Mastering Power Platform ALM & Governance

For enterprise organizations, "low-code" doesn't mean "low-control". As Power Platform adoption grows, the lack of proper Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and Governance can lead to shadow IT, security risks, and unmanageable technical debt. This guide outlines the architecture we use at Tech Cloud to secure Fortune 500 environments.

1. The Foundation: Environment Strategy

A single "Default" environment is a recipe for disaster. We recommend a multi-tier environment strategy to separate development, testing, and production data.

• Development Scope: Sandbox environments for developers. Isolated from production data.
• Test/QA Scope: Mirror of production for User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Production Scope: Managed locked-down environment where only valid solutions are deployed.

2. Automated Pipelines (Azure DevOps / GitHub)

Manual exports and imports of solution files are prone to human error. We implement automated CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.

When a developer saves changes, the pipeline automatically: 1. Unpacks the solution. 2. Checks for solution checker rules (static analysis). 3. Deploys to the Test environment. 4. Requires approval for Production deployment.

3. Dataverse Security & DLP Policies

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies are your first line of defense. They define which connectors can be used together. For example, you can block the ability to send Business Data (Dataverse) to Non-Business connectors (e.g., Twitter/X or personal Gmail).

4. The Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit

We always recommend installing the Microsoft CoE Starter Kit. It provides a bird's-eye view of your tenant:

• Who is creating apps?
• Which apps are orphaned?
• Which apps are most used?

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