If you are part of a large, multi-company organization, or if you have various “affiliated” companies, you may find yourself in a situation where custom code developed for one of the other companies is available to you for your implementation. Sounds great, right? Free code. Maybe. Maybe not.
Before rushing into the installation of that customization (code), there are a few things to consider. It’s better to assess the risks up front, as opposed to dealing with a problem later. If this is a not “pervasive” update—like a report or label—you have very low risk. Implementing that code does not risk impacting your data or transactions. On the other hand, if the code does impact data or transactions, the risks can be higher if you don’t fully understand it.
Before Implementing the Custom Code
First of all, you need to understand the requirements that this code is trying to meet. Was the code written to solve the exact same requirements? Does it also meet other requirements? Do you have those same requirements?
It’s best if there was a design document that goes along with the customization, but you should double check to make sure that the code was developed in line with that design. (We all know that sometimes the requirements for a customization morph over the development cycle, and the documentation doesn’t always keep up.) If there was no design document, you should create one. We’d recommend that you have a developer review the code and help a business analyst or functional consultant summarize what the customization does.
From there you should treat this like any other customization. You should validate against documented test cases. When new requirements are added, you should update the documentation to reflect the changes.
The bottom line is that while there are certainly benefits to implementing custom code across your multi-company organization, all stakeholders should be advised on the potential risks of jumping in too quickly. If your company is leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management and you’d like to implement a customization from a “sister” company, please reach out to our team of D365 experts to discuss the benefits versus risk.
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