by Vjekoslav Babic on September 28, 2010
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Team Blog has just published a mega-useful post about recommendations for configuring Microsoft SQL Server for optimum Microsoft Dynamics NAV Performance. If you haven’t yet, you should check it here.
The blog post delivers a PDF document summarizing certain important parameters, configuration settings and suggestions for improving and maintaining a speedy SQL Server for your NAV installation. The recommendations have been written for x64 version of SQL Server 2005 SP3, SQL Server 2008 SP1 and SQL Server 2008 R2. The document was compiled by Michael De Voe, a Senior Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft specializing in performance, scalability, infrastructure and high-availability for in NAV and AX.
by Vjekoslav Babic on September 6, 2010
So I would guess that was it. I’m just returning to Kristiansand, my Norwegian base, after delivering the “Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Development Best Practices” course to a partner, my first custom-developed training ever. My impression is—mission accomplished.
I was not sure at first how this would turn out. Teaching NAV best practices to people some of whom have more experience than I’ll have any time soon, isn’t an easy thing. The challenge for me was—how to deliver something new, really valuable to those people, something they could go home with saying “wow, if only I knew this earlier”.
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by Vjekoslav Babic on September 4, 2010
“Best practices” is one of those beloved and hated concepts. There are people who just embrace “best” practices for the sake of their bestness. And there are people who just shun them for the very same reason—those know-it-alls who have opinion on everything and know it better before even learning about it. What’s-best-for-you-is-not-best-for-me kind of people. Neither of approaches is actually, well, best.
For a best practice to be the best for you, you need to understand it, and if you find any pitfalls, improve it.
In two days I’m delivering the NAV Development Best Practices training for a service provider in Norway. They approached me two two months ago and asked if could do something like that. This brought to memory some good posts I made years ago, and here I bring the links. If you want me to share my best practices, this would be my starting point:
- Code of Coding: emphasizes the need for understanding the effects of a change in code, and making others understand your intention
- Code of coding 2: Documenting changes: about how to document different kind of changes in code, and also about the level of effect a specific type of change has in the long run
- Code of coding 3: Die, hard(coding)!: about avoiding embedding output text into code
- Code of coding 4: Die, hard(coding) 2: about avoiding embedding settings into code, with detailed explanation what exactly is wrong with it, and some good guidelines on how to detect less obvious cases of settings hardcoding
- NeverENDing story: about a very bad example I once encountered, and how to avoid situations such as that
- Featuritis Cure: now this one is definitely not a “best practice”, it’s about a situation when a developer pulled a prank on a customer so subtly that I just had to share it with the world. A far better cure for Featuritis (a dangerous and ugly disease indeed) is given by Mark Brummel, in his fantastic post Tip #20 – Save Report Usage. If you aren’t yet following Mark’s blog, now would be a good time to start.
If you are interested in development best practices, check these posts, and if you find them useful, then I’m happy. If you don’t, share your thoughts. Best practices develop over time, improving slowly, and gradually until one day they just become the norm.
by Vjekoslav Babic on September 3, 2009
It’s official now, and it’s time I announce it here: after two years at Microsoft I’ve decided to take the helm of my career and venture into the realm of independent consulting. Two days into it, and all I can say about it is: what have I been waiting for this long?
While at Microsoft, I had a chance to work on some very exciting projects, I was sitting at the source of information, and the thrill of being able to know about all the news and developments before anyone else is priceless.
But the thrill of being able to work on my own, to pick my own projects, to take on completely new challenges, was even more priceless.
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by Vjekoslav Babic on March 31, 2009
I’m not sure about you, but I’ve missed last week’s update to this free download from Microsoft Download Center: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Developer and IT Pro Help.
Published in December 2008, this set of help files and guidelines contains valuable information for developers and IT professionals about development, debugging, installation, security and similar best practices.
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