Podcasts about model driven

Happy New Year from the XrmToolCast team! In this episode 118, Daryl and Scott sit down with Rick Wilson, former MVP and now a Microsoft employee, to discuss his innovative PCF calendar control. This versatile control works seamlessly with both Model-Driven and Canvas apps, offering greater customisation than the standard options available out-of-the-box. Some of the highlights: Reverse Homework Pro Code Always be updating Differences in PCF for Model vs Canvas Apps Scott is a Mayan Calander User Loading data in Canvas vs Model AI Tool Aider GitHub Editor Rick's Info: Blog: https://www.richardawilson.com  LinkedIn: rickawilson YouTube: @richarda.wilson3696 Github: rwilson504 PCF Calendar Control: GitHub Repo - https://github.com/rwilson504/PCFControls PCF Gallery - https://pcf.gallery/calendar-control Intro Video - https://youtu.be/dBtqsAKt78c Got questions? Have your own tool you'd like to share? Have a suggestion for a future episode, or like a shout-out? Contact Daryl and Scott at cast@xrmtoolbox.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and @XrmToolCast for updates on future episodes. Do you want to see us too? Subscribe to our YouTube channel to view the last episodes. Don't forget to rate and leave a review for this show at Podchaser. Your hosts: Daryl LaBar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daryllabar | @ddlabar  Scott Durow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdurow | @ScottDurow Editor: Linn Zaw Win: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linnzawwin  | @LinnZawWin Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/587 What if you could master the art of balancing a demanding career with a fulfilling personal life? Join us as we sit down with Kirti Prajapati, a modern workplace architect and independent M365 consultant from India, who reveals his secrets to maintaining a harmonious lifestyle. Through his dedication to homemade food, regular gym visits, and balanced nutrition, Kiriti shares how he stays healthy and energized. He also opens up about the importance of family, the joy of solitary meditation in cafes, and his commitment to quarterly vacations—all while managing a busy consulting schedule.But that's not all. Dive into game-changing Power Platform implementations with us as we spotlight groundbreaking projects across industries. Learn how a UK-based company transformed their bicycle rental system, fostering employee well-being and realizing cost savings through Model-Driven apps, React web applications, and Azure Logic Apps. Discover how a government agency enhanced their portfolio management with the Power Platform, outperforming SAP, Salesforce, and ServiceNow in terms of security and scalability. We'll also discuss strategies for maximizing productivity through seamless technology transitions and automated deployment processes, ensuring user satisfaction and management approval. Don't miss this insightful conversation on the powerful impact of thoughtful technology integration! 90 Day Mentoring Challenge 10% off code use MBAP at checkout https://ako.nz365guy.comSupport the Show.If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Listen to this interview of José Antonio Hernández López, postdoc in the Department of Computer and Information Science, Software and Systems, Linköping University, Sweden; and Jesús Sánchez Cuadrado, Professor, Department of Computing and Systems, Universidad de Murcia, Spain. We talk about their paper Word Embeddings for Model-Driven Engineering (MoDELS 2023). Jesús Sánchez Cuadrado : "Actually, there are two target readers for our paper. One is anyone interested in the results because they are researchers who will try to improve what we have done or because they want to build better models. So, of course, for this reader, the results are very important. But we envisioned another target reader: Someone who'll just use the artifact. And for this reader, the results are less important, because they might just go quickly to the evaluation section and see how our results improve on the SOTA, and really, that's enough for their purposes." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Listen to this interview of José Antonio Hernández López, postdoc in the Department of Computer and Information Science, Software and Systems, Linköping University, Sweden; and Jesús Sánchez Cuadrado, Professor, Department of Computing and Systems, Universidad de Murcia, Spain. We talk about their paper Word Embeddings for Model-Driven Engineering (MoDELS 2023). Jesús Sánchez Cuadrado : "Actually, there are two target readers for our paper. One is anyone interested in the results because they are researchers who will try to improve what we have done or because they want to build better models. So, of course, for this reader, the results are very important. But we envisioned another target reader: Someone who'll just use the artifact. And for this reader, the results are less important, because they might just go quickly to the evaluation section and see how our results improve on the SOTA, and really, that's enough for their purposes." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Daryl and Scott talk to Matthew Devaney, fellow BizApps MVP, and chat about Power Apps custom pages, AI and various topics. Some of the highlights: MVP Summit newbie stories Matthew's first podcast experience What is a custom page for model-driven apps When you stick with a model-driven app vs creating a custom page. How to make a custom page consistent with a model-drive app. Creator Kit Controls vs Modern Controls Points vs Pixels Chicken Burgers vs Chicken Sandwich When to or when not to use AI Matthew and Scott share their canvas apps/custom page wishlist Matthew's Info and other links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-devaney-6499271b7 @mattbdevaney Blog: https://www.matthewdevaney.com Overview of custom pages for model-driven apps : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/model-driven-apps/model-app-page-overview Got questions? Have your own tool you'd like to share? Have a suggestion for a future episode? Contact Daryl and Scott at cast@xrmtoolbox.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and @XrmToolCast for updates on future episodes. Do you want to see us too? Subscribe to our YouTube channel to view the last episodes. Don't forget to rate and leave a review for this show at Podchaser. Your hosts: Daryl LaBar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daryllabar | @ddlabar Scott Durow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdurow | @ScottDurow Editor: Linn Zaw Win: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linnzawwin  | @LinnZawWin Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

We've talked about canvas vs model-driven apps in the past, but we admit that we generally try to solution in model-driven apps because it's our comfort zone. This week, we discuss some areas where model-driven isn't the right answer, or simply won't work, and expand on how canvas apps can help. Have a scenario you're trying to find the right solution for? Leave us a comment! Visit https://www.dynamicshotdish.com for more information and show notes.

A look at the recent systematic review of decision making in sports. Is decision making best explained as being emergent, mental model driven or both? Is this an example of integrating direct and indirect theories of perception?     Articles/Links: Understanding a Player's Decision-Making Process in Team Sports: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence Continuous hitting movements modeled from the perspective of dynamical systems with temporal input   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Subscribe in iOS/Apple Subscribe in Anroid/Google   Support the podcast and receive bonus content   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies – ShakeSome Action Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com

FULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/349 A fun introduction about a Power Platform Enthusiast, Martin Lee A conversation about Martin's current role Martin shares his journey towards Power Apps Champs How did Martin got engaged in the industry of Power Platform and Power Apps? Martin shares his thoughts on the other type of app scenarios that he sees Martin answers what part does community played in his career development In relation to what part does the community played in his career development, Martin shares how much support did he get from it How does Martin differentiate between model-driven apps and canvas apps and how does it all come together? Music Credit I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626 Ft: J Lang, Morusque AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power PlatformSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nz365guy)

Cybersecurity talent shortages are well documented and asking experience cybersecurity professionals to spend countless hours on routine tasks does not promote retention. The adversaries are leveraging data science to attack our enterprises and consumers, and we need to find a better way. This session explores the experience of creating over 300 models using data science, machine learning, and automated incident response to increase the security posture for a major organization.   To view the article from the CISO COMPASS Book that sparked this interview, please visit: https://securityweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CISOSTORIES_Jim_Routh_Article.pdf   Routh, J. 2019. Model-Driven Security is Making Fundamental Changes to Security Posture. In CISO COMPASS: Navigating Cybersecurity Leadership Challenges with Insights from Pioneers, 1st Ed, pgs 163-5. Fitzgerald, T. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fl. www.amazon.com/author/toddfitzgerald   Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/csp48 This segment is sponsored by Cybereason. Visit https://www.cybereason.com/cisostories to learn more about them!   Visit https://securityweekly.com/csp for all the latest episodes! Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/cyberleaders Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cybersecuritycollaborative/

Lisa Crosbie has a contagious enthusiasm for low code technology and making it possible for anyone to get started with Power Platform and Dynamics 365. She has taken a career journey from being a Dynamics 365 customer and business user doing unspeakable things with Excel, to an evangelist for Microsoft Business Applications, educating customers and helping solve problems for people like she used to be. She loves getting people excited about this awesome technology, opening new possibilities, and learning and sharing with the global community every day. Lisa is a Microsoft Business Applications MVP, blogger, trainer, speaker, YouTuber and host of The UP Podcast with her good friend Megan V. Walker.  In this episode we cover a lot of ground with Lisa and cover the following topics that will brign you some value: Personal Productivity - Many think that Power Automate is a developer tool and need IT to create workflows But this is not the case…Information Workers have opportunities to use pre built templates and really save some time with common tasks. PowerApps, Power Automate, Dynamics all powerful in their own right - What is Lisa's personal fav and when you combine them all, what are the benefits ? Power Apps - Canvas or Model Driven apps what is the difference and what to use when ? Dataverse and Microsoft Teams - a lot is talked about Dataverse, Lisa exaplains what this is and how it relates to Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams Webinars + Dynamics 365 use cases here around follloowing up after the event Microsoft Ignite is fast approaching - find out what Lisa is looking forward to. Lisa talks about what is exciting her in the PowerPlatform Space right now. Connect with Lisa: Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaMCrosbie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-crosbie/ Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/LisaCrosbie  

When we covered Power Platform in the first episode of this series, you mentioned that Power Apps were a component part of the Power Platform, and that they could be used to build and deploy customized applications. CP: Indeed I did and yes, they can. I talked specifically about the iPhone and how the expression “there's an app for that” entered our everyday language when it comes to mobile devices and then, how the Power Platform or Power Apps in particular, really brings to the fore the expression “there's a business app for that” right now. UK: OK, so when it comes to these apps, or “applications,” what does Power Apps provide that means a partner should start to take notice and get to know more about what they are? CP: Yes, so Power Apps provides today what is known as a “low code” developer environment that can be used to build custom applications or “apps” for business needs. There are different types of Power Apps including Canvas Apps and Model Driven Apps as well as other things branded under the same product family. Both Model Driven and Canvas apps sit nicely on top of the Microsoft Dataverse, but there are also hundreds of pre-built connectors that can be used to consume data from, or push data to, other systems. UK: Right Chris so, when you say other things branded under the same product family, what exactly do you mean? CP: Yes, of course. So, Microsoft acquired a company called Adxstudio back in 2015 primarily to strengthen their web self-service product portfolio and there's a product now known as Power Apps Portals which is the modern-day equivalent of Adxstudio Web portals. The original product was built by the Microsoft ISV partner natively on top of what was Dynamics CRM. It became Dynamics 365 Portals and then more recently Power Apps Portals. UK: OK, so that's the history of that product, but what do these Power Apps Portals actually provide? CP: Well, although they've been rebranded and have technically evolved over time, the concept of these portals hasn't changed. In general, they provide a way to give access to data, anonymously if required or, through secure sign in to protected information stored within an organisation. So, to give you an example here, if you were a membership organisation and you wanted to provide a website for people browsing to access anonymously to encourage them to consider joining, you could use Power Apps portals to do that. And then, for any members that had already joined, you could also use it to provide secure access to additional content repositories or personalised member areas. UK: Right, that is clear. Then also Chris, what is the difference between a Canvas App and a Model Driven App? You have mentioned both, can you help me understand why they are different? CP: Yes, I can of course. So, model driven apps are designed and built on top of the Dataverse. Microsoft's own first party apps such as Dynamics 365 for Sales or Customer Service are examples of Model Driven apps in their own right. And, one of the things that Power Apps provides is the ability for anyone to create a model driven app that can leverage the same user interface as those first party applications. You can also use the same capabilities to enforce business logic and then publish apps easily for consumption in a way that is almost identical to how those first party apps are published. Usually, you would start the creation of those apps with a structured data model in mind, hence, “model driven” apps. Canvas Apps start from the opposite end of the design thinking. They provide a blank canvas, onto which you can drag and drop pre-built controls, and then use Excel like expressions known as Power Fx to define logic and work with data. You can share them natively or embed them so that they can be consumed from other places such as Teams, SharePoint or Power BI.

FULL SHOW NOTES:  https://podcast.nz365guy.com/312 Meet Joy Kirkwood's and find out more about her life  Joy's story about her interest in technology, Dynamics and CRM Talks about Joy's Dynamics and PowerApps journey What motivates Joy to go beyond Model-Driven experience into the world of Canvas Apps Joy's experience and the thing she is working on with App development. A discussion about Joy's post about – An Honest Guide to Canvas Apps Offline part 1 and part 2 The feedback Joy got from people for writing An Honest Guide to Canvas Apps Offline An overview of Offline Canvas Apps  What has Joy learned about offline and what do people need to be aware of? Find out how to address a good design in Canvas Apps. Collaborating with designers to create a good design for Canvas Apps and Portals Learn about Offline Canvas Apps: Use cases Limitations Alternatives Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nz365guy)

Simplify your app authoring experience with the latest updates in Power Apps. The new modern app designer makes model-driven apps far more accessible and easier to build. Customize pages, then generate Power Fx formulas that write themselves when you specify what you want using natural language. Emma Cooper, Senior Program Manager for Microsoft Power Apps, joins Jeremy Chapman to share how these updates make it easier to build apps and bring in advanced functionality with very low code. Build your own model-driven apps: Fully working app, no formulas or code buildingGenerate data already stored in Dataverse Preview, then publish Customize your apps: Add custom pages Build custom logic with Power Fx Make apps available in Microsoft Teams ► QUICK LINKS: 00:00 - Introduction 01:34 - Office Depot's model-driven app 02:41 - How to build a model-driven app 04:58 - How to customize your app 06:44 - What is Power Fx? 09:56 - Make apps available in Teams 10:25 - Wrap up ► Link References: Get a full list of the Power Fx functions available at https://aka.ms/powerfxfunctions For tips, tricks, and guidance on Power Apps, go to https://aka.ms/powerappsresources Check out our show on Dataverse at https://aka.ms/MechanicsDataverse ► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics? We are Microsoft's official video series for IT. You can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at #Microsoft. Subscribe to our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MicrosoftMechanicsSeries?sub_confirmation=1 Join us on the Microsoft Tech Community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-mechanics-blog/bg-p/MicrosoftMechanicsBlog Watch or listen via podcast here: https://microsoftmechanics.libsyn.com/website ► Keep getting this insider knowledge, join us on social: Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MSFTMechanics Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft-mechanics/ 

Thanks for checking out The UP Podcast! In the 50th episode we cover:Helping someone in needPower Apps - model-driven & canvasPower Apps - all about the portals!Power BI new windows appSome amazing Community ContentTV Shows at opposite ends of light and darkCheck out the full show notes:https://theuppodcast.com/podcast/episode-50-power-apps-games-portals-model-driven-appsIf you enjoyed this episode, we'd love to know! All reviews are appreciated and help us reach a wider audience:⭐ https://up.theuppodcast.com/reviews ⭐

Dynamics security hasn't changed much since the launch of the product (aside from a few additions like access teams and field-level security) and we've all had a great time clicking those little circles. However, with the shift to model-driven apps, the ways you can solve security-related problems are both easier and more flexible. This episode we have a quick discussion on how this shift has impacted your security design. For more information, check out www.dynamicshotdish.com.

In this episode of The Weekly Defence Podcast we talk to software supplier Aerogility about its cloud-based predictive maintenance and forecasting solutions; and catch up with our Military Training Editor on recent developments and technologies in that field.Newsround (00:32)In the US, GM Defense is set to deliver the initial batch of prototype Infantry Support Vehicles to the US Army for testing on 26 October.The USAF has awarded Raytheon Missiles and Defense a contract for Lot 6 production of StormBreaker precision-guided glide bombs.  In the naval domain, Russia is assessing the results of the latest test-firing of the Tsirkon hypersonic missile from the frigate Admiral Gorshkov. News in Focus:Despite the pandemic,  Naval Group still plans to deliver FDI frigate FNS Amiral Ronarc'h, destined for the French Navy in 2023 .News Editor Ben Vogel and Senior Editor - Naval Richard Thomas discuss where FDI fits into the French Navy of the future.As COVID-19 issues continue to affect industry, Saab has admitted its Gripen E/F programme has had to undergo reassessment, with the company turning to new suppliers and implementing a series of ‘mitigating actions'. Air Editor Tim Martin reports.The UK's House of Commons Defence Committee released an update on 20 October about progress in delivering the next generation of armoured vehicles for the British Army. Land Reporter Flavia Camargos Pereira brings us up to date on the matter.Deep Dive – Simulation and Training programmes (22:18)Developers and manufacturers worldwide continue the pursuit of new AI technologies, which are set to disrupt the way militaries train. Multimedia Journalist Noemi Distefano is on the line with Military Training Editor Trevor Nash for an update on some cutting-edge programmes covering tailored training, physiological training and olfactory stimulation.What's the role of the UK space sector in the ‘Global Britain' envisioned for the future? Listen to Shephard Studio's Defining the Future podcast, sponsored by our partner Raytheon UK . What connectivity issues are the US military facing? Listen to Shephard Studio's podcast series on Five Eyes Connectivity, sponsored by our partner Viasat. Interview: Aerogility (38:54)Tim Martin speaks to Nigel Yard, head of defence and primes division at Aerogility, about the company's  cloud-based predictive forecasting solutions that can help plan maintenance and engineering requirements for air forces.

There are a couple of different ways to approach building a Power App... and I am not referring to Canvas vs. Model-Driven here, but rather, the environment type. Today, you can build a Power App on either a "vanilla" CDS environment, or on a Dynamics 365 CDS environment. Why does it matter? Vanilla Let's quickly discuss the Vanilla approach as it is the safest, which I will explain why later. If you log into the Power Platform Admin Center you will be presented with a list of Environments that you have in place. If you have Dynamics 365, any of those environments will also be listed, otherwise these will all be what I call "Vanilla" environments. Clicking on the + New button, will start you on a path of creating yet another Vanilla Environment. If all you have is Power Apps licensing, then all of your environments will be Vanilla. What is Vanilla? A Vanilla CDS Environment will contain a basic data model, including Contacts, Accounts and few other items. It is meant to be extended by you to meet your needs for a Power App you want to create. It is a perfect solution for moving a Speadsheet based process into a "real" app. Or for possibly replacing some basic point solutions. But what if you also have Dynamics 365, and want to build a specific limited purpose app using the data that resides in that Environment? Apps on D365 Dynamics 365 CRM apps are basically just great big Power Apps. You could build your own app, to do something particular for a certain set of users, and it would appear in the App list, right next to Enterprise Sales for example. Why might you consider this? Let's take an example of a part of your business that uses Dynamics 365. Let's say this department uses the Contacts and Accounts entities, but it also uses a few custom entities that you created for some specific purpose. One reason to consider building a Power App is that you can create a highly targeted application just for those users, that includes only what they need, and nothing more. Another reason is that you could potentially reduce your licensing costs... significantly. License Tightrope When you build a Power App on top of a Dynamics 365 environment, you have access to all of the entities in that environment, including of course any custom ones you created. If you were to pull into your app Contacts and Accounts and your custom entities, you are potentially creating an app that could run on a $10 App Pass instead of a full user license. But if you also decided to pull in the Case entity, for example, you would see a message that this entity is restricted. You can still use it, and it may still make sense to create a targeted app for some purpose, but you will not be able to use the lower cost licenses for these users. Restricted Entities Some of the entities that are in a Dynamics 365 environment are "Restricted", there is a list of them here. Why are they restricted? Microsoft has given you the ability to build a Model-Driven Power App, ostensibly, to build simple apps. However, there is no limit on how complex your app can become, it is only limited by your knowledge and ability. With a much lower cost, many are taking a hard look at how they are using the Dynamics 365 apps, and some are opting to just build their own "Sales" app for example. Not only can they eliminate all of the features they are not using with a skinnier app, but they could potentially reduce their license costs, as long as you avoid the Restricted entity trapdoors. More Restricted Entities Coming... eventually Microsoft announced in October, and Charles Lamanna confirmed publicly on my podcast in September, that more entities will be tagged as restricted. But as of today, we still don't know which ones. Meaning we have been building within the boundaries, but at some point the boundary will be moved. That will not be a good day, if something that we used, suddenly gets tagged as "restricted". Why Restricted? Microsoft needs to protect their first-party app revenue, this is understood and reasonable. If I had P&L responsibility for one of the first-party apps, I would be concerned about Power Apps cannibalizing some of my users. But restricting access to a few random entities is a bad way to approach that. Previously there was a rule that you could not "replicate the functionality" of the first-party apps, but they removed that rule so Power Apps would not die a quick death. So, while I can't use a restricted entity in my app without triggering a higher license cost, I am free to build my own custom entity, right next to the restricted one and use that. So is this the perfect solution? Well, that depends on the trajectory of the customer. If at some point in the future they want to move to the full first-party apps, and have been using a custom entity for some OOB feature, they will have to migrate data. Or, if they have a mix of users, some on first-party and some on a Power App, this would also be problematic. So the restricting of entities does not protect the first-party apps, it just creates future frustration for customers. A Better Idea? As I was writing this post, a fellow long-time MVP floated the same idea I was planning to write here. Basically the value of the first-party apps is not in the data model, as I said I am free to replicate that, and it is not even hard to do. Protecting an app by creating a potential "pain in the ass" scenario in the future is not a good idea, as most customers will not realize that until later. The real value of the first party apps is in the logic layer, not the data model. In particular where Microsoft has made some proprietary logic part of their app. Also, app specific features like plugins, or behind the scenes processes like Lead qualification, or SLA management. These are things that are not only valuable, but more difficult to replicate. If I were able to use a restricted entity, like Case for example, I would have no reason to create my own. If at some point that customer wanted to move up to the full Customer Service app, it would be a simple license swapping process, instead they may consider staying put, if the hassle is too high. This would be the opposite of what Microsoft's first-party teams would like to see happen. I have customers in that very predicament right now. Restricting entities was a down-and-dirty, lazy way to solve this problem. Hopefully Microsoft will come up with a better approach soon.  

As an ISV I want to be able to take full advantage of everything that Microsoft's Power Platform can offer. Like SI's and customers, I get excited when I see the roadmap of features that are coming... it is mind-boggling. Unfortunately, just because something goes GA, does not mean it is "ISV Ready". ISV Connect Technical Summit I recently attended the least "technical", technical event I have ever been to. As part of Microsoft's larger "ISV Connect" effort to create excitement for ISVs, they had extended what had previously been a smaller F&O ISV focused event to encompass all of Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform. I missed the follow-up email suggesting that I send my technical people, and instead went myself. Cave Dwellers It seems that this majority F&O crowd, did send their technical people, who apparently all live under rocks. Many of the sessions were about things like "What is CDS?" Content I had already seen 100 times. What I found interesting, was that this far into the game, so many people still did not understand what we have all been talking about for the last two+ years. Twists and Turns I have seen the Power Platform slides many times, but these had been updated to include "Power Virtual Agents" in the mix. To be honest, I don't think Power Virtual Agents should sit at the same level as Power Apps, Power Automate and Power BI. It feels like the dwarf on the basketball team. If I were in charge, I would probably have renamed "Dynamics 365 Customer Insights" to "Power Insights" and given it the upper level. As a standalone product, similar to Power Apps, Power Automate and Power BI, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights does not even require Dynamics 365. Ironically, I had predicted a while back that "Dynamics 365" would eventually become the brand name for Microsoft's "finished" apps that run on the Power Platform, which is the reason I was given for this naming. But it is not that dissimilar a level of "finished" than Power BI, and we don't call that Dynamics 365 BI. Burned by GA With my ISV hat on, I have become suspicious of the GA tag. Microsoft should really clarify that a feature or product is "GA for SIs and Customers", but not ready yet for ISVs. What's the difference? Well, as an ISV, who is drinking the AppSource Koolaid, I have to look at it differently. In an ideal world, my customer can go to AppSource, click a button to install my solution, and just use it. For the most part, this turnkey dream only works for Model-Driven apps today. ISV Ready Tag In one of the session Q&As, I asked one of the Microsoft ISV leaders about the possibility of an "ISV Ready" tag. He said "Good Idea!", which I have heard many times with no subsequent action. But he was actually all over the idea, including creating a slide for his closing session about the "ISV Ready" tag, I had previously caught him in the hallway and suggested the ISV Ready tag should not be applied by the product teams, but rather by a volunteer committee of actual ISVs.... because we actually know when something is "Ready" for us. What is ISV Ready? Well, since Microsoft seems to be running with the idea, I guess we will eventually find out what they think it means. I also think it will vary from ISV to ISV. Many ISVs have an intentional services component that comes behind their IP, to perform various tasks and configurations. For me, I want turnkey. I don't want to have to get on the phone with every customer, or create some complicated instructions, for them to be able to use my solutions. It's more than just being "Solution Aware", although that is obviously part of it. I mean Power Automate is now "Solution Aware", but is not "ISV Ready" in my opinion. I recently installed Microsoft's own Center of Excellence Starter Kit solution on an instance, and then spent half a day manually connecting all of the included Flows to make it light up. I can't expect a customer to do that, as soon as it does not work as advertised, they'll just delete my solution. Customers First I get that Microsoft is going to build things that solve issues for customers first, and I am not suggesting that they hold off on GAing things until they are ISV Ready. But don't think that feature is truly done, and move on the next shiny object, until it is ISV Ready. This assumes of course that Microsoft is sincere in their desire to grown a thriving ISV ecosystem like SFDC. At the moment, I believe they are sincere, but as my ex wife used to say to me, "Actions speak louder than words".  

Many of you have probably heard me talk about the new Power Apps Per App Plans. At $10ea, I know a lot of people are inquiring about it from my Save 90% post a while back. It's real, but it's different. Until Jukka writes the definitive post on this, I will give you my thoughts. Licensing One thing that most everyone can agree on, is that licensing for the Power Platform is complicated. It was complicated enough when it was just user-based licensing to determine what license a user needed, for whatever it was they needed to do. Now we have "Capacity-based" licensing. The simpler examples are things like storage, where when you run out, you add some storage "capacity". But capacity-based licensing is spreading it's wings. Would you like fries with that? Addons are a model you will continue hearing more about from Microsoft Business Applications Group. In a way, it is moving from pure user-based licensing to more of a consumption model... sorta. We currently have five items so far that are offered as "Capacity Addons" for the Power Platform: AI Builder Credits Portal Logins Portal Page Views Flow per Business Processes App Passes These $10 "licenses" I have been talking about, are the "App Passes". Taking a Pass App Passes are not the same as User Licenses. First, they are assigned to an App; or more specifically to an Azure AD Group, more on this later. This makes sense as they are designed for accessing a particular App as opposed to just anything. Using App Passes is a three-step process: 1) Purchase, 2) Allocate, and 3) Consume. This sounds easier than it is, depending on what you want to do. Purchase To purchase App Passes Microsoft refers you to the licensing guide. According the guide, you can purchase these passes through all of the normal channels, so the same place you buy your licenses today should have them. While Microsoft refers to the Per App plan as a means for users to "Get Started" . I am sure many users will never go beyond them. I'll discuss what you can do with these passes in a moment. Allocate This can get a little tricky. Once you have passes available and allocated to your environment, you can allocate them to users by simply sharing a "Canvas" App with other users. While Canvas apps certainly have their place, the real goal is to use these passes with a model-driven app, in my opinion. So how do you do that? First, you have to create an AAD group, then you would assign the "PowerApps Per App Baseline access" to the group, you can get that here. After that, add your users to the group. Are we done? Not yet. The next step is to generate a Canvas app from the CDS environment that you plan to use the passes with. You can use the automated app generator for this, as I don't think you will use this canvas app for anything later, here's how. Now assign the security role to the group who will use the Model-Driven app. Then share the Canvas app with the group, and finally share the Model-driven app with the same group and assign the security role for that. Wow! They are not making this $10 pass easy to use. Stay tuned for Jukka's much more detailed step-by-step that I will suggest that he write. Consume You will need to indicate for which apps you want to allow Per App Passes to be assignable. Here's how to do that. Is it worth the effort? This will depend on how you plan to use apps in general. Instead of "Per App", you could opt for "Per User" License. Per User Licenses are assigned in the traditional way, and have the advantage of being able to use any Power Apps that are created, instead of being tied to a single one. However, that will cost you $30 more per user ($40 total). An "App" in the Per App plan can include a Single Model-Driven application, plus a single Canvas App, plus a single Portal. (You can use as many embedded Canvas Apps as you want in your Model driven app.) Power Automate is also available within the context of the App. So you can build a pretty robust business application within this framework, particularly of you spend some time up front on architecture. Once you have done the work up front on the AAD group etc, adding passes and users should be a pretty simple process, so it's more of a one-time effort. Saving $30/user/month may not be that significant if you only have a small number of users, but it could quickly add up for larger teams. BTW, Microsoft has told me that they plan on making this process easier for Model-Driven Apps. Details to come. Architecting for Per App Passes While Microsoft advocates the Per App plan as a way to "Get Started" with Power Apps, we have seen some customers solve some pretty advanced business problems with a single Model-Driven app. Add the ability use a Canvas app and a Portal to that, and you can build a complete business solution for a small to midsized business, or a department in a large enterprise. I wrote a post a while back on Architecting for Power Apps here. Let me know how this "Per App" approach works out for you!    

The Power Platform is on fire! Lot's of partners, developers and citizens are all creating all kinds of things at a rapid pace, it all seems so easy. Unfortunately many of them will get down the road and realize they should have taken a fork a few miles back. Let's see if we can map out the right path from the jump. Whatcha gonna do? Before thinking about where to start, you should have clear idea of where you want to end up. Depending on the problem you are trying to solve, some choices will become obvious. If you are just looking to be notified when a new file is uploaded to a SharePoint folder? Microsoft Flow is probably all you need. Not much "Architecting" required. For this post, I want to talk about bigger things you may want to do, like building a robust sales application for your team for example, or any other function for that matter. Sure, for my Sales example, the Dynamics 365 Enterprise Sales application is one option to consider, but again, here I will go for the Platform approach. Foundation Canvas apps are great for point solutions, Power BI doesn't do anything without data and Microsoft Flow is great for connecting existing things, but for most customers we recommend starting with a model-driven app on CDS. It's not the app that is the foundation, it's the Common Data Service (CDS). CDS is the heart of all things to come, and allows for everything you start to do now, to have a full future later. The App The model-driven app you will be provided with by default is fairly scant. It does include Accounts and Contacts as a common starting point for most business applications, although for a B2C scenario you may not even need Accounts. It is a nice "rolodex" at this point, but way more powerful in it's potential. From here you can "model" your data and processes that are required to solve your initial needs. To shorten this process significantly you may want to look at our RapidStart Accelerator Applications on AppSource. Regardless of your starting point, you will likely need some further development by yourself or a Microsoft Partner who specializes in Business Applications. The good news is, the effort required is significantly less than it has ever been before. Apps As you work on your model-driven CDS environment, you may see a need for more than one use case. Maybe your sales department needs something, but you also want something for the warehouse, or whatever. By the way I am just using "Sales" as an easy-to-grasp concept, but the app(s) could be for any business need. You have a decision to make with potential monetary consequences. Do you build two separate apps, or one and control access with security roles? Microsoft is launching a per/app/user license that is only $10, and it would be awesome to utilize just that. If your users are pretty segregated, and few or none of them  would have need to access both apps, you are fine. But if many of them need to access both, it will cost $10 X 2 apps. If many have to access 3 apps, it would be $30 for them. This maxes out at $40 for that 4th app as you would buy the unlimited app licenses at that point for $40/user. Still a bargain compared to past costs and other platforms. Architecting for License Cost As I said you could consider building a single app for all the different users needs and controlling who sees what, with security roles. It is more complex way to approach it, and could get unwieldy if you have many unrelated use cases, so you would have to weigh the costs of doing it that way vs. effort to make it that way. Again, this would only apply to users who wear multiple hats. Next Steps Let's say you now have a nice model-driven business application. Notice I did not say "basic", that's because it can actually be as complex and advanced as you need it to be over time. Are you done? Not even close. Now is when some of those other tools come into play on top of the foundation you have built. You have several options to go to next, one that is already covered in your $10 is a Canvas App, but this canvas app will take advantage of the CDS database you already built your model-driven app on, so all of that data is available. Also, Microsoft Flow, Power BI and Portals can be bolted on as well. So let's take a look at what these can add to your ultimate application to change the world, or at least your organization's world. Canvas Apps Canvas Apps are Task-Specific. The name Canvas comes from the design surface that you build them on, it looks a lot like PowerPoint. It is primarily a mobile application for those types of tasks that would be logically done on a mobile device. For example, adding a barcode scanner and tracking inventory in a warehouse, or a Check-in/Check-out app for corporate laptops. If this does not relate to your CDS environment, you would probably just make that Canvas App freestanding, but I'm keeping in the lanes of business applications here. Remember that the Model-Driven app you already built has full mobile capabilities also, so you will want to explore that before you complicate things with yet another app to maintain, but for the right scenarios, Canvas is awesome. Microsoft Flow Let's say your organization has some other app they are using for other things. Let's also say that it could be advantageous to have your new app talk to that app. Maybe it would be nice to pass some data back and forth when certain things happen. Microsoft Flow is your bridge to over 250 other apps and growing. Microsoft Flow sits between your new model-driven app and any of those 250+, and can pass things back and forth based on triggers or conditions. It sounds more complicated than it is. Trust me, it's not. Not long ago, to accomplish this would have required a significant development project, all gone now. Power BI Power BI is Microsoft's industry leading Business Intelligence tool. Of course you have charts and dashboards in your model-driven app, but if you really need to go deep, or mash several sources up, Power BI is the tool for that. Of course it's primary source in your case is... you guessed it... your CDS. You can create advanced visualizations in Power BI to share with anyone, and you can even embed them into your existing app's dashboard. Is it easy? Well, it's not as easy as Flow, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist either. Another option to consider is a new offering called AI Builder. This is more of a "citizen" level tool-set that is actually quite easy to use. Not as powerful as Power BI, but it can handle a lot of AI needs. Again, sitting on your CDS. Portals Things are going quite well, and you realize there would be some efficiencies gained from having customers, vendors or partners do somethings themselves. You don't really a want to give them access to your application, but some highly filtered level of access would be real handy. This is one example where Portals come into play. A web based representation of your business application, tailored for your audience, so they can interact with you touch-free. The scenarios are limitless, but take for example a case management solution. A place where your customers could create and review cases you are working on with them in your business application. A way they can be engaged with what is going on 24/7, without having to call you for an update. All running on top of the same CDS you started with. Accelerators Let's say you are in one of the industries that Microsoft has built accelerators for, and there are several and more to come. But, for example, let's say you are in the Banking business. Your path just got shorter. Microsoft offers pre-built data models at no cost to help you get to where you need to easier. Our RapidStartCRM for Banking Accelerator is actually built on top of Microsoft's Banking Accelerator giving you...umm... double acceleration! Between these two, you may already be done before you started! Summary There are other ways to approach it, but this I my recommended path that eliminates any backing up and restarting later. Regardless of where you want to get to, Microsoft has made it exponentially easier today. Start with a model-driven app on CDS, and the sky is the limit. If you want to explore how you can move a spreadsheet based process for example, onto a platform, listen to my recent podcast with a large customer who just did exactly that.    

Cory and Brett sit down Domino Data Lab's Co-Founder and CEO Nick Elprin to hear about how Domino Data Lab is helping customers move from the traditional data driven approach and become more model driven.  Nick talks about the challenges in moving to a model driven approach and details the journey customers are taking to get there. Recorded from Domino Data Lab’s Rev2 Conference in New York City, Nick gives a brief history of Rev, Domino's yearly data science conference, and explains why this conference is different than the other AI and Data Analytics conferences out there. Lastly, Nick provides unique insights into some of the announcements that Domino Data Lab had at Rev2 and how the Domino Data Lab Platform is positioned to power model driven organizations. Music from this episode is by Andrew Belle.  Please go check him out...you'll thank us!

This question is, at its core, totally reasonable…but make sure it’s the right question! Discussed on the show Misunderstanding of PowerApps Canvas PowerApps general fit Model-driven PowerApps general fit Applications that cross these boundaries and Portal Apps PowerApps lineage and disambiguating history Solution approach to the Power Platform Call to action What’s on your mind? […] The post PowerApps: “Should I learn Canvas or Model-driven?” – Ep 38 appeared first on Implement This.

I usually wait a week or two to weigh in on new announcements from Microsoft. I like to let the noise die down a little, and see how others are responding to the news. But I am way too excited about the Public Preview launch of the PowerApps Component Framework. What's in a Name? The journey to Public Preview has been a rather long one. Originally coined the "Custom Control Framework" (CCF), which gave way to another name, "PowerApps Control Framework" (PCF), to ultimately landing on the name "PowerApps Component Framework", this "framework" has been quite the work in process. According to the new Branding Guidance, we are not supposed to use the acronym (PCF) anymore, but whoever decided that, does not write blog posts. Good Delays When PCF was first announced, there was a lot of excitement, among the MVP community in particular. We were all eager to get our hands on this new "capability" that was coming soon... but it did not come soon. It was not because there was any lack of will from the team behind it, rather it was another example of Microsoft seeing an "Opportunity". I recently discussed this "opportunistic re-trenching" that has been going on across Microsoft Business Applications on Mary Jo Foley's podcast. The source of this particular delay, was the realization that if both Model-Driven and Canvas PowerApps could share the same Component Framework, it would be way more valuable to everyone. So one step back was taken, to get two steps forward to the Preview. A frustrating delay for some, but well worth the wait. What the Hell is PCF? Is it charts? Is it Kanban boards? Is it Gantt Schedules? Buttons, dials, widgets, cameras? It is actually a way to create all of these, and many other "components". Is it a "Citizen Developer" capability? No, it is not. Building "Components" is a developer-level job, requiring Javascript/typescript and other development skills. For those of you on the development side, this is the future of what you now know of as html Web Resources... but way better. How is it better? Flexibility, portability and supportability are three things that come to my mind of why this is way better. As opposed to building a hard-coded webresource tied to something, with a Component you can package that up with parameters. This means that your Component is abstracted away from the particulars of a specific environment. For example, during the just concluded "Private Preview", we worked directly with the Microsoft development team to refactor a Gantt Chart Webresource that we had built for a specific custom project management entity in one of our ISV solutions. Our original html webresources were of course hard coded to this entity. The finished "Component" version instead included a parameters capability, meaning we could actually display our Gantt Chart "Component" on anything that met the minimum requirements to display it, which in our case was a start and end date. If additional parameters are present such as predecessors, successors or percent complete, it would take advantage of those also... very flexible. We can install our component solution on any environment, and use it wherever we want. While Citizen Developers may struggle to "build" a component, configuring one for their use is completely within their capability. From a supportability standpoint, since Microsoft developed and owns the "Framework", it falls on Microsoft to handle component lifecycle, retain application business logic and optimize for performance... instead of you. Is this All New? Well, it's new to you, but you have actually been using "components" for quite a while, possibly without even knowing it. Remember the fanfare about the addition of editable grids? That was a "component' built by Microsoft on the framework. In fact, a lot of the features you see in the new Unified Interface are actually "Components", including all of the original charts. What is new is your ability to now create your own components. Who will use this? Personally, I think the largest opportunity around the PowerApps Component Framework is for ISVs. Either building components as part of their larger solutions, or even freestanding components that they might resell individually via AppSource. There is some development effort involved, and I don't see a lot of SIs necessarily learning the nuances of building components for individual end customer needs. Better that they just incorporate components that exist, or will exist in the near future. Of course many ISVs still need to get themselves up to the Unified Interface, but that will happen pretty quickly, or they will be in a world of hurt. Are Html WebResources being deprecated? A common question today from customers and partners, whenever the Microsoft Bizapps team launches something new, is whether the old stuff will go away. Everything you are doing will eventually require change. Microsoft can only advance so fast when they are dragging a big bag of legacy behind them. This was the impetus for the One Version strategy. But even in the One Version world, a level of backward compatibility is a requirement... but for how long. How long will Microsoft allow that technical debt pile to grow? As long as they absolutely have to, and no longer. I have not heard anything about deprecating anything as a result of PowerApps Component Framework. But of course the same could have been said two years ago about other, now deprecated things. Neither the future nor Microsoft is waiting for you.

Are you willing to make the digital shift to be a model-driven business? If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, resources, and more at www.superdatascience.com/212

In this episode (sponsored by Maplytics by Inogic), hosts Britta Rekstad and Matthew C. Anderson discuss cascade rules for entity relationships in Dynamics 365 and model-driven PowerApps. Discussed on the show What are cascade rules? Default behavior you should review Types of cascading Modification & restrictions Where the magic happens What's on your mind? Have a question you'd like answered on a future podcast? Submit one by visiting implementthis.org

In this episode (sponsored by Maplytics by Inogic), hosts Britta Rekstad and Matthew C. Anderson discuss cascade rules for entity relationships in Dynamics 365 and model-driven PowerApps. Discussed on the show What are cascade rules? Default behavior you should review Types of cascading Modification & restrictions Where the magic happens What’s on your mind? Have […] The post Cascade Rules in Dynamics 365 & Model-Driven Power Apps – Ep 29 appeared first on Implement This.

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion lately about Dynamics 365 and PowerApps, particularly now with Model-Driven PowerApps. Microsoft's #FreightTrain, seems to have become a #BulletTrain of innovation, and sometimes things like "naming" and "explaining" lag behind. Let's see if I can unpack this one. Warning, this is a long post, so you might want to listen to it instead. The PowerApps Path When PowerApps burst onto the scene, it was a citizen developer tool for building simple apps using what is called the Canvas Model. The Canvas Model allowed you to "connect" to multiple data sources, including Dynamics 365, to build your App. It was not intended as a tool to build a complete business solution, but rather to build a mobile app for specific tasks. When the Common Data Service "pivoted" to the XrM platform, PowerApps and Dynamics 365 got mushed together, and a new concept was introduced for PowerApps called, "Model-Driven PowerApps". Microsoft often describes the difference between Canvas and Model driven as the ability to have either pixel precision in Canvas, or an "automatic" UI in Model Driven, but that really does not help you understand where the parts fit. What's in a Name Microsoft has struggled mightily over the years with product naming; not just in Business Applications, but across the company, product naming has been... let's call it,  less than perfect. Many partners and customers first became aware of Model-Driven PowerApps when they logged into the Solution Explorer one day, like they did everyday, and suddenly it said "PowerApps" in the header. "What the hell is this?". This was further evidence of the separation of the Apps from the platform. The Platform being CDS, and PowerApps being... what exactly? A Power Fork Today, the PowerApps brand means two distinct things, Canvas AND Model-Driven apps. These two "things" are for different purposes. The recent announcement that we will soon be able to embed a Canvas App into a Model-Driven App, has made things even more confusing for many people. One thing that PowerApps does not mean is Dynamics 365, these are not the same thing... well, not exactly. So what is Dynamics 365? What is "Power Platform? Why are there two Common Data Services? Okay, now I have gone and confused myself. Let's try another angle. A while ago I had some fun with a post I called "The Strategy Simulator", let's have some fun again, with another short-story. Steve Builds a Home I assume we are all familiar with a "Duplex". It's a residential building split in half, with two families living under one roof. Let's imagine that I want to build one, but not for two families, just for me. The reason will be clear in a minute. The first step I will do is to find a community, and I have selected one called Azure. Azure is a sprawling gated community, with rolling hills and miles of roadways, underground power grids, water systems, lakes, ponds ,etc., with many neighborhoods within it. I had looked at a couple of other communities; Amazon and Google. Amazon was an enormous gated community, but it did not have the rolling hills, it was dead flat as far as the eye could see. While there were miles and miles of roads, I did not see any amenities. The homes all looked exactly the same, like one of those old movies they showed to kids in school in the 50's, simulating a nuclear bomb leveling a neighborhood of fake homes. I pulled into, and then immediately left, the Google community, it looked like it was just getting started as none of the roads were yet paved, and the gates were unmanned. The construction workers I saw in there all looked like 60's era hippies, that did not appear to be in any hurry. So anyway, back in the Azure community, I saw a lot of interconnected neighborhoods, some of these were gated also. Gated within Gated seems like overkill on security, but I guess there are a lot of paranoid people in the world. I ultimately selected a lovely lot in the "Business Applications" neighborhood, because the neighbors all looked a lot like me. Business Applications is a fast growing neighborhood, which is adjacent to the huge "Productivity Applications" neighborhood, and they both share a lot of amenities, like the golf course, clubhouse and pool. The next step was to pour a foundation on my new lot. The left side of my foundation will be poured with "Common Data Service for Apps", and the right side will be poured with "Common Data Service for Analytics". While these halves are indeed different, for my purposes at this stage they look the same. They're both flat, with lots of pipes stubbed up out of them. There is also a vertical wall splitting the two halves of my duplex, and it has a lot of pipes pushed through it. At this time, this foundation does not "do" anything, I can't live here yet.. I can't even cook an egg. What I have so far is the CDS Platform for the "Power Platform", which in turn sits on the Azure Platform, all of which does nothing on its own. I step onto the left side of this foundation. There are a ton of pipes sticking up through the floor, but first I'll take a look at the ones poking through the wall. I walk up to the biggest one which has a label on it, "Power BI". It is so big I can stick my head through it to the other side and see the Common Data Service for Analytics floor. The slab on that side looks different, it seems a lot more porous, and still appears to be... liquid, like it will never harden. I pull my head back, and look at the other pipes through the wall, each of them is called "something Insights". It is clear that the right side is for large-scale number crunching of massive amounts of data that will eventually get pushed back and forth through these pipes. I turn my attention back to the floor, on the left side of the wall where I am standing. Scanning the floor of the left side there are so many pipes of different sizes, it is hard to even walk without tripping. Around the perimeter edge are small green pipes every few inches, hundreds of them. I take a closer look... "Twitter Connector", "BaseCamp Connector", "Dropbox Connector", etc. There is a second row around the perimeter, just inside of the first one, I see they are all labeled "Future Connector". About halfway down the left edge I see a big pipe labelled: "Connection to Productivity Applications Neighborhood". This is clearly going to be one of those new "Connected" homes. The rest of the floor is covered with steel plates embedded in the slab, with threaded rods sticking out of them. None of them appear to be marked, but clearly, they are here for something. A big truck with a flat-bed trailer pulls up out front, and I head out to see what's up. I see on the truck door a sticker that says, "Apps, Tools and Beyond".  Interesting... it looks like the trailer's bed is filled with Appliances of various sizes. Most of them have these steel base plates with holes drilled in them, that I assume marry up to the steel rods I saw on the slab. I noticed that many of them also had steel plates on their tops, with the same threaded rods... it looks like some of them can be stacked on top of each other, like those compact washer/dryer combos. The driver comes around the front of the truck to meet me and says, "Wadda ya want?". Caught off-guard, I said, "What do I need?". He says, "Whatever you want", which is not helpful at all. I said, "Well, what do most other people do?" He says, "They look at me all confused, like you are now". Boldly, I respond, "Well I want "Best Practices"!". He chuckles and says, "You realize that "Best Practices" is a made-up, bullshit term right?, "Best Practices" is whatever works for you". Then he says, "I'll tell you what, I'll leave the rig here for a couple of days so you can decide". I said, "Wait a minute, how am I gonna get any of those things in there to try, I don't see a crane or anything, and some of these look super heavy". He says, "No crane required... look", and he points to a button on the side of one these things that says "Install". He pushes it and the thing, whatever it was, vanishes off the truck bed. Startled, I said, "Where did that go?". He points over to the slab, on the left side of the wall, and I can see the "thing" sitting on the floor. Wow... that was cool. He says, "If you don't like it, there's another button on it that says "Remove", which will put it back on the trailer". With that, he turned and started walking down the street and says over his shoulder, "I'll be back in a two days". Hmm...there are a lot of things on this truck and I have no idea what any of them are. Walking around it I can see labels on them, "PowerApps", "Dynamics 365 Enterprise Sales", "Dynamics 365 Business Central", "Flow", "Power BI", and many more. I recognize Power BI, from the big pipe through the wall I pushed my head through earlier, so I push the install button on the side of it, and of course it... vanishes. I look over but I don't see it on the floor. Peering around the end of the wall, I see it now, attached to the wall like a crab, up towards the top on the left side. There are a bunch of wires dangling from it that are not connected to anything. I walk around to the other side of the wall, and I see a huge bundle of wires coming out of that pipe, streaming across the floor, running into all the other floor pipes. It does not seem to be doing anything, there is a panel of lights on the side of it, but none are lit. The right slab almost looks translucent, like I can see right into it... but I don't see anything. It's like standing in a boat, looking down into a clear lake... but there are no fish... no... anything. Well this is stupid, and useless, I push the remove button and all of the wires snake back out of the pipes, like a kid slurping in a piece of spaghetti, and they all go back through the wall and then the Power BI box vanishes. I look over my shoulder and see it re-appear on the truck bed. I wonder if there is a particular order that needs to be followed. I pull out the home-builder's guide-book, and can't make any sense of it, too many acronyms, obviously written for an experienced home-builder. I take a closer look at the PowerApps appliance on the truck bed. I see the Install and Remove buttons, but this thing has another button, "Reorder". What the hell does that do? I push it. Suddenly it lurches upward, flies over and lands on top of the Enterprise Sales Application thing. Interesting. I notice that the Enterprise Sales App thing has a similar "Reorder" button, so I push that. It does not seem like anything is happening, until I look up and notice that the PowerApps thing has lifted up from the top of the Enterprise Sales App thing. As soon as it clears the rods, the Enterprise Sales App thing lurches to the right, about its whole width distance, leaving the PowerApps thing floating in mid-air. It starts to descend slowly, and I notice that the Enterprise Sales App thing starts to rise up a the same cadence. The PowerApps things lands softly on the truck bed, and once the Enterprise Sales App thing clears its top, it starts to move to the left, over the PowerApps thing, and eventually settles on to the rods on the top of it. So it seems that these things can be stacked on top on one another in either order. I wonder why I would care? I am feeling brave now, so I push the Install button on the Enterprise Sales App and it vanishes, and reappears over on the foundation. I go ahead and do the same for the PowerApps thing, and it appears on the slab near the Enterprise Sales App thing. I walk over to the slab to see what these things are all about. They are both large... room-sized in fact, and like a room, they each have a door on their side. I crack open the door on the PowerApps thing and peer through. Whoa, that was scary, I slammed the door. It looked like an entire Home Depot store inside of this room, but how is that possible? I crack the door again and I can see the interior of this room is like 30,000 square feet, but from the outside, it looks to be a cube about 12' on each side. I close the door again, and start pacing around this cube. This is simply not possible... its like some David Copperfield illusion. I decide it must be an illusion, so when I come around to the side with the door, I swing it open and just walk right in. I gulp. I am literally standing inside the entrance of a huge Home Depot store. Rows and rows of everything I would need to build whatever the hell I wanted. Getting over the fact that there is a 30,000 sq ft store inside of this 12' cube, I think to myself, "Well this is handy". I turn around and exit the store, er, cube. As I exit the PowerApps cube, I am facing directly at the Enterprise Sales cube, which looks to be the same 12' on each side. Feeling braver now, knowing that I was able to exit the other cube successfully, I confidently move forward to open the door, I wonder what will be behind it, maybe a Lowes Store? I go ahead and enter. Well... this is different. The space is not as large as the PowerApps Home Depot, I am guessing about 10,000 sq ft, but this is a finished Mansion... and it's fully furnished. Still, it fit in a 12' cube, so that's amazing, but hard to top an entire Home Depot. Looking around I think, Wow, I can probably stop right here, and just live in this cube. Beautiful hardwood floors, a grand staircase to I don't know where, a black lacquered Grand Piano by the front window, and I'm still in the foyer. Wait.. I didn't see any windows from the outside of the cube! But never-mind, this is really beautiful, and huge! I stroll down a wide hallway with many openings on each side, and I come to one that has a plaque above it that says "Leads". Walking past, I can see luxurious seating fills the room, it looks like a waiting room for meeting a King. But there is no one in there. I see more openings for Opportunities, Contacts, Accounts, etc., but as I am walking I am starting to think that the style is not exactly me. Everything is Gold-Leafed, and the Crown Moldings are exquisite, but this would take my own "touches" to make it really what I would want. I head back and exit through the door. I am thinking that beautiful mansion would be great, if I could just fiddle with it, maybe move some walls around, or at least paint it in colors I like, and it hits me.... I have a Home Depot Right here. I walk over to the PowerApps cube and push the re-order button. It jolts upward and flies over the top of the Enterprise Sales App cube and settles smoothly on top of it. A roughly 4' square platform slides out from under the door on the upper cube. A ladder, that I had not noticed before starts to extend from under the platform. It is going straight out horizontally, then stops after about 12'. Just as I am wondering how I will reach it, it starts to pivot downward, and the bottom of it touches the slab right in front of me. I decide I will check it out, but as soon as my hand touches the rung in front of me, I am standing on the platform facing the door, 12' above... my stomach feels a jolt, like you get from a trampoline. Okay, that was freaky, but I notice that while still confused, I'm not scared anymore. I walk through the door into the now familiar Home Depot, but see immediately that the floor is transparent. I can see the whole interior of the Enterprise Sales cube below. Actually, I can't even see the floor, but it must be there as I am obviously standing on something. I reach down to touch it, and my hand goes straight through. How is this possible? At this point, I decide to stop asking myself How, and just roll with it. As a test, I walk over to the paint department and grab a gallon of Deep Blue, which is my favorite color. I walk across the clear floor to over top of the Leads room I saw before. Now what? Maybe that is not how it works. I put the can down to think, and a second later it starts to wiggle and then poof, it disappears through the clear floor, and I can see the entire Leads room is now painted Deep Blue. Okay, that is pretty damn cool. I think I am figuring out how this works now, using everything at my disposal in the Home Depot, I can remodel whatever I want in the Enterprise Sales App Manson to fit my tastes. This is going to be fun. I decide to head back out to the truck and see what else is there. I go back out the door on the platform and instead of taking the ladder I decide to just jump the 12'. But as soon as my feet leave the platform, the slab actually shoots upward... I only traveled like an inch. I look forward, expecting to see myself 12' above the street, but I am at street level, and I have that odd feeling in my stomach again. Back at the trailer, I go ahead and climb up on the bed and start perusing the items. I now know that some of these, once installed will become 12' cubes, even though none of them are more than 4' here. At the front of the bed I see some crates, so I meander though the cubes to reach them. The first crate has "Flows" printed on the side of it. The lid is hinged, but not nailed shut, so I lift the top open. Inside are what appear to be small hand weights, so I reach down to pick one up. As soon as my hand encircles the grip, some metallic claws shoot out from either end of it. It's a good thing I did not have my face down there, I could have lost an eye. The claws seemed to be reaching for something that was not there, just snapping wildly. I loosened my grip and let it fall back on top of the others. I am not sure what the hell I do with those. Next to the Flows crate is a plastic 55 gallon drum with a sticker on top of it that reads, "Steve's Data". They had my name! I'm actually a little annoyed, but I decide to check it out. After loosening the cinch holding down the lid, I grabbed the lid on each side and quickly lifted it straight up. I was half expecting one of these spring snakes to pop out like one of those toys with the fake soup can. But, it was nothing dramatic, in fact it seemed to just be a barrel of water. l started to move on, but heard small noises coming from it. I gripped the two sides of the rim, bent a little and peered down into the water.. listening. I could faintly hear what sounded like thousands of conversations, all going on at once. Yes, there was definitely something in there. I put my hand on the top of the water and swished it back and forth. As I did, a face shot up to within an inch of the top of the water, and scared the shit out of me. But I kept looking and noticed there were a bunch of faces rising into view and then slowly fading as they descended back down. I am scared again, this seems really creepy. I take two steps back away from the drum, backing into something else that is just below the height of my butt, so I sit on it... thinking. The drum is sitting on a small raised platform with a button on it. Bending over I can read that is says "Migrate". I am not touching that... at least not from this position. I jump off the truck bed and scan the dirt yard and see a stick. I grab it, and inch my way down the left side of the trailer bed, peering around the corner at the barrel. I carefully reach in with the stick and push the Migrate button, and duck. I am leaning against the trailer, just out of view of the barrel, and I can feel a vibration in my shoulder where it meets the trailer. Suddenly, whoosh, I look up and see water flying straight up, then arching over towards my house. As it starts to descend, it's spray widens like a garden hose nozzle, and it seems like way more than 55 gallons. It comes down all over the slab, on both sides of the wall, but does not make a splash or any puddles. It just disappears into the slab, on both sides of the wall. It all happened in literally 10 seconds. I'm panting, but decide to get a grip, and go see what happened. Walking back up to the slab, on the left side of the house, I stop short of stepping onto it, I immediately notice that it looks different. It appears transparent... not as transparent as the slab on the other side of the wall, but I had not noticed it before. It's like one of these geometric pictures that if you stare at long enough, and trick your eyes into a different focus you suddenly see a ship or something. Staring at the slab, I started to pick out those faces again, just under the surface. But they weren't swimming around like they were in the barrel, they were now fixed into neat rows. But there was odd movement. I stuck my head out over the slab to look straight down at one, and saw it appear to shoot way somewhere, but it was still there. Most were not moving at all, but some appeared to be talking... to whom, I have no idea. Taking a closer look at the next one I realized that I knew this person, which caused me to take a step back. Then I tripped on something and fell flat on my face in the dirt. Ouch, I think I landed on a stick. I turned my head towards the slab and was looking the edge of it. Still transparent, something looked different from this angle. The faces looked like they were made up of a bunch of layers... thin slices stacked on top of each other with a tiny space in between them. I lifted my head a little higher to get an oblique angle, and could see that the bottom face layer seemed fixed, but the face layers above it were all talking and shooting off in different directions, and also coming in to the layer stack from other places I could not see. The entire slab seemed like it was alive! But the faces did not seem to notice me. I stood up and dusted myself off and thought "this is the weirdest house I've ever seen". I stepped onto the slab. It took me a bit to get my balance walking on a slab with all these faces shooting around under my feet. Even though the slab was not moving, it felt like it was. But once my brain locked into that, I was able to walk around. I noticed that a lot of these talking faces where heading in a similar direction. I followed the path over and found myself watching a bunch of them coming in and out of the pipe to the Productivity Applications neighborhood. It was like watching ants, with as many going into the pipe as were coming out of it. All shooting in different directions when they arrived. This slab was more than just alive, it seemed to be umbilically connected to the other neighborhood. I stood there for about 5 minutes, mesmerized by all the talking faces, shooting around under the floor, and I decided to explore. I walked over to the big pipe in the wall that said Power BI and stuck my head through again. Looking down, I could see on the now completely transparent floor all of the faces, but no movement. I thought, that's odd, over here they're zinging around, and over there they are all static. Oh well, I guess it will make sense later, and as I withdrew my head and turned around I was facing the Enterprise Sales Cube again. I hesitated, and then thought, what the hell, and opened the door. The beautiful mansion, that was so quiet before, was now a buzz of conversations, it sounded like there was a cocktail party going on down the hall... in my house. I started to make my way back to that wide hallway. Looking up, I could see that the ceiling was now clear and I was walking under the Home Depot store. I was in the main foyer of the mansion, but I was also under the paint department above. Just for kicks, I put a chair on top of the grand piano and climbed up on the piano, and then the chair. I reached up and could put my hand right through the clear ceiling. But I could not quite reach the first shelf in the Home Depot above. I climbed back down and noticed a ladder in the corner of the room. I know this was not here before... maybe it showed up when put the PowerApps cube on top. I pulled it over next to the grand piano and climbed up. Now I could easily reach the first shelf and grabbed a can of paint and pulled it down. It got stuck coming through the clear floor and I had to tug on it, then suddenly, it broke free and disappeared. Ugh. I started to loose my balance on the ladder so I looked to grab the top and steady myself and I noticed that the entire foyer was now painted in a shit brown color. So it worked, but clearly I need to pay closer attention, or I could make this mansion into a mess. I hopped off the ladder and continued my walk towards the wide hallway. As I got closer to the hallway, the voices were getting louder. As I reached the end of the hallway, I stopped as I could now clearly make out many of the conversations. Somebody was talking about their sales process, blah, blah. Someone else, farther down the hall, was complaining about something, and from the first opening, the one I peered into before that said Leads, I could hear lots of conversations going on. I crept along the wall so as not to be noticed, and peeked around the edge of the opening. There was a cacophony of conversations going on, I could not actually understand any of them since everybody seemed to be talking about different things all at once. Looking into the room, I saw hundreds of floating, two-dimensional faces.. all talking. I wondered for a minute what the purpose of the nice chairs was, since these faces were all floating about 5 or so feet above the floor. I tried to focus on one of the conversations, I was able to pick out a familiar voice, and concentrated on it. Some guy was asking about licensing costs, and I realized, this is a conversation that I had a week ago with Riley Thomas, and that was Riley Thomas talking, as I turned my eyes to where it seemed to be coming from, there was Riley's face floating in the air. I shifted my focus to others, in turn, and realized, these were all conversations that I had had! Some from years ago, and others from as recently as yesterday! As I was digesting this I noticed one of the faces starting to head towards me, then it accelerated so fast I could not even duck. The floating face hit my face and exploded in to a cloud of smoke that kept going, I didn't feel anything, but I swung around to see where it was going and saw it re-assemble itself into a face and shoot into another room. The plaque over that room said "Contacts". I stepped across the hall and peeked into the Contacts room to see where the face had gone. This room was also full of floating, jabbering faces, but I knew them all. The room was full of faces that I was currently working with in my job. Looking back down the hallway, I saw the other openings and heard more conversations going on, but decided I need to take a break and absorb this, so I headed back out of the Mansion, er, cube. I stepped off the slab on the left side, and looked over at the slab on the right side of the wall. The faces were all still there, but still were not moving. I walked back to the trailer. Scanning the items on the truck bed, my gaze landed back on the Power BI thing again. I thought, "I wonder if it would actually do anything now?". I pushed the Install button, and like before it vanished. At least this time I knew where it went. I walked back to the slab, and sure enough around the corner up on the wall like a crab, there it was. Like before, all of the wires on the other side of the wall had slithered out and gone into all of the pipes, but unlike the last time, now on this side of the wall, the wires that were previously just dangling, had leapt out and connected to the Enterprise Sales App Cube. I also noticed a bunch of them had shot down the Productivity Applications Neighborhood pipe. Looking down at the floor, it seemed to be about the same amount of busy movement. I could not put my head through the Power BI pipe anymore since the now fully lit up Power BI thing was crabbed over it, so I walked around the end of the wall to the other side. The previously static faces were now all moving, but in completely different patterns than on the left side of the wall. Something different was happening, but I could not tell what it was exactly. On the left side everything looked the same, but clearly something was different, I was just not seeing it. I decided to take another peek inside the Enterprise Sales App Mansion. The walls of the foyer, that I had previously painted shit brown, now looked like the Sports Book at a casino, lined with monitors all the way around. But instead of showing some horse race, they were all displaying charts and graphs. I walked up to one that a small sign under it that read, "Lead Generation Rate", it was showing a bar graph by month of new leads. I assumed this was linked to that Leads room down the hall. Every kind of "metric" you could think of was displayed on all of these monitors in the foyer, and they were all constantly changing, in real-time. I was starting to get dizzy, and decided to get some air. As I was walking back out towards the truck on the street, I saw the driver walking back. I assumed he must have forgotten something in his truck, like his phone or something. He walked right up to me and said, "Are you done?" I said, "Hell no, you only left an hour ago!". He said, "Nope, it was two days ago like I said". I said  "That's impossible", and he said, "It happens a lot, people start messing with this stuff and time flies by". I knew it was only an hour, but he seemed convinced, and he was wearing different clothes. I said, "Well, if you have to go, can I just install everything, and then figure it all out later?" He smiled and said, "Let me show you something", and he walked over to the trailer motioning for me to follow. "Do you see that?" he said, pointing to the corner of another thing with a label called "Field Service" on it, I said "Yeah, Field Service, whatever that is". He said " No, I mean there in the top corner". I looked and saw a price tag that said "$95/user/month", I looked at the other things and now noticed that they all had price tags. Shit! He said "Are you sure you want to install all of it?" I said, "No... damn... I need time to figure this out". He said, "I got you covered" and disappeared around the front of the truck. A moment later I heard the truck engine start and thought, this asshole is leaving. The rig started backing up, and continued for about 100', then stopped. A second later it started to move forward again and I thought he must be feeling sorry for me, but instead the truck started to veer towards me. I moved out of the way, and he drove right across my future lawn and stopped. I heard the door open, and then some hissing sounds. I saw the front of the trailer lift up a bit and stop. Then the truck started to move forward again, but no longer connected to the trailer. He went down the street and turned around, and stopped on his way back by. He leaned out of the cab and said "I'll just leave this here for you, for as long as you want, just don't forget those price tags", then he waved and drove off. I sat on the slab, aware that my butt was covering at least one person's face, and looked at the trailer sitting in my front yard. After a few minutes, I thought, what the hell, and walked back over to it. I saw another crate labeled "Insights", next to the "Flows" crate. I climbed up to take a look at what was in this one. I lifted the lid, and saw what looked just like the flows... little barbells. I reached in and grabbed one, and of course the claws came out of each end. I turned my wrist over and saw printed on the side, "Sales Insights". Looking down in the crate, it seemed like an awful lot of "Insights" were in there. I felt something, and opening my palm slightly I noticed there was an Install button on the grip. I pushed it. The barbell flew out of my hand and started heading towards the house. It flew right into one of the smaller pipes in the wall, and I saw a claw extend from the end of it to the Enterprise Sales App cube, and connect to something I had not noticed before. The claw on the other end shot down some hole in the slab on the right side. So now, I guess I have to check this out. I went ahead and grabbed a handful of Flows and put them in my pocket. Then I headed back toward the slab, into the Mansion, and again made my way down to the Leads room and looked in. The faces were all there like before, but there was something new. In addition to the two-dimensional face, there was now a three dimensional box floating above each of the faces. I ventured in to take a closer look. It did not seem that any of these faces were aware of my physical presence, which was reassuring. In fact, I walked right up to a face I recognized, that was blathering away... a conversation I had last month. I looked up at the box, above the floating head and saw there were words on each side of it. I stepped back slightly so I could read it, it said "Chances of Qualification: 33%". I leaned to the left, and read on the side of the box, "You have not made contact with this Lead in 2 months". There were more words on the other sides of the box, but I think I got what was going on here. I decided instead to figure out what these "Flows" did. I headed back out of the cube and onto the slab and walked to the edge, looking at the duplex next store that was already built. Man it was nice. Lots of great additions, a perfect yard, and listening closely I could hear that it was quietly "humming". As I was about to turn, the neighbor's front door opened, and a guy came walking out with a cat on a leash. He spotted me and waved, and then tripped on a bush and landed flat on his face. I thought, what a dumbass, who walks a cat on a leash? It occurred to me, that if that dumbass could build such an awesome house, I will certainly be able to figure all this out. I smiled and waved back as he was standing back up, his cat was looking at him, probably also thinking he was a dumbass. I saw his garage door opening. He stepped into it, and there was some chatter I could not make out, and then a pickup truck slowly pulled out of it, my neighbor was waving goodbye to the driver. I saw the sign on the door of the truck said, "PartnerCo Construction", and I realized then how that dumbass was able to build such an awesome house. I really hope I won't need help too. I pulled one of the Flows out of my pocket, and gripped it so the claws would come out. As I was looking at it, I felt a tug downward, that got stronger. So strong in fact that my arm was being pulled down. A claw shot out and clamped onto the Dropbox connector, I had forgotten that they lined the edge of the slab. It sat there, motionless now, in my palm. I checked, and like the Insights, there was an Install button so I pushed it. The other claw shot out the other end and started flailing wildly. I thought it was heading towards the Enterprise Sales App cube, but then it veered off and started towards the Productivity Applications Neighborhood pipe, but skipped right past that and started hovering over all of the other connector pipes in turn, for about a second apiece. It did not grab onto anything, it just repeated this cycle. I started to walk and noticed the cable from the grip to the claw on the DropBox connector let out slack as I walked, the other end continuing to flail about, but as I walked, I noticed it started to check fewer points, seemingly understanding where I was heading. When I got to within about 3' of the Enterprise Sales App cube, the claw flew past my head and latched onto it, and I felt a pulsing in my palm which startled me and caused me to let go of it. The handle just hovered in the air, suspended by the claws and the cables tightened from each end of it. It was as tight as a guitar string. I guess I need to head back into the Mansion to see what this thing did. Looking back into the Leads room, I saw the now-familiar floating faces, with the floating boxes over them, and something new. A filing cabinet was now floating over each box, on the side it said "DropBox Files". Simple enough, I guess I know what these flows do now. I'm exhausted. It still feels like it's only been a few hours, but in this world, if that trucker was correct, it could have been a week. I head back out to the trailer. I think to myself, man there are a lot of things on this trailer, as I scan my eyes across the deck. I walk up and notice a little gold plaque on one of these things, engraved in fancy script was, "Packed with Pride by J. Phillips"... that's a nice touch. I lay down on a small hill of dirt under the trailer, in the shade, and look back at my house. My brain is racing. The trailer bed above my head is still so full of things, I have not even scratched the surface yet. My eyelids clamp shut... I'm so tired.. I try, but I can't even open them, I give up. I am thinking about all of the things I can do with this hou.... zzzzzzzzzzz.    

What's your DevOps plan? Carl and Richard talk to Vishwas Lele about taking a comprehensive, model-driven approach to DevOps. What does it mean to be model-driven? Working with a strategic approach that is agnostic to any given technology or platform - but in the end, the tools do matter! Vishwas talks about common elements like a single repository for all assets, repeatable deployment processes, instrumentation and feedback mechanisms that enable the entire team to see how the software is being used and improved. He also talks about the Azure templates for getting infrastructure up and running quickly - and the on-going evolution to let this model work anywhere, not just in the cloud!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

What's your DevOps plan? Carl and Richard talk to Vishwas Lele about taking a comprehensive, model-driven approach to DevOps. What does it mean to be model-driven? Working with a strategic approach that is agnostic to any given technology or platform - but in the end, the tools do matter! Vishwas talks about common elements like a single repository for all assets, repeatable deployment processes, instrumentation and feedback mechanisms that enable the entire team to see how the software is being used and improved. He also talks about the Azure templates for getting infrastructure up and running quickly - and the on-going evolution to let this model work anywhere, not just in the cloud!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

There's a lot of tension between today's markup and the semantics we're trying to express in our apps. HTML5 adds a few new types to help describe common cases, but what about when there's no allegory in markup for what you're building? What we need now is infrastructure, not guilt about being "non-semantic". This talk explores new standards-track work in WebKit that's going to enable say-what-you-mean development in completely new ways. More info at: https://fronteers.nl/congres/2011/sessions/web-components-and-model-driven-views-alex-russell

There's a lot of tension between today's markup and the semantics we're trying to express in our apps. HTML5 adds a few new types to help describe common cases, but what about when there's no allegory in markup for what you're building? What we need now is infrastructure, not guilt about being "non-semantic". This talk explores new standards-track work in WebKit that's going to enable say-what-you-mean development in completely new ways. More info at: https://fronteers.nl/congres/2011/sessions/web-components-and-model-driven-views-alex-russell

The ability to assess alternative solutions early in the production of a system or product is critical to delivering enduring business value. Join Dr. Graham Bleakley as he discusses the benefits of a cross-discipline Trade-Studies approach to systems engineering.

Holly Hayes, Data Studio Program Manager for IBM talks about Model Driven Data Governance. She outlines big concerns companies are facing such as dilution of brand value, loss of revenue, and compliance, and talks about present and future solutions including model-driven data governance.

Model driven software engineering (MDSE) is becoming a widely accepted approach for developing complex applications and it is on its way to be one of the most promising paradigms in software engineering. MDSE advocates the use of models as the key artifacts in all phases of the development process, from analysis to design, implementation and testing. The most promising approach to model driven engineering is the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) defined by the Object Management Group (OMG). Applications are modeled at a platform independent level and are transformed to (possibly several) platform specific implementations. Model driven Web engineering (MDWE) is the application of model driven engineering to the domain of Web application development where it might be particularly helpful because of the continuous evolution of Web technologies and platforms. However, most current approaches for MDWE provide only a partial application of the MDA pattern. Further, metamodels and transformations are not always made explicit and metamodels are often too general or do not contain sufficient information for the automatic code generation. Thus, the main goal of this work is the complete application of the MDA pattern to the Web application domain from analysis to the generated implementation, with transformations playing an important role at every stage of the development process. Explicit metamodels are defined for the platform independent analysis and design and for the platform specific implementation of dynamic Web applications. Explicit transformations allow the automatic generation of executable code for a broad range of technologies. For pursuing this goal, the following approach was chosen. A metamodel is defined for the platform independent analysis and for the design of the content, navigation, process and presentation concerns of Web applications as a conservative extension of the UML (Unified Modeling Language) metamodel, together with a cor-responding UML profile as notation. OCL constraints ensure the well-formedness of models and are checked by transformations. Transformations implement the systematic evolution of analysis and design models. A generic platform for Web applications built on an open-source Web platform and a generic runtime environment is proposed that represents a family of platforms supporting the combination of a broad range of technologies. The transformation to the platform specific models for this generic platform is decomposed along the concerns of Web applications to cope in a fine-grained way with technology changes. For each of the concerns a metamodel for the corresponding technology is defined together with the corresponding transformations from the platform independent design models. The resulting models are serialized to code by means of serialization transformations.

After discussing some of the more technical aspects of MDSD in the last episode, we take a look at other important topics in this one. This includes some tips on how to introduce MDSD into projects and how the development process has to be adapted for this to work, as well as a look at the return on investment for MDSD. The relationship of MDSD and Agile software development is also discussed. Finally, we take a look at offshoring in the context of MDSD.

After discussing some of the more technical aspects of MDSD in the last episode, we take a look at other important topics in this one. This includes some tips on how to introduce MDSD into projects and how the development process has to be adapted for this to work, as well as a look at the return on investment for MDSD. The relationship of MDSD and Agile software development is also discussed. Finally, we take a look at offshoring in the context of MDSD.

After discussing some of the more technical aspects of MDSD in the last episode, we take a look at other important topics in this one. This includes some tips on how to introduce MDSD into projects and how the development process has to be adapted for this to work, as well as a look at the return on investment for MDSD. The relationship of MDSD and Agile software development is also discussed. Finally, we take a look at offshoring in the context of MDSD.

In this Episode, Eberhard and Markus provide an introduction to Model-Driven Software Development. Since the discussion turned out to be too long, we separated things into two episodes, thus Episode 6 will be the second part of this discussion. In this first part we disucsss core concepts of MDSD, the relationship to MDA, and hint at a couple of tools.

In this Episode, Eberhard and Markus provide an introduction to Model-Driven Software Development. Since the discussion turned out to be too long, we separated things into two episodes, thus Episode 6 will be the second part of this discussion. In this first part we disucsss core concepts of MDSD, the relationship to MDA, and hint at a couple of tools.

In this Episode, Eberhard and Markus provide an introduction to Model-Driven Software Development. Since the discussion turned out to be too long, we separated things into two episodes, thus Episode 6 will be the second part of this discussion. In this first part we disucsss core concepts of MDSD, the relationship to MDA, and hint at a couple of tools.