There used to be many challenges with enterprise-level development and governance for Dynamics CRM. Microsoft did a tremendous job for ALM and CI/CD capabilities during the last three years, and more perks are coming. So, most SI already adopted mature ALM and CI/CD delivery models for Dynamics 365 / Power Apps / Power Platform-based implementations. Currently, I see organizations have the major strife in governing the development, delivery, growth, and operations of Enterprise Applications at an organizational level. Low-code/No-code and rapid development bring new challenges to orchestrating multiple development teams, applications, programs, and portfolio management. It is deeply fused into Enterprise Architecture, organization’s strategy, PMO, change control, IT Operations, and overall continuous improvement and is not just about CI/CDing your application.
With my passion for Citizen and Fusion development with Power Platform, I mainly focus on operational and architectural challenges to govern development, support, and growth at an enterprise scale.
Common challenges I see are:
- Monolithic architectures or attempts to have one single solution/product for multiple business units
- Inability or high costs to manage multiple concurrent development teams
- Various issues with enabling Citizen Development or Fusion Development for Power Platform
- Enormous effort for Quality Assurance and Change Control
For organizations on a Digital Transformation journey and those betting on Microsoft Power Platform, Implementing Dynamics 365 applications, building applications with Power Apps or shifting towards Microsoft Dataverse (ex Common Data Service) and Azure, I’ve built a solution to govern this area. I did not see any cost-effective and straightforward all-in-one tool to manage this in a single place with minimal effort.
Thanks to Power Platform, it takes no time to build one and is free for organizations with proper licensing for Power Apps.
Overall solution visually can be represented to fit between many areas of IT&Operations.
Key Features
- Portfolio Management
- Portfolios
- Application Groups
- Application Management
- Dependencies Tracking
- Release Tracking
- Deployment Management
- Citizen/Pro/Fusion Development Tracking and Governance
Benefits
- Track and govern your organization’s Applications, map your unique landscape, and ownership of applications development and support.
- Gain insight & understanding of inter-dependencies between your Enterprise Applications
- Lower TCO for Enterprise Aplications Governance
- Improve App Development Governance
- Enable Citizen Development at enterprise level with Power Platform Governance
Data Model
The current Data Model implemented on Microsoft Dataverse as part of the Power Platform solution is Described below on ERD.
How it looks as a Model-Drivean App
Applications
Application Record Example
Application’s Dependencies Example – Sales CRM App
Application’s Dependencies Example – Contractors Invoice Processing App
Release Record Example
Deployment Record Example
Enterprise Applications Governance Dependencies Visual Explorer
How to get it
The Solution is free to use or contribute by anyone and will be available soon as a managed solution and a source code at GitHub as well installed from AppSource.
Feedback and Enhancements
Please feel free to contact me via LinkedIn to provide feedback or get support or suggest ideas for enhancements.