The Sure Step methodology

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step was the formal implementation methodology Microsoft published for its Dynamics product family from the late 2000s into the mid-2010s. It is no longer actively published — superseded by Success by Design and FastTrack — but a lot of partner practice still references it, and many long-running customers' methodology documents are descended from Sure Step.

Why Sure Step existed

Before Sure Step, every Microsoft partner had a homegrown method. Quality varied wildly. Sure Step was Microsoft's attempt to give partners a common vocabulary, common deliverables, and a common gating model — so a customer migrating partners or moving from CRM to AX got a recognisable shape.

The phases

Sure Step organised an implementation into six phases:

1. Diagnostic — sales-led discovery, business needs, high-level fit-gap, proposal.
2. Analysis — detailed requirements, fit-gap workshop, future-state design.
3. Design — solution design, integration design, data migration design, technical architecture.
4. Development — configuration, custom development (AL/X++/JS), reports, integrations, data migration tools.
5. Deployment — UAT, training, cutover preparation, go-live.
6. Operation — hypercare, support transition.

Project types

Sure Step recognised that not every engagement needed all six phases at full weight. It offered project type templates — Standard, Enterprise, Rapid, Agile, Upgrade — that tuned the depth of each phase to the scope and complexity.

Deliverables

Each phase had a catalogue of mandatory and optional deliverables — fit-gap document, solution design document, training plan, cutover plan, etc. Many partners still use templates descended from these.

Roles

Sure Step named roles — Engagement Manager, Solution Architect, Application Consultant, Technical Consultant, Trainer — that became the partner-staffing vocabulary.

What worked

The phased model, role definitions, and deliverable templates raised the quality floor of Microsoft partner work. It professionalised an industry that had been ad-hoc.

What didn't

Sure Step was waterfall by design. It assumed requirements could be specified up front and translated through a chain of deliverables. As cloud delivery and continuous updates arrived, the rigidity hurt. By 2018 it was visibly out of step with how cloud ERP/CRM implementations actually run.

The successor

Success by Design replaced Sure Step in 2019 as Microsoft's published methodology — iterative, fit-to-standard, with continuous checkpoints rather than gated phases. FastTrack programs add Microsoft-led oversight for qualifying engagements.

Practical advice for customers

If your partner's proposal language sounds like Sure Step — six phases, "blueprint document", "configuration document" — ask how they incorporate Success by Design's fit-to-standard and Power Platform-first thinking. The names matter less than the actual delivery shape.