Best Practices to Avoid Dependency Issues

Given the complexity of Dynamics 365, upgrading and deleting solutions can be challenging. Here are some best practices to avoid dependency issues.

1. USE SOLUTIONS

   • Use solutions to package and deploy your customizations. Solutions help you organize and manage components like entities, fields, workflows, and plugins.

2. LAYERED APPROACH

   • Adopt a layered approach to customizations. Start with the out-of-the-box functionality, and then make changes in separate layers or tiers.

   • Avoid making direct changes to system components whenever possible. Instead, create a custom solution layer.

3. AVOID UNMANAGED SOLUTIONS

   • Use managed solutions for customizations whenever possible. Managed solutions protect your customizations from accidental modification and reduce dependencies.

4. NAMING CONVENTIONS

   • Establish clear and consistent naming conventions for custom entities, fields, and other components. This makes it easier to find customizations and their purposes.

5. MINIMIZE OVERLAPPING DEPENDENCIES

   • Limit the dependencies between customizations. When one customization relies heavily on another, updates become more challenging.

6. USE BUSINESS RULES AND WORKFLOWS

   • Whenever possible, use business rules and workflows to implement custom logic instead of writing custom code. These are easier to maintain and update.

7. DOCUMENT DEPENDENCIES

   • Document dependencies between customizations. Understand how changes in one component can affect others.

8. MONITOR CHANGES

   • Regularly review and monitor customizations to ensure they are still relevant and meet business requirements. Remove or update obsolete customizations.

9. BACKUP AND RESTORE

   • Maintain regular backups of your Dynamics 365 instance and understand how to restore it in case of critical issues caused by customizations.