Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect's Handbook

Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect's Handbook

by Hugo Herrera
Released July 2022
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781801819336

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Book description

Gain expertise in solution architecture and master all aspects of Power Platform, from data and automation to analytics and security

Key Features

  • Become a full-fledged Power Platform expert and lead your solutions with conviction and clarity
  • Adopt a consistent, systematic, and advanced approach to solution architecture
  • Work on practical examples and exercises to develop expert-level skills and prepare for certification

Book Description

If you’ve been looking for a way to unlock the potential of Microsoft Power Platform and take your career as a solution architect to the next level, then look no further—this practical guide covers it all.

Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect’s Handbook will equip you with everything you need to build flexible and cost-effective end-to-end solutions. Its comprehensive coverage ranges from best practices surrounding fit-gap analysis, leading design processes, and navigating existing systems to application lifecycle management with Microsoft Azure DevOps, security compliance monitoring, and third-party API integration.

The book takes a hands-on approach by guiding you through a fictional case study throughout the book, allowing you to apply what you learn as you learn it. At the end of the handbook, you’ll discover a set of mock tests for you to embed your progress and prepare for PL-600 Microsoft certification.

Whether you want to learn how to work with Power Platform or want to take your skills from the intermediate to advanced level, this book will help you achieve that and ensure that you’re able to add value to your organization as an expert solution architect.

What you will learn

  • Cement the foundations of your applications using best practices
  • Use proven design, build, and go-live strategies to ensure success
  • Lead requirements gathering and analysis with confidence
  • Secure even the most complex solutions and integrations
  • Ensure compliance between the Microsoft ecosystem and your business
  • Build resilient test and deployment strategies to optimize solutions

Who this book is for

This book is for solution architects, enterprise architects, technical consultants, and business and system analysts who implement, optimize, and architect Power Platform and Dataverse solutions. It will also help anyone who needs a detailed playbook for architecting and delivering successful digital transformation projects that leverage Power Platform apps and the Microsoft business apps ecosystem. A solid understanding of Power Platform configuration and administration, Power Automate processes, Power Apps Portals, Canvas Apps, Dataverse Plugins, and Workflow Capabilities is expected.

Table of contents

  1. Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect’s Handbook
  2. Copyright © 2022 Packt Publishing
  3. Contributors
  4. About the author
  5. About the reviewer
  6. Preface
    1. Who this book is for?
    2. What does this book cover?
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the color images
    5. Conventions used
    6. Get in touch
    7. Share Your Thoughts
  7. Part 1: Introduction
  8. Chapter 1: Introduction to Power Platform Solution Architecture
    1. Laying the foundations for great solution architecture
      1. The security concept
      2. Empowered users – the cloud citizen
      3. Compliance
      4. Maintainability and supportability
      5. Availability and recoverability
      6. Performant and scalable solutions
      7. Implementation and operation efficiency
      8. Cloud delegation
      9. Balanced design decisions
    2. Understanding the solution architect’s role
      1. Managing expectations and project scope
      2. Defining standards and implementation guidelines
      3. Breaking down work into implementable tasks
      4. Leading by example
      5. Helping people reach the same conclusion
      6. Giving good news and bad news
    3. Power Platform architecture overview
      1. Dataverse, the foundation of Power Platform data-based applications
      2. The four key Power Platform components
      3. Other Power Platform building blocks
      4. Environments and tenants
      5. Security
      6. Power Platform application life cycle management
    4. The Microsoft cloud-based ecosystem
      1. Dynamics 365
      2. Microsoft 365
      3. AppSource
      4. Azure
    5. A hands-on approach to Power Platform solution architecture
    6. Summary
    7. Further reading
  9. Chapter 2: The Digital Transformation Case Study
    1. Introducing Inveriance Corps
    2. Understanding the architecture as-is
    3. Understanding the to-be architecture
    4. Summary
  10. Part 2: Requirements Analysis, Solution Envisioning, and the Implementation Roadmap
  11. Chapter 3: Discovery and Initial Solution Planning
    1. Discovering the business and its needs
      1. Pre-discovery research
      2. Case study – pre-discovery research
      3. Preparing effective discovery questions
      4. Running the discovery phase
      5. Case study – a discovery outcome and project plan
    2. Identifying applicable solutions within the Microsoft Power Platform and the wider Microsoft Cloud-Based ecosystem
      1. Case study – matching Inveriance Corps’ requirements to Microsoft solutions
    3. Leveraging AppSource apps, third-party applications, and other solutions
      1. Case study – matching Inveriance Corp’s requirements to AppSource components
    4. Estimating the migration effort
      1. Case study – sizing the migration effort at Inveriance Corps
    5. Summary
  12. Chapter 4: Identifying Business Processes, Risk Factors, and Success Criteria
    1. Conducting high-level discovery workshops
      1. Preparing discovery sessions
      2. Delivering discovery sessions
      3. The post-discovery session wrap-up
    2. Understanding the organization’s key success criteria
      1. Case study – reviewing the key success criteria at Inveriance Corps
    3. Facilitating understanding through high-level processes and data modeling
      1. The benefits of a high-level process and data models
      2. Modeling the high-level business processes
      3. Case study – modeling existing and proposed business processes
    4. Identifying automation opportunities and process optimization
      1. Case study – a high-level model of the existing data structure
    5. Balancing digital transformation risk factors through planning and mitigation
      1. Case study – the SWOT analysis
      2. Case study – an initial project risk analysis
    6. Summary
  13. Chapter 5: Understanding the Existing Architectural Landscape
    1. Assessing the existing enterprise architecture
      1. Understanding the current enterprise architecture
      2. Understanding the upcoming changes that may have an impact on the enterprise architecture
      3. Understanding the desired enterprise architecture
    2. Identifying Power Platform data sources, their usage, and quality standards
      1. Case study – current data sources at Inveriance Corps
    3. Documenting the organization’s architecture and detailed business processes
      1. Case study – assessing the existing architecture at Inveriance Corps
    4. Summary
  14. Chapter 6: Requirements Analysis and Engineering for Solution Architecture
    1. Overview of effective requirements analysis and engineering
    2. Planning the requirements gathering sessions
      1. Defining the purpose and desired outcome of the sessions
      2. Reviewing previously defined requirements
      3. Defining a clear agenda
      4. Identifying attendees and stakeholders
      5. Scheduling the workshops
      6. Sharing the session prerequisites with the attendees
      7. Preparing facilities, equipment, and demonstration platforms
      8. Preparing the baseline documentation
      9. Arranging for any support required during the workshop sessions
    3. Delivering the requirements gathering sessions
      1. Starting with the desired outcome
      2. Driving the agenda
      3. Refining the high-level requirements
      4. Identifying functional requirements
      5. Identifying non-functional requirements
      6. Assessing requirement feasibility
      7. Managing conflicting requirements
      8. Managing exceptions
      9. Managing scope creep
      10. Leveraging requirements capture methodologies and templates
      11. Helping stakeholders share your vision
    4. Post-requirements capture review and sign-off
      1. Reviewing the requirements capture workshop sessions
      2. Confirming/re-aligning the requirements to your digital transformation goals
    5. Summary
  15. Chapter 7: Power Platform Fit Gap Analysis
    1. Introduction to Power Platform fit gap analysis
      1. Power Platform fit gap analysis essentials
    2. Deep-diving into feasibility analysis
      1. Will a feature be used?
      2. Is it technically possible to implement a feature?
      3. Are there any regulatory compliance issues?
    3. Deep-diving into best fit analysis – matching Microsoft product capabilities
      1. Matching requirements to Power Platform components
      2. Matching requirements to Dynamics 365
      3. Matching requirements to industry accelerators
    4. Best fit analysis deep-dive – matching AppSource, third-party product capabilities
      1. Case study – matching Inveriance Corp’s requirements to AppSource components
    5. Validating solutions through POCs
    6. Summary
  16. Part 3: Architecting the Power Platform Solution
  17. Chapter 8: Designing the Power Platform Solution
    1. Defining the Power Platform Solution Architecture topology
      1. Understand the current state
      2. Understand the to-be state
      3. Considering the project’s constraints
      4. Architecture that fits short and long-term objectives
      5. Linking the architectural building blocks
      6. Presenting multiple architecture options to facilitate selection
      7. Review iterations
      8. Product roadmap
    2. Power Platform detailed design
      1. Power Apps design patterns
      2. Power Automate design
    3. Facilitating understanding through descriptive visual designs
    4. Defining user experience prototypes for customer-facing and internal applications
    5. Benefits of UX prototypes
    6. Designing data migration strategies
    7. Defining the application life cycle management process
    8. Summary
  18. Chapter 9: Effective Power Platform Data Modeling
    1. Translating complex business requirements into visual data models
      1. Creating logical data models
      2. Creating physical data models that support the implementation
      3. Strategies for creating effective data models and diagrams
    2. Deciding factors for integrating or importing external data sources
      1. Dataverse
      2. Copying data to Dataverse
      3. Copying data to Azure Data Lake
      4. Direct access to external data
    3. Defining extensible Power Platform data models
      1. Dataverse table types
      2. Selecting column data types
    4. Optimal reference and configuration data modeling strategies
      1. Modeling reference data
      2. Modeling configuration data
    5. Establishing table relationships and cascade behaviors
      1. Types of Dataverse relationships
      2. Relationship behaviors
    6. Power Platform data modeling best practices
      1. Deciding whether to use built-in or custom tables
      2. Deciding whether to use the Account and Contact tables
    7. Summary
  19. Chapter 10: Power Platform Integration Strategies
    1. Introduction to Power Platform integrations
      1. Your role during the implementation of Power Platform integrations
      2. Benefits of an integrated Power Platform
      3. Power Platform integration challenges
      4. Integration layers
      5. Managing Power Platform integration implementations
    2. Designing integrations between Power Platform and Microsoft 365
      1. Designing for Exchange integration
      2. Designing Power Platform integrations with Outlook
      3. Designing Power Platform SharePoint integrations
    3. Designing integrations with on-premise and cloud-based customer systems 
      1. Options for connecting on-premise systems and Power Platform
      2. Integrating Power Platform applications with cloud-based services
    4. Defining inbound and outbound authentication strategies
      1. Designing Power Platform inbound authentication strategies
      2. Designing Power Platform outbound authentication strategies
    5. Designing a business continuity strategy for Power Platform integrations
      1. Monitoring and alerts
      2. Recovery
    6. Summary
  20. Chapter 11: Defining Power Platform Security Concepts
    1. Designing the Power Platform core security model
      1. Understanding an organization’s security requirements
      2. Securing Power Platform environments
      3. Providing Dataverse API access to external applications
      4. Defining data loss prevention policies for Power Platform solutions
    2. Securing Dataverse-based applications 
      1. Common usage patterns for security design
      2. Best practices
      3. Leveraging Dataverse security features
      4. Defining a Dataverse permissions matrix
    3. Defining access routes for external Power Platform users
    4. Summary
  21. Part 4: The Build – Implementing Solid Power Platform Solutions
  22. Chapter 12: Validating the Solution’s Design and Implementation
    1. Continuous review of detailed designs and their resulting implementation
      1. Validating the Power Platform detailed designs
      2. Validating and reviewing the Power Platform implementation
    2. Validating compliance with the defined security requirements
      1. Validating Dataverse security for compliance with best practices and guidelines
      2. Validating authentication strategies
      3. Validating storage and processing secrets
      4. Monitoring for security compliance
    3. Implementing solutions that work within Power Platform API limits
      1. User API limits
      2. Dataverse service protection API limits
      3. Power Automate limits
    4. Resolving business automation conflicts
      1. Systematically problem-solving automation conflicts
    5. Resolving integration conflicts
      1. Systematically problem-solving integration conflicts
    6. Summary
  23. Chapter 13: Power Platform Implementation Strategies
    1. Power Platform environment and tenant configurations
      1. Selecting a geographical location for the environments
      2. Deciding on a Power Platform environment strategy
    2. Optimizing the output of cross-functional Power Platform development teams
      1. Understanding the team’s capabilities
    3. Implementing effective test strategies for Power Platform solutions
      1. Manual testing
      2. Automated tests
      3. Load tests
      4. Penetration tests
    4. Summary
  24. Chapter 14: Leveraging Azure DevOps for Power Platform
    1. Leveraging Azure DevOps for task management
    2. Leveraging Azure DevOps for source control
    3. Leveraging Azure DevOps for application life cycle management (ALM)
    4. Summary
  25. Chapter 15: Go-Live Strategies
    1. Selecting a go-live strategy
      1. Selecting a phased go-live strategy
      2. Selecting a big-bang go-live strategy
    2. Preparing for go-live
      1. Identifying the resources required to go live
      2. Training users and maximizing adoption
      3. Defining the post-go-live capacity management and monitoring plan
      4. Planning the go-live cutover (who will do what and when)
      5. Ramping up the operational support activities
      6. Preparing a communication plan
      7. Common go-live issues and how to preempt them
      8. Validating the solution before rolling it out to production
      9. Taking into account the Power Platform product release schedule
      10. Running through the go-live checklist
      11. The go/no-go decision
    3. Rolling out the production environment
      1. The cutover
      2. Deciding when to roll back
      3. Troubleshooting data migration issues
      4. Handing over operational support
    4. Summary
  26. Part 5: Power Platform Solution Architect Certification Prep
  27. Chapter 16: Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Solution Architect Expert Certification Prep
    1. The benefits of being a Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Solution Architect Expert
    2. Preparing for the PL-600 – the Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Solution Architect Expert Microsoft exam
    3. Tips for the day
    4. PL-600 example questions
      1. Question 1 – Dataverse column types
      2. Question 2 – Dataverse security
      3. Question 3 – Select a Power Platform component
      4. Question 4 – Identify functional and non-functional requirements
      5. Question 6 – Select the most appropriate feature
      6. Question 7 – Power Apps portal (Power Pages) security features
      7. Question 8 – Retry strategies
      8. Question 9 – Select a suitable Power Platform feature
      9. Question 10 – Select a suitable Power Platform feature
      10. Question 11 – Select a suitable application
      11. Question 12 – Identify functional and non-functional requirements
      12. Question 13 – Data migration
      13. Question 14 – API and service protection limits
      14. Question 15 – External client authentication
      15. Question 16 – Data security
      16. Question 17 – Table security
      17. Question 18 – Dataverse relationships
      18. Question 19 – Data security
      19. Question 20 – Customer satisfaction surveys
      20. Question 21 – Integration options
      21. Question 22 – Select the ideal components
      22. Question 23 – Select integration options
      23. Question 24 – Functional versus non-functional
      24. Question 25 – Table columns
      25. Question 26 – Connecting external services
      26. Question 27 – Dataverse teams
      27. Question 28 – External users accessing a solution
      28. Question 29 – Identify the functional requirements
      29. Question 30 – Fit gap analysis
      30. Question 31 – Microsoft 365 integration
      31. Question 32 – Document management
      32. Question 33 – Integration options
      33. Question 34 – Solution strategies
      34. Question 35 – Dataverse features
    5. Recommended further reading and additional learning materials
      1. Conclusion on practice exams
    6. Final thoughts
      1. What we have discovered so far
      2. Where to next?
    7. Why subscribe?
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Product information

  • Title: Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect's Handbook
  • Author(s): Hugo Herrera
  • Release date: July 2022
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781801819336