For ages, we’ve been ferociously encouraging the integration of developer practices, such as source control and ALM, into the Dynamics 365/Dataverse realm.
The ultimate truth
The revered ‘Master Branch’ in source control, has always been the sole fountainhead from which all other branches sprout.
We, however, took a misstep.
The prevalent belief was that the developer’s environment is the ‘Master Branch’, the ultimate truth.
And when the concept of multiple dev environments surfaced, the “Golden Environment” emerged as the new ‘Master Branch’.
But the plot twist? Both these assumptions are incorrect!
The real truth
View it from the customer’s perspective: it’s the Production environment that’s the ultimate truth, it’s the real ‘Master Branch’ in source control.
Want to modify something? This is where it happens.
Here’s the golden nugget of wisdom developers possess: Try not to do changes on the master branch. Create a feature branch for your change. Once satisfied with the modification, it can be merged back into the master branch.
How does this apply to Dataverse?
Simply backup your Production environment and restore it in a Feature environment. Implement your changes there, and once content with the results, export and import your modifications back into the Production environment.
Paradigm shift?
Transitioning to viewing your Production environment as your master branch revolutionizes your perception of numerous processes, especially ALM.
It will make things easier and it will solve some problems.
Ready to embrace this change?
