The Power Platform has transformed the way organizations build, automate, and innovate.
With tools like Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI at their fingertips, business users (aka citizen developers) are solving problems faster than ever. But with great power comes… great potential for chaos.
Enter Power Platform Governance — your toolkit for enabling creativity safely, ensuring scalability, and maintaining control as the platform grows across your organization.
In this article, we’ll break down the core pillars of governance:
✅ Environments
✅ Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
✅ Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
✅ Solutions
✅ Best Practices
What are they?
Environments are containers for your apps, flows, data, and solutions. Think of them as workspaces — each with its own security, data policies, and purpose.
Default Environment: Everyone has access. Great for prototyping, risky for production.
Personal Environments: Created automatically (in some tenants). Often disabled in governed setups.
Custom Environments: Tailored for dev, test, UAT, prod — essential for structured development.
Establish a naming convention and environment strategy early.
A common pattern:
[Department]-[Purpose]-[Region]
e.g. HR-Dev-UK or Sales-Prod-EMEA
What is it?
DLP policies define what connectors can be used together, protecting your data from unauthorized or accidental exposure.
Business Connectors: SharePoint, Dataverse, Outlook, etc.
Non-Business Connectors: Twitter, Dropbox, Gmail, etc.
Blocked combinations = no data leakage from business systems to public platforms.
Create DLP policies per environment. What’s okay in Dev may not be okay in Prod.
What are they?
Solutions bundle components for deployment. Think of them as the zip file of the Power Platform world.
Always build in solutions, even for small projects. It sets you up for scalable ALM and cleaner maintenance.
Unmanaged: Editable, used in Dev.
Managed: Read-only, used in Test/Prod.
ALM in Power Platform ensures apps and flows are properly versioned, tested, and deployed across environments.
Apps
Flows
Tables (Dataverse)
Environment variables
Custom connectors
Dev: Build and experiment
Test/UAT: Validate with users
Prod: Release and monitor
Solution import/export
Pipelines (Power Platform Pipelines or Azure DevOps)
GitHub Actions
Here’s how to strike the right balance between innovation and control:
Use the CoE Starter Kit to monitor app usage, orphaned apps, makers, and more.
Provide training and a “Makers Playbook” with guidance on:
Naming standards
Security practices
App lifecycle
Limit environment creation to admins.
Use security groups to assign maker access.
Audit apps, connectors, and flows regularly.
Review DLP policies as your org evolves.
Governance is not about saying no — it’s about saying yes the right way. By putting thoughtful governance in place, you can scale the Power Platform across your organization without compromising security, quality, or manageability.
Empower your makers. Protect your data. Support your IT teams. That’s the magic of good Power Platform governance.
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From custom app development to refining your existing solutions, we ensure your apps are intuitive, high-performing, and aligned with your business needs.
