Best Practice: Don’t be scared, embrace the Community!
We talk often about “the Community” when it comes to Microsoft Business Applications. Often I find that the reverence with which we speak of “the Community” surprises my friends who focus on Azure, Office 365, or other technologies… because there’s nothing quite like what we’ve built — together and across the world — here around Business Applications.
The famous @TashasEv had insightful things to say about this just last month, and approaching the end of the year I was once again reminded of what I have for some time now cited as my #1 best practice for adopting and developing beautiful and useful things on Power Platform:
Don’t be scared, embrace The Community!
I was of course reminded of it in meaningful, personal holiday messages that poured out over any number of WhatsApp groups, or the happy hours and other time that we’ve all recently spent together, but I am also frequently reminded of it when it comes time to get work done.
Last year I when I first began presenting “Ten Best Practices for No-Code / Low-Code Development on Power Apps”, I put a call out on Twitter seeking personal favorite best practices from others. The response was overwhelming. So many people shared, and in so doing they unknowingly created my #1 best practice that I now use to get every such presentation started.
This spirit extends to the Power Platform product / engineering teams at Microsoft, too. Through the entire time I’ve worked in technology — beginning with pulling CAT5 cable through attics when I was 15 years old — I have never encountered anything like the degree of personal engagement and genuine investment that those who drive this technology have with and for those who work with around the world.
The Microsoft Business Applications “Community” is a truly globe-spanning group of brilliant, capable, curious people who care deeply, meaningfully, and personally about not just the technology and its transformative potential, but about each other and about the world.
Turns out that they’re also really interesting people, possessed of personalities both loud and soft. And though a great many of us were probably — shall we say — not the coolest kids growing up, it’s now our responsibility to welcome newcomers, to teach them what we’ve learned, and to help them be a part of this community just as we are. So, make an effort to never let someone wander about alone at a conference.
And if you’re new to this group, jump in, get involved, ask questions, learn from others. Don’t re-invent the wheel, because whatever technical problem you are having today is very likely something that someone else solved yesterday, or that is vexing them just now.
Don’t be scared, embrace the Community!
