This is a one-day workshop aimed at folk who are either Business Analysts trying to make sense of delivery chaos or those brave souls attempting to deploy DevOps properly with the Power Platform. It’s not going to be death-by-slide-deck or some LinkedIn fluff worksohp. It’s real-world, “here’s what actually works” kind of stuff.

You’ll leave with a much better idea of how to handle user stories, how to build a DevOps process that actually fits what your team does, and how to connect the whole thing to GitHub without throwing your laptop out the window.

What You'll Learn (A.K.A. Why should you let this mad scotsman rant at you)
You’ll come away from this with:

A solid understanding of how to write user stories that aren’t complete nonsense

A handle on creating a DevOps process that works for Power Platform – not just some template from 2013 someone found on Stack Overflow

The ability to plan sprints and use boards without the usual faff

Actual knowledge of how to connect Azure DevOps to GitHub (and no, it’s not just clicking “Connect” and hoping for the best)

Some practical skills to make your project delivery feel less like herding cats

The Day Itself – Timeline
09:30 – 10:00 | Welcome and Irn Bru
Grab an Irn Bru, get comfy. We'll kick off with a chat about what DevOps actually is and why it's more than just a fancy word for "chaotic deployment with post it notes."

10:00 – 11:00 | What is Azure DevOps and Why It’s Worth Your Time
I'll walk through what Azure DevOps does, and more importantly, what it doesn't do unless you make it. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t write your user stories for you.

11:00 – 12:00 | Writing User Stories Without Losing the Will to Live
We’ll get hands-on with writing proper user stories—ones that don’t require a detective and a whiteboard to understand.

12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch Break (a.k.a. Recovery Time)
Grab a bite, share war stories, and take a minute to wonder why you ever thought deploying apps would be “fun.”

13:00 – 14:30 | Building a Custom DevOps Process for Power Platform
We’re talking about shaping your own process. Not every team works the same way, so let’s stop pretending one-size-fits-all. We’ll look at workflow states, boards, sprint planning—basically the guts of how your team works.

14:30 – 15:30 | Getting GitHub Involved Without Making a Mess
Time to connect the dots: how to link GitHub into the process so you’ve got version control that doesn’t look like a toddler’s art project. Branching, pull requests, merge strategy—the real stuff.

15:30 – 16:30 | Planning, Pipelines, and Practical Tips
We’ll walk through boards, pipelines, dashboards, and maybe even get into some sneaky automation. By this point you’ll either feel empowered or exhausted—but you’ll definitely be learning.

16:30 – 17:00 | Wrap-Up: What Next (and What to Avoid Doing Tomorrow)
Final thoughts, some Q&A, and a reminder not to go back to work tomorrow and try to implement everything at once. Pick one or two wins and go from there. We’ll talk about what that might look like for your team.