Power Platform Community

Hi all,

We are working on creating a Power Platform Community to allow users in our organization to collaborate, share ideas, flows and apps and provide self help etc.
We have been looking for the best approach for building the community using Microsoft tools whether it be Teams, Yammer (Viva Engage), SharePoint, CoE functionality or combinations of these or other MS tools (but preferably without incurring premium user license costs).

We are looking for examples of how other organizations have set up their Power Platform communities, how successful they have been and any pitfalls we should be aware of.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Categories:

Employee Ideas app on Teams

General Questions

@sc1

I would suggest the creation of a Power Platform Citizen Development Group that would allow your employees to apply and benefit from basic training and access to learning materials provided in Microsoft's space. This program would also provide an opportunity for them to work on small improvement projects.

To ensure the success of this initiative, I recommend implementing a tiered system for projects. For example, T1 could be reserved for personal productivity projects, while T2 could be designed for team projects where apps flows are developed for small and non-critical parts of the business, all of which would be covered by Citizen Developers.

For more advanced projects, such as large-scale, business-critical initiatives that require proper app life management maintenance, a T3 level could be introduced. In this case, Citizen Developers would have the opportunity to work alongside more experienced developers, providing them with invaluable hands-on experience.

Microsoft is currently offering a 60-day trial for most Power Platform tools, which would be activated when users enter the Premium license space. This means that less-committed Citizen Developers can practice without creating a cost for the business, and only those employees who are committed to supporting the business and taking a deeper dive into this program will receive the proper license.

I believe that a Citizen Development Group could be a highly effective way to encourage innovation and creativity among your employees while providing them with valuable opportunities for professional growth.

I suggest also creating a proper SharePoint site for the Citizen Developer Group. This site should include an application form in Power Apps or MS Forms, where employees can apply for the program. Additionally, the site should promote and explain this initiative to visitors and provide a member area with all the necessary processes and directions to training materials and any classes provided by the company.

I also recommend introducing governance to manage the apps. For example, there should be a clear process for requesting a T2 space in the team development environment, where potentially solutions could be kept for this type of apps. This would provide permissions and access to the production environment setup as well and to manage Solution in Owner , Developer hierarchy.

Hope that give You some idea