With the introduction done, we can talk about the concepts of Power Platform.
Let us get started with foundations first.
Today’s blog post will show why basic foundations are essential.
One of the foundational aspects of any new implementation is understanding the current state.
Establish Power Platform Strategy
This happened a couple of years back.
We are working on one of the engagements to define and establish the Power Platform strategy.
We prepared the deck with all the details needed and shared it with the customer team.
One section in the deck covers the prerequisites of the engagement and the risks associated with not meeting them.
We confirmed with the customer team, and they have all the prerequisites to get started.
This is a four-week engagement, and we wanted to make sure all in place before we get started.
It is the first day with the customer, and we are trying to install the starter kit.
Imported the core components solution and the other starter kit components are needed.
At this time, we do not have a starter kit wizard.
We need to follow manual steps after importing the solutions.
We got an error once we tried to start the flows in the core components.
The account has no Power Automate premium (Aka Power Automate Per-flow) license.
This was on the list of requirements.
We got stuck.
We informed the team and they were like oh no, we verified but it seems like it is missing.
Without licenses, we will not get platform inventory.
Without data, we do not know all the solutions developed within the Power Platform.
That week, the project status changed to Yellow. Licensing is added to the risk tracker.
The customer immediately contacted other teams to get licenses.
Your strategy workshops outcome will not be successful unless you understand the current state of the Power Platform.
What did we do?
We started with other core strategies and continued with engagement.
It all went well during the workshops. We asked better questions and got answers. People are quite open to sharing all the challenges they face.
Thanks to my Lead and everyone at that time. We made it successful.
We can understand the current state to an extent.
We haven’t documented all the recommendations yet as we are waiting for the starter kit.
Hurray, we got the licenses
We got the Power Automate license by the end of Week 3.
We were quickly able to start the flows and run the full inventory.
The Power BI dashboard was up and running in a few hours.
It is great to see what the customer team got.
Project status changed from Yellow to GREEN by the end of the third week.
We scheduled one more session to revisit what we discussed during all the strategies and help them understand where they are at.
I am happy to write a blog post on what are the key things to focus on Starter kit dashboard.
We recommended what was best for them, and they were pleased with the outcome.
The advantages of understanding the current state
If you do not know the current state and are trying to recommend a solution, you are always guessing.
The CoE starter kit provides complete info on your Power Platform applications.
Of course, you need to configure it properly.
The starter kit dashboard gives you a complete inventory.
- Understanding of who is developing solutions
- How many people are developing solutions
- What data sources are being used within the company
- Are the data sources in line with company policies
- What is the growth of the Power Platform
And much more.
Final Thoughts
People always recommend strategies and solutions with a partial understanding of the current state.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t give a better outcome for everyone.
They come, recommend, and even build solutions without understanding what’s in the platform.
People should take time to learn what’s in the ecosystem.
Next time you try to recommend a strategy or deliver a solution, give yourself time to understand the current state.
These could be systems, processes, or, in this case, the inventory of a power platform.
You will do a much better job, and people involved in the process will have better outcomes.
What are your thoughts?
Have you encountered any scenarios like this? If yes, what was your experience? Please let me know in the comments below.
Next, I will talk about the prerequisites of the starter kit and what you need to do after installing the kit.
Also, I will share common mistakes made while installing the kit and the lessons learned.