Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect's Handbook: An expert's guide to becoming a Power Platform solution architect and preparing for the PL-600 exam

✍ Scribed by Hugo Herrera

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 492
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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. Introducing Power Platform Solution Architecture
2. The Digital Transformation Case Study
3. Discovery and Initial Solution Planning
4. Identifying the Desired Business Process, Risk Factors, and Success Criteria
5. Understanding the Existing Architectural Landscape
6. Requirements Analysis and Engineering for Solution Architecture
7. Power Platform Fit-Gap Analysis
8. Leading the Power Platform Design Process
9. Effective Power Platform Data Modeling
10. Power Platform Integration Strategies
11. Defining Power Platform Security Concepts
12. Validating the Solution Design and Implementation
13. Power Platform Implementation Strategies
14. Leveraging Azure DevOps for Power Platform
15. Go-live Strategies and Support
16. Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Solution Architect Expert Certification Prep

✦ Table of Contents

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