One of the diagrams that I use the most is the “Conceptual Diagram”. This Diagram is a graphical representation of the building blocks that we are considering for our solution.
To find out more about what conceptual diagrams are and the steps to create them, you can read my post about Model your Dynamics 365 Solution (Part 3) – Conceptual Diagram.
How I use them in workshops or demos
I often use the conceptual diagram during my requirement validation workshops and demos.
Before showing the first version to my client, I always try to get some information about the client’s needs.
Let’s explore a concrete example. Let’s say that we start working with a company that sells network services. During the initial meeting our client tells us that they need a Sales management solution to help them manage their opportunities better.
Our client specifies that they have 2 specific sales processes. One for selling to external clients and one for internal clients as other departments of the company often use their services.
1. Start with an existing template.
You can start with an existing template. Here are the links to all the Conceptual Diagrams I have created so far:
- Dynamics 365 Customer Service – Conceptual Diagram – v2022
- Dynamics 365 Sales – Conceptual Diagram
- Dynamics 365 Marketing – Conceptual Diagram
- Power Platform / Dynamics 365 Higher Education Accelerator – Conceptual Diagram
2. Simplify and adapt the diagram to your client’s needs
Let’s remove what is not needed at this stage and simplify the diagram as much as possible. You don’t want to overwhelm your client at the beginning. Start simple and you can incorporate more features later during your project.
So as you can see we are now left with just Contacts, Accounts, Activities, Leads, Opportunities and Quotes. And we are also showing 2 separate Sales Processes. 1 for external and another for internal clients.
3. Present the 1st version of the diagram to your client
Now, it’s time we present that first version of the diagram to our client.
As you are presenting the diagram of the solution, invite the client to collaborate and provide feedback. In our example, our client provides us with a few observations:
- Our client is surprised by the Lead Entity. I remind them we talked about the ability to manage Leads. Our client then clarifies that for them, Leads are in fact already Opportunities. They see Leads as the first stage of the Opportunity.
- Then while discussing the internal vs external sales processes we discover that my client actually has not 2 but 3 distinct processes. One for commercial clients, one for government institutions and one for internal clients which are other departments of the company.
4. Adapt and iterate on the diagram based on your client’s feedback
Armed with that feedback, we can now tweak the diagram and address our client’s feedback so that we can present it back to them in a future workshop.
Our diagram now incorporates, 3 Sales Processes and we removed the Lead entity.
And remember that this is an evolving diagram, that we tweak along the build of the project.
Voila, you now know how I typically use conceptual diagrams on my projects.
Let me know if you also use similar diagrams on your projects? How do you use them? What do you do differently? Use the comment section below to add your feedback and comments so that we can all learn from each other.