing?
  • How do I measure the effectiveness of my automated tests in maintaining the health of my solution?
  • What are some common challenges faced during the handover to support teams, and how can they be mitigated?
  • How can I incorporate continuous integration and deployment practices into my workflow without disrupting current processes?

We invite you to share your thoughts and feedback on these questions as part of the community discussion. Your insights and experiences can help others navigate the challenges of building sustainable applications and contribute to a collaborative learning environment. Let’s work together to create solutions that not only survive but thrive in the long run.

Keeping Your Great Idea Alive

Continuous Improvement

Once the initial deployment is complete, the focus should shift to continuous improvement. This involves iterative development and feedback loops to adapt to changing business requirements. Engaging stakeholders, including users and customers, is crucial in this phase. Their feedback can provide valuable insights that drive further enhancements.

Engaging Stakeholders

Involving stakeholders from the beginning ensures that their needs and expectations are met. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, such as marketing, IT, and customer service, helps in creating a holistic solution that addresses various aspects of the business.

Successful Handover to Support Teams

Documentation and Training

A successful handover to support teams is essential for the long-term sustainability of the solution. Comprehensive documentation and training sessions are key components of this process. Clear and detailed documentation helps support teams understand the solution’s intricacies, while training sessions build their confidence in managing and maintaining it.

The creation of building automated tests can become part of this documentation and training allowing you to express how the solution is expected to work and respond as “living documentation” as requirements change.

Building Confidence

Establishing clear communication channels between development and support teams is vital. Providing ongoing support and resources ensures that support teams feel comfortable handling any issues that may arise.

Sustaining the Solution Over Time

Monitoring and Maintenance

Implementing monitoring tools is crucial for sustaining the solution over time. Regular maintenance and updates help in identifying and addressing potential issues before they escalate. This proactive approach ensures the solution remains reliable and efficient.

The results of your automated tests can be one of the metrics that you can include to monitor the overall health of your solution and the impact that changes are having.

Scalability and Flexibility

Designing the solution for scalability and flexibility is essential for adapting to future changes. As the product evolves and business requirements change, the solution should be able to scale and adapt accordingly.

Automated tests can help you here by providing you the safety net to have the confidence that as the system needs to scale and adapt that features continue to work as expected.

Transitioning from Idea to Enterprise Grade

Viral Growth Strategies

To transition from a great idea to an enterprise-grade solution, viral growth strategies can be effective. Leveraging social proof and user testimonials, as well as encouraging word-of-mouth and referrals, can help in gaining traction and expanding the user base.

Building Robust Infrastructure

Building a robust infrastructure is critical for ensuring high availability and reliability. Implementing security best practices and designing for scalability are essential components of this process.

The Role of Automated Testing

Importance of Automated Testing

Automated testing plays a significant role in building sustainable applications. While not all solutions may require automated tests, they become increasingly important as the solution scales. Automated tests help in identifying issues early, ensuring the solution remains reliable and efficient.

People, Process, and Tooling Impacts

Considering the impacts on people, processes, and tooling is crucial when implementing automated testing. Training teams on automated testing tools and practices, integrating automated tests into the development process, and selecting the right tools are essential steps in this journey.

This is especially important when building Power Platform solutions as the makers make not have a background in software testing and will look for ways that those concepts can be applied in a way that is approachable for different stakeholders in the process.

Alignment with Continuous Integration and Deployment

Automated testing aligns with the concepts of continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), which are common in enterprise-grade software development. CI/CD practices ensure that code changes are continuously tested and deployed, reducing the risk of issues and improving the overall quality of the solution.

Conclusion

Building a sustainability model involves continuous improvement, engaging stakeholders, successful handover to support teams, and sustaining the solution over time. Automated testing, considering people, process, and tooling impacts, and aligning with CI/CD practices are critical components of this journey. By following these principles, you can ensure that your great idea not only survives but thrives in the long run.