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So I would guess that was it. I’m just returning to Kristiansand, my Norwegian base, after delivering the “Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Development Best Practices” course to a partner, my first custom-developed training ever. My impression is—mission accomplished.

I was not sure at first how this would turn out. Teaching NAV best practices to people some of whom have more experience than I’ll have any time soon, isn’t an easy thing. The challenge for me was—how to deliver something new, really valuable to those people, something they could go home with saying “wow, if only I knew this earlier”.

Another concern was if development best practices are really a topic of interest. And really, teaching somebody who knows the job and has been doing it for years already, is a tough. What stunned me today was the openmindedness with which they all approached the training—yes, they have all worked with NAV for years, and yes, they are good developers, but they still were there actually wanting to learn something.

Very often at beginning of trainings, I ask my students what are their goals for attending a course. Almost invariably, at least with Sure Step lately, their response is a unison: “to pass the exam”.

Not today, not with this group.

Well, of course. There is no such exam as Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Best Practices. Participation was entirely voluntary, entirely based on their wish to actually learn something new. Not because Microsoft wants them to pass an exam. Not because they would stand a better chance to get a raise. Not because now they can put in their CVs that they have done this training. No. All they wanted was knowledge.

I’m obviously so impressed and thrilled by this, but the outcome of the training is telling me that there is a lot of interest in a topic such as development best practices. This makes me wonder now, why did Microsoft exclude a lot about these best practices from the official courseware? There were many documents and courseware available about this way back when it was still Navision A/S—what’s the reason why this has mostly disappeared?

So, when the impressions and adrenaline settle down to operating levels, I hope I take time and turn this custom made one-off course exercise into a true packaged training solution for partner companies. Why not? If there is interest in this, and I am sure—as were all of my participants—that it does pay off to have some development best practices in place when doing development, then I would be willing to teach this course more. It’s fantastic to find out just how much I learned today, when people started sharing their experience. Well, some things are simply priceless.

So, stay tuned, and I might be posting some more about this topic here over the next couple of days. And if you were there at this training today—thank you! You rock!