Whilst studying for the Extending CRM 2011 exam, I have been looking at the IExecutionContext and it has some interesting properties you can access in the plugins.

Firstly you have

IExecutionContext Interface

This is a base interface that defines the contextual information passed to a plug-in or custom workflow activity at run-time. The properties of this base class are populated by the event execution pipeline before the plugin or custom workflow code is run.

To see the various properties, I found this useful page, which I have copied below. I have probably used most of these variables at one time or another, depth to see how many times the plugin has run is one of the most useful.

IExecutionContext Properties

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[Applies to: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011] Public Properties

	Name	Description
	BusinessUnitId	Gets the global unique identifier of the business unit that the user making the request, also known as the calling user, belongs to.
	CorrelationId	Gets the global unique identifier for tracking plug-in or custom workflow activity execution.
	Depth	Gets the current depth of execution in the call stack.
	InitiatingUserId	Gets the global unique identifier of the system user account under which the current pipeline is executing.
	InputParameters	Gets the parameters of the request message that triggered the event that caused the plug-in to execute.
	IsExecutingOffline	Gets a value indicating if the plug-in is executing from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook with Offline Access client while it is offline.
	IsInTransaction	Gets a value indicating if the plug-in is executing within the database transaction.
	IsOfflinePlayback	Gets a value indicating if the plug-in is executing as a result of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook with Offline Access client transitioning from offline to online and synchronizing with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server.
	IsolationMode	Gets a value indicating if the plug-in is executing in the sandbox.
	MessageName	Gets the name of the Web service message that is being processed by the event execution pipeline.
	Mode	Gets the mode of plug-in execution.
	OperationCreatedOn	Gets the date and time that the related System Job was created.
	OperationId	Gets the global unique identifier of the related System Job.
	OrganizationId	Gets the global unique identifier of the organization that the entity belongs to and the plug-in executes under.
	OrganizationName	Gets the unique name of the organization that the entity currently being processed belongs to and the plug-in executes under.
	OutputParameters	Gets the parameters of the response message after the core platform operation has completed.
	OwningExtension	Gets a reference to the related SdkMessageProcessingingStep or ServiceEndpoint.
	PostEntityImages	Gets the properties of the primary entity after the core platform operation has been completed.
	PreEntityImages	Gets the properties of the primary entity before the core platform operation has begins.
	PrimaryEntityId	Gets the global unique identifier of the primary entity for which the pipeline is processing events.
	PrimaryEntityName	Gets the name of the primary entity for which the pipeline is processing events.
	RequestId	Gets the global unique identifier of the request being processed by the event execution pipeline.
	SecondaryEntityName	Gets the name of the secondary entity that has a relationship with the primary entity.
	SharedVariables	Gets the custom properties that are shared between plug-ins.
	UserId	Gets the global unique identifier of the system user for whom the plug-in invokes web service methods on behalf of.