On August 25, Microsoft to how it communicates upcoming Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse capabilities.
Beginning in September 2026, Microsoft will publish new capabilities continuously through the . The familiar Wave 1 and Wave 2 release plans are ending, there will be no September release wave announcement, and Release Planner will retire on November 15, 2026.
This does not change the underlying product release schedules. It does, however, require many ERP teams to update the planning processes they built around the release wave calendar.
What Microsoft announced
The transition begins in September and will be completed by November 15:
- New Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse capabilities will be added to the AI at Work roadmap as soon as Microsoft is ready to disclose them.
- Roadmap items will move through three statuses: In Development, Rolling Out, and Launched.
- Existing items with a public preview or general availability date of June 1, 2026 or later will migrate to the new roadmap during the fall.
- Release Planner will retire on November 15.
- Personalized views saved in My Release Plans will not carry over.
- Existing release plans will remain on Microsoft Learn for historical reference, but Microsoft will not publish new twice-yearly plans.
The new roadmap supports filters, RSS subscriptions, CSV exports, shared links, and searches by feature ID. Microsoft is also making the data available through its Release Communications MCP Server for teams that want to connect roadmap information to AI tools or internal workflows.
What is not changing
Microsoft made the distinction clear in its :
“This transition changes how Microsoft communicates roadmap information. It does not change how products are built, released, or deployed.”
Dynamics 365 products with established release schedules will continue to follow them. Message Center will remain the source for notices relevant to a specific tenant, and Microsoft Learn will remain the source for product documentation and implementation guidance.
For example, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations service updates will continue to follow and the existing .
Release waves grouped planned capabilities into a six-month view. They did not mean that every feature in the plan arrived at the same time. Features still had their own preview, general availability, rollout, and enablement dates.
Why the change still matters to ERP teams
Many organizations used the release wave as a planning deadline.
It prompted teams to review upcoming features, identify affected processes, schedule regression testing, plan training, update documentation, and coordinate with implementation partners. Even though product changes arrived throughout the year, the wave calendar created a predictable point for those conversations.
In our work with Dynamics 365 teams at The TestMart, we regularly see validation plans tied to those twice-yearly reviews. That approach may have been imperfect, but it provided a structure.
Once the release waves disappear, teams need to replace that structure. Otherwise, roadmap items can be published, updated, and rolled out without entering the organization’s normal change and validation process soon enough.
What ERP and validation teams should do before November 15
Rebuild the views you use today
Start by reviewing anything your team has saved in Release Planner.
Document the products, capabilities, filters, planned features, internal owners, and bookmarks you currently rely on. Since saved views will not transfer, waiting until November risks losing the context behind them.
Recreate the most important views in the AI at Work roadmap and subscribe to the appropriate RSS updates. If several teams use the information, agree on a standard set of filters instead of letting each group create its own version.
Give each Microsoft source a clear role
The AI at Work roadmap and Message Center serve different purposes.
Use the roadmap to monitor Microsoft’s public plans across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Dataverse, Microsoft 365, and Copilot. Use Message Center for notices that apply to your tenant. Use Microsoft Learn for detailed product documentation. For Finance and Operations, continue using Lifecycle Services and the published service update schedule to manage actual update timing.
Your internal process should bring those sources together without treating any one of them as the complete picture.
Create a simple intake and triage process
Not every roadmap item requires testing or an internal project. It does need to be reviewed by someone who can determine whether it matters.
For each relevant item, capture:
- The affected application and capability
- Its current roadmap status
- Preview, rollout, and general availability dates
- Whether the feature is optional, enabled by default, or scheduled for enforcement
- The business processes, integrations, customizations, or controls that may be affected
- The person responsible for the assessment
- The required validation, communication, training, or documentation
- The date by which that work must be completed
This can begin as a simple queue in the change management system your organization already uses. The important part is having clear ownership.
Use subscriptions for awareness and meetings for decisions
Microsoft recommends establishing a monthly or quarterly roadmap review. That is still useful, particularly for coordinating business owners, IT leaders, partners, and compliance teams.
The meeting should not be the first time the organization learns about a roadmap change. RSS, Message Center notifications, or an automated feed can provide that awareness earlier. The scheduled review can then focus on impact, priorities, ownership, and unresolved decisions.
Connect validation to the update and the affected process
A validation record should identify the specific update, the environment in which it was evaluated, the business processes included in the scope, the results, any exceptions, and the final approval.
This becomes more important when roadmap items are no longer packaged into a release wave. Teams need to be able to trace a change from Microsoft’s notice through impact assessment, validation, and production approval without relying on the wave name to hold everything together.
It is also worth tracking how long that process takes. Measure the time between an update becoming available or entering your environment and the completion of validation. That will show whether the new intake process is giving the team enough time to respond.
Review the cost of maintaining test coverage
More frequent awareness only helps if the team can execute the necessary validation within the available window.
If automated tests require extensive manual repair after every update, the organization will continue batching regression work regardless of how often Microsoft publishes roadmap information. Test maintenance becomes the limiting factor.
This is one reason The TestMart has focused heavily on reducing maintenance in Horizon. Across complex Dynamics 365 environments, creating another test is rarely the main obstacle. Keeping the existing coverage current as the application changes is usually the harder problem.
Whatever tools or processes you use, review how much effort is currently spent repairing tests, updating documentation, rebuilding evidence, and coordinating manual regression work. That will determine whether your validation process can realistically keep pace with a continuously updated roadmap.
A practical checklist for the transition
Before Release Planner retires on November 15:
- Identify every internal process that currently depends on release waves or Release Planner.
- Preserve the important information from your saved Release Planner views.
- Configure the appropriate AI at Work roadmap filters and subscriptions.
- Confirm who owns roadmap and Message Center intake.
- Define how new items will be assessed and assigned.
- Connect relevant changes to validation, training, documentation, and change control.
- Review whether test maintenance is slowing down your ability to validate updates.
- Track the time between an update and completed validation.
Microsoft is changing how it publishes roadmap information, not how Dynamics 365 updates are delivered. The immediate job for ERP teams is to make sure that retiring Release Planner does not leave a gap in how upcoming changes are identified, assessed, and validated.
Start with and the for the transition details. If you would like to compare how your current Dynamics 365 validation process is set up for continuous change, is always glad to share what we are seeing across other enterprise environments.