Microsoft Dynamics 365 engagement model
Microsoft Dynamics 365 staff augmentation
In short
Microsoft Dynamics 365 staff augmentation adds external specialists to a team that you manage. At MS Dynamics Guys, we agree the role, product skills and working arrangements with you before the engagement starts. Your lead directs the daily work and owns the backlog and business decisions. The written agreement states who reviews work, approves releases and manages continuity. Some buyers call this team extension, resource augmentation or outstaffing. Your company buys a service from MS Dynamics Guys and does not employ the specialist.
Staff augmentation, team extension and outstaffing are one model
Suppliers and buyers use several names for this arrangement: staff augmentation, team extension, resource augmentation, outstaffing and outstaff. On this site they all mean the model on this page. MS Dynamics Guys has no separate offer behind each name.
The name tells you little about the terms, so this page describes the arrangement itself, starting with who owns what.
Some buyers call it Microsoft Dynamics 365 staffing. Here, staffing means supplying specialists who work in your team. It does not mean software for staffing agencies, and it does not mean recruiting employees for your payroll.
Who manages the specialist: your lead or MS Dynamics Guys?
Both, for different things. Your lead manages the work and decides when it is done. MS Dynamics Guys manages the supplier side of the arrangement. Agree this split before the start date, so that nobody has to guess later.
Microsoft's guidance on organizing a project team suggests a roles and responsibilities matrix as one way to tell a team who does what. Use this table as the first draft of that matrix for a specialist who joins your team.
| Topic | Your lead (day-to-day work) | MS Dynamics Guys (supplier duties) |
|---|---|---|
| Priorities and tasks | Sets priorities and assigns items in your backlog | Stays out of task assignment |
| Meetings and questions | Includes the specialist in stand-ups, planning and reviews | Makes sure the specialist is available in the agreed hours |
| Review of each change | A reviewer named in the agreement checks each change, usually someone on your team | Provides a second engineer as reviewer only when the agreement names one |
| Acceptance and quality concerns | Accepts finished items or sends them back | Acts on concerns you raise: agrees an improvement plan with your lead, or changes the person under the agreement |
| Time | Approves the time records for each period | Collects the time records and, when the engagement is priced by time, invoices from the approved records |
| Absence and leave | Hears about planned leave early and plans the work around it | Plans the specialist's leave and reports absences as soon as it knows |
| Contract, pay and confidentiality | Not part of your lead's role | Holds the specialist's contract and pay, and passes your confidentiality terms on to the specialist |
| Change of person | Can ask for a change under the agreed process | Runs the replacement process and the handover |
| Tools, devices and security rules | Sets your rules and issues the accounts | Passes your rules on to the specialist in writing and acts on any breach you report |
MS Dynamics Guys proposes this split. None of the table is a contract: your signed agreement sets the real terms, and it wins where the two differ.
In a dedicated team or an outsourced work package, some of these duties move to someone else. Staff augmentation versus project delivery shows who holds each one in each model, with cost drivers and a decision worksheet.
Give feedback on the work to the specialist directly, as you would to any team member. If a concern continues, or if it is about conduct, availability or the contract, raise it with your MS Dynamics Guys contact.
When staff augmentation from MS Dynamics Guys fits
Staff augmentation works when your side can lead. It adds skills and capacity to a team that already sets priorities, accepts work and releases it.
Signs that this model fits
- Your lead has time every week to direct each specialist you add: to set priorities and to accept or return the work. Someone on your team reviews each change, or the agreement names a second engineer from MS Dynamics Guys as reviewer.
- Your backlog changes often, so a fixed scope would turn into a stream of change requests.
- Your team lacks one or two skills for a known period, and you want them inside your own process.
- You want the knowledge to build up inside your own team as the work happens, not in a handover at the end.
- You want to interview each specialist and decide who joins.
- Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales or Customer Service backlog needs code: C# plug-ins, custom APIs (application programming interfaces) or integration code. Start with a customer relationship management (CRM) developer.
- Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales or Customer Service team needs workshops, configuration and user acceptance testing (UAT). Start with a CRM consultant.
- Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central extensions need an AL developer. AL is the programming language of Business Central.
- Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central setup, data checks or user acceptance tests need a Business Central consultant.
- Your Power Apps and cloud flows need a Power Platform developer who works within your environments and governance rules.
When another model or service fits better
- Nobody on your side has time to direct the work and accept it each week. A reviewer from MS Dynamics Guys cannot take over that role.
- You want the supplier to answer for a defined result. That is a scoped project; see Microsoft Dynamics 365 development services.
- You want a supplier to answer for incidents in a live system, with agreed response times. A specialist in your team works from your own queue, under your service desk's rules. A support service fits that need better.
- You want to hire a permanent employee, or to keep people in reserve for work that nobody has defined yet.
Delivery controls for a specialist in your team
Staff augmentation rarely fails in one day. It drifts: unclear tasks, unreviewed changes, invoices nobody checks. These controls make drift visible early.
| Control | What it prevents | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|
| A role brief, and a first work item with acceptance criteria | A specialist who starts without knowing what done means | Your lead writes them; MS Dynamics Guys checks them with you |
| Review and release rules written into the agreement | Changes that reach production without an agreed check | Both sides agree them; your release approver decides each release |
| Time records approved for each period | Invoices that do not match the work you saw | The specialist records time; your approver confirms it |
| A capacity report for each period | Surprises about absences, unused time or blocked work | MS Dynamics Guys prepares it; your lead reads it |
| A fit check after the first accepted item, then at an agreed interval | Small problems that grow for months | Your lead and the MS Dynamics Guys contact |
| Notes written while the work happens | Knowledge that leaves with the person | The specialist writes them; your reviewer checks them |
| Named accounts limited to the roles the work needs | Access that nobody can trace or remove | Your administrator issues and removes them |
These controls sit on top of your own process, not in place of it. Your backlog, review rules and release path stay in charge.
Skills matching and your interview
Matching starts from your role brief, not from a list of available people. The brief names the product and version, the work waiting in your backlog and the person who will direct it. The role chooser for Microsoft Dynamics 365 specialists explains how a brief becomes a shortlist.
Before we look for candidates, we confirm in writing whether we can staff the role and on what assumptions. We give no availability or shortlist date before that check. Because the specialist joins your team, we also match on how your team works:
- The direction your lead can give. A lead with little time needs a specialist who works well from short written requirements and asks questions early. A lead who wants to shape every design can guide a less experienced person.
- How your team reviews and releases. Your branch and review rules, your definition of done and your release calendar. We look for someone who has worked under similar rules.
- Hours, language and your rules. The hours your team needs covered and the language of your meetings and documents. Your security checks, device rules and any data that must stay in your tenant count too.
Each candidate passes a role-specific assessment before you see a profile. How we assess specialists explains the tasks and what an assessment cannot show.
Then you interview, and you decide who joins. Include the person who will direct the specialist every day, not only a manager. That daily working relationship decides whether the engagement succeeds.
Onboarding: from signed agreement to the first accepted work item
We agree a written onboarding checklist with your lead before the start date. No step has a fixed duration. How fast access and reviews happen on your side sets the pace.
Agreement and named contacts
The agreement is signed before anyone receives access. Your side names a day-to-day lead, a reviewer, an administrator and a release approver. MS Dynamics Guys names one contact for supplier matters.
Accounts and access
Your administrator issues named accounts that carry only the roles the work needs, in development and test environments first. The access table further down this page shows what this means in each product.
Walkthrough of your rules
Someone on your team walks the specialist through the system, the backlog, the branch and review rules, the definition of done and your security rules.
First work item
The specialist takes a small, real item from your backlog with written acceptance criteria. Your reviewer checks it, and your lead accepts it or sends it back.
First fit check
After the first accepted item, your lead and the MS Dynamics Guys contact confirm that the arrangement works, or agree what to change. Further checks follow at an interval you agree.
Time records and capacity reports
When an engagement is priced by time, the time record decides the invoice. Both sides must be able to trust it.
The specialist records time against your work items, in your work tracker or in another tool you agree on. A named approver on your side confirms the records for each period, and invoices follow the approved records. More hours, fewer hours or work outside the agreed hours are agreed in writing first. The specialist does not add hours on their own initiative.
For each period, MS Dynamics Guys also sends your lead a short capacity report. Watch the blocked time most closely. It shows where the work waits for your side: missing access, late reviews or open questions. Microsoft's implementation guidance asks project teams to monitor and track how resources are used. For one specialist in your team, the capacity report gives your lead that record.
| Field | Example entry | What your lead does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Agreed allocation | The share of time the agreement sets for this period | Compares it with the work planned for the next period |
| Time used | Approved time, linked to work items in your tracker | Compares it with the progress seen in reviews |
| Blocked time | Two days lost waiting for access to a test environment | Removes the cause, for example by closing the access request |
| Planned absences | Two days of leave in the next period | Moves reviews and releases around them |
| Known changes | None this period | Starts a handover early when a change is coming |
| Open questions | Two backlog items wait for a scope decision | Decides, or names who will decide |
This is an original demonstration of the format. It describes no real engagement and no real person.
Before you rely on the process, check it yourself. Three checks need no trust in this page: your own interview, the first work item accepted against your criteria, and the first capacity report.
Continuity: absences, changes of person and ending the engagement
Continuity depends on two things: what the agreement says, and how the work is done every day.
- Planned absence. The specialist plans leave with your lead in advance, under the notice the agreement sets. The capacity report lists it.
- Unplanned absence. If the specialist is ill or unavailable, MS Dynamics Guys tells your lead as soon as we know. Whether someone stands in during a longer absence is agreed in writing.
- A change of person. If the specialist leaves the engagement, or you ask for a change, the replacement process in the agreement applies. The successor passes the same role-specific assessment, and your interview decides whether they join. This page promises no replacement time. It depends on the role and on the candidates we can assess and introduce.
- Handover. The leaving specialist writes a handover note and walks a named person on your team through the open work. If your work needs it, ask for a handover overlap in the agreement.
- Ending or reducing the engagement. Notice and any minimum term are agreed in writing. Your code, records and notes do not depend on them, because they already sit in your systems.
Your way of working protects you more than any clause. Keep code, configuration records and notes in your systems from the first day. Pair the specialist with someone on your team for reviews, so that two people know each change. A change of person then means onboarding a newcomer, not rebuilding lost knowledge.
Access while the specialist works, and at exit
One rule covers every system: your administrator issues the access, and your administrator removes it. Each person gets a named account, and nobody uses a shared login.
| System | When the specialist starts | When the specialist leaves |
|---|---|---|
| Environments with a Dataverse database: Microsoft Dynamics 365 customer relationship management (CRM) apps, Power Apps and Power Automate | Invite the specialist as a guest, or create an account in your tenant. Some features do not work for guests, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 App for Outlook with their own email address. If the work needs them, create the account in your tenant. Assign a license from your tenant: a license from the guest's own tenant does not count. If the environment has a security group, add the account to it. Then assign a security role. | If the environment has a security group, remove the account from it. Microsoft recommends this way to disable a user in an environment. Removing only the license might not disable the account, and removing only the security roles leaves it enabled. On the last day, also block the account's sign-in in Microsoft Entra ID, or remove the guest account. The user record then stays in Dataverse as disabled. |
| Admin roles in Microsoft Entra ID, for Dataverse environments | Give an admin role, such as Power Platform Administrator, only if the work needs it. The environment's security group does not restrict a Power Platform Administrator or a Global Administrator, so it cannot keep them out of production. | Remove every admin role when the specialist leaves. Removing the account from the security group, or removing its license, does not end an admin's access. |
| Business Central online | Create the account in your Microsoft 365 admin center and assign a Business Central license. Business Central gives a new user the default permission sets of that license, so remove the ones the work does not need. To keep the account out of an environment such as production, assign a Microsoft Entra group to that environment. Only members of that group, and administrators, can then sign in, so add your own users first. | Set the user's status to Disabled on the User Card in each environment the specialist used, including sandboxes. Sign-in stops, active sessions end, and every reference to the user stays. Removing the license also stops sign-in. A user who has signed in once cannot be deleted. |
| Admin roles in Microsoft Entra ID, for Business Central online | Do not give the specialist an administrator role if an environment's group must keep them out. The group does not restrict administrators. | Remove every administrator role when the specialist leaves. An administrator keeps read-only access to Business Central, even without a license. |
| Repository, work tracker and team chat | Named accounts in your organization, or guest access that your administrator grants. Your branch and review rules apply as they do to anyone else. | Remove the accounts on the last day. Rotate any secret the specialist used, such as an integration key. |
These rows describe the online services. If you run an on-premises version, your administrator applies the same rule in your own systems. Give each person a named account with only the roles the work needs, and remove it on the last day.
In Business Central on-premises, the administrator creates, edits and deletes users directly on the Users page.
Exit checklist for the last week
Use this list when the engagement ends, and when one specialist hands over to another.
- Open work items are reassigned to named people in your tracker.
- The handover note is in your workspace, and a named person on your team has walked through it with the specialist.
- Automations, pipelines and scheduled jobs that run under the specialist's account now run under an account you control.
- Apps and cloud flows that the specialist owns have a new owner on your side, and their connections are replaced with connections you control. Work in any developer environment the specialist created is exported to your repository, because a developer environment is meant for its owner only.
- Accounts are disabled in every system on the last day, as the access table describes, and any admin roles are removed.
- MS Dynamics Guys confirms in writing that the specialist keeps no copies of your data and no credentials.
- The final time records are approved, and the last invoice matches the agreed basis.
Questions about Microsoft Dynamics 365 staff augmentation
Who owns the code and documents the specialist creates?
The specialist is under contract with MS Dynamics Guys, not with your company. Rights in the specialist's work therefore reach you through the agreement between our companies. It states what passes to you and when, and it is agreed in writing for each engagement before any access is granted. Ask your own advisers to check that term. Day to day, the work already sits in your systems: code in your repository, configuration records and notes in your workspace.
How is staff augmentation from MS Dynamics Guys priced?
You pay for a named specialist's time, against the allocation in your agreement. The rate basis is agreed in writing for each engagement, and this page states no rates. The price depends on the role, the product, the allocation and how long the engagement lasts. Two costs sit on your side: your lead's time to direct and review the work, and licenses for the specialist's accounts in your tenant. Blocked time costs you too, because the allocation is paid while the work waits for your side. The guide to engagement models compares the cost drivers of all three models.
What happens if our lead leaves or has no time to direct the specialist?
Tell your MS Dynamics Guys contact as soon as you know. This model depends on direction from your side, so decide quickly who takes over:
- Name a stand-in lead. Another person on your team sets priorities, reviews the work and accepts it. Tell the specialist and your MS Dynamics Guys contact who it is.
- Change the allocation. If nobody can direct the work for a while, reduce or end the allocation under the terms of your agreement. Otherwise the capacity report fills with blocked time.
Can the specialist work on our laptops and under our security rules?
Yes, if you set this out before the start. Your security rules apply to the specialist: accounts, devices, data handling and any vetting your policy requires. Who provides the device is agreed in writing. If your policy needs a background check or a company laptop, put it in the role brief, because it affects who we can introduce.
Can we change the allocation or end the engagement early?
Yes, on the terms in your agreement. Notice and any minimum term are agreed in writing for each engagement, and this page states no values. Use the capacity reports to decide. Unused hours point to a smaller allocation, and items that wait for the specialist point to a larger one. Blocked time points to a fix on your side first. A change applies only after both sides confirm it in writing. To end the engagement, plan the last week with the exit checklist on this page.
Can one specialist grow into a team later?
Yes, one role at a time. Each new role is a new request with its own role brief. We confirm in writing whether we can staff it before anyone is introduced. The assessment and your interview follow, under the same agreement or an extension of it.
Before you add the next person, check your lead's week. In this model, your lead directs and accepts the work of every specialist, and each specialist has a separate allocation and capacity report.
Build your role brief
Tell us the Microsoft Dynamics 365 app and version, the work waiting in your backlog, who will direct the specialist and your team's hours. We reply with questions or a draft role brief before anyone is introduced.
Product documentation referenced on this page
- Organize your Microsoft Dynamics 365 project team Microsoft Learn, checked October 4, 2026
- Invite users with Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration Microsoft Learn, checked October 4, 2026
- Create users (Power Platform admin) Microsoft Learn, checked October 4, 2026
- Control user access to environments with security groups and licenses Microsoft Learn, checked October 4, 2026
- Create users according to licenses (Business Central) Microsoft Learn, checked October 4, 2026
- Manage access to environments (Business Central) Microsoft Learn, checked October 4, 2026
- Administration of Business Central online Microsoft Learn, checked October 4, 2026