The Dynamics CRM Community is the place to be for all Dynamics CRM Lovers. I have often come across queries posted on “How to become a Dynamics CRM developer” and decided to share my thoughts around this in this post.
Technical Expertise Needed: If you have a basic knowledge of writing code in .NET you cover the baseline qualification to consider being a Dynamics CRM developer.
The technologies that are widely used in Dynamics CRM are listed below
.NET – Dynamics CRM is .NET based application and most of the server-side business logic development is done in .NET
HTML/jScript/jQuery – Client side development that forms an equally large part of the development opportunities requires sound knowledge of designing html page and getting it to interact with the application using jquery calls to CRM ODATA and SOAP service.
SSRS – Reporting in Dynamics CRM requires knowledge of SSRS. Dynamics CRM allows designing SQL based as well it has its own native query language “FETCHXML” that is used for querying the database. FetchXML based reports are now the preferred option since it supports both CRM On-premise as well as CRM Online deployments.
The ones listed above would form the core knowledge required off Dynamics CRM developers. But the opportunities offered by Dynamics CRM platform for developers also include
Azure – Design Portals hosted on Azure or even supports Azure-aware plugins and workflows.
Sharepoint – Dynamics CRM offers native integration with Dynamics CRM but often there has been a need to extend the OOB integration to support specific needs and there you do get exposure to Sharepoint API
SSIS – Data integrations are often handled using SSIS packages and scheduling them as SQL Jobs
Mobile Development – Developing apps for different mobile operating systems that interact with Dynamics CRM is also picking up these days with everything going mobile.
Here are some of the links which I think are great source for developers. If you know more or find more options please feel free to add in comments.
Dynamics CRM SDK: This is the starting point for any Dynamics CRM developer. It has everything, including code samples, tools which are designed to help you build powerful applications using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. It is a guide for developers which provides architectural overview of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Anything that can be done in Dynamics CRM can be found here. If it isn’t here, it is probably not supported by Microsoft to perform those customizations. The SDK is available online as well is available for offline access by downloading the setup from the following location
Some quick reference links include
Tutorials for learning about development for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Developers guide to customization for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Center: This site has been designed to provide quick links to common development activities performed. Get started with topics like SDK, Whats New, Sample Code, validation tools, videos and best methods to be used while developing on Dynamics CRM.
However, before you start off to being a Dynamics CRM developer, it would help to understand the application. Get a free Microsoft Dynamics CRM test drive to get your hands on and follow these amazing Microsoft Dynamics E-Training/Learning links to know more about CRM and how its changing the way Customer Service is managed.
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