Connections in Dynamics 365. Should we still use them?
Connections are very flexible and could be an option for some use cases. But most of the time I don’t recommend them.
Why? The User eXperience is so horrible. Users don’t get how it should work.
The problem: It’s very flexible under the covers, but the UI is not hiding this flexibility. It’s just dumping the low-level way of storing the data into the face of the user and let them sort it out.
For most use cases, you want to trim the UI for that specific use case. It could be only one type of role is allowed. It could be that you are only allowed to connect to Contact that fits a certain filter.
We need an additional wizard or business rule layer on-top of Connections to make it acceptable for users to work with it.
Also showing Connections confuses users. When I click on a connection in a sub grid, I expect to go to the entity/table that is connected, like a Contact or Account. Not the Connection itself…
Microsoft please decide: make it obsolete or improve the User eXperience!
