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Introduction
Power Platform enables the developers to build Apps, websites, Dashboards, Chatbots and automate processes while connecting to various internal and external data sources through 1000+ built-in connectors. It not only empowers the citizen developers to rapidly build applications boosted by AI powered guidance, also there is immense capability for the Pro developers to create custom connectors for any data sources, extend the platform to leverage the capability of other services like Azure or frontend technologies.
With this empowerment, it’s mandatory to set up proper governance and monitoring to ensure the security and proper management of the platform. Now the governance covers a really BIG area, starting from choosing the right tools, creating security and support models, setting up defined processes for user access, applications and license management and planning for enabling the developers and administrators. If you are at the beginning of your Power Platform adoption, you may feel overwhelmed with this, so a consolidated checklist will help you to understand the required tasks, plan accordingly and make sure that you are not missing anything.
This article walks you through the fundamental steps you need to follow to set up a full proof Governance Plan and getting yourself geared up to start your Power Platform Adoption journey.
Getting ready to setup Governance
Task | Guideline |
Setup Center of Excellence Team | This team is responsible for Governance, Administration, monitoring. There can be one Central team for an organization, or multiple teams for different regions or divisions. Usually members of this team are assigned Power Platform Admin or Global Admin role. |
Install COE Starter Kit | CoE Starter Kit is a collection of components and tools that are designed to help you get started with developing a strategy for adopting and supporting Microsoft Power Platform. Get it here |
Analyze current Power Platform Inventory (if any) | You can use COE Starter Kit Power BI Dashboards to get an idea of current landscape of your Power Platform |
Environment Strategy
Data Loss Prevention Policies
Security
Task | Guideline |
Cross tenant isolation | From Power Platform Admin Center, create tenant rules to allow or disallow the data flow to or from another tenant. Please see here for more details. |
Conditional Access Policies | If you want to pilot your Power Apps or Power Automate for a set of users only, you can set that up using Conditional Access Policy |
Controlling Environment creation | Not every licensed user should be allowed to create environment, restrict environment creation to Admins only from Power Platform Admin Center Settings |
Security groups for each environment | Decide whether you should use Security groups to control environment access, details here |
Process for requesting user access into QA/Prod | Define a process of requesting user access, you can create a custom application using Power Apps and Power Automate or use your existing ticketing system. |
Strategy for managing guest user access | If you don’t want guest users to access your tenant, you can control it through tenant settings. If you want to restrict only for Power Platform, this can be done using Conditional Access policies. |
License Management
Task | Guideline |
Decide the License requirement to kick start your Power Platform Adoption | This example gives you an comparative idea of which type of license to choose. |
Define a process for the users to request new license | Check if you can use your existing Ticketing system for license requesting. |
App and Flow Management
Application Lifecycle Management
Monitoring and Analytics
Task | Guideline |
Monitor your Platform in a regular basis to make sure nothing is going beyond as expected | You can use Out-of-the-box Analytics from Power Platform Admin Center. Turn on Tenant level Analytics to have an overall view Leverage COE Starter Kit Power BI Dashboards |
Auditing | You can get the Audit log data for Apps Create, Delete, Launch etc. from Microsoft Compliance Center Audit Log, view details here Install COE Starter Kit Audit log component which is a wrapper on top of this. |
Developer Guidance, Upskilling, Communication and Support Plan
Task | Guideline |
Create Developer guideline document with standards and best practices. Set up training sessions if needed. | Empower your citizen developers with proper training and resources. |
Create a website with all Power Platform quick reference materials | You can leverage Power Platform Hub template |
Create a support model for supporting both developers and end users | Decide how will end users raise issues/queries , do you want to use a ticketing system? How will developers reach Administrators for any support needed? |
Have a plan for Administrative tasks | You can use COE Starter Kit Administrative task component |
Communication Plan | Define a strategy for communicating any announcement to the users |
