This is a series on the Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence starter Kit, and the various Apps, Dashboards, and Features that are included in it. The topic of this post is to discuss a few of the Apps that are included in the Core Solution, but not quite complex enough to get their own blog posts 😊

DLP Editor

Included in the CoE Starter kit is a canvas app that allows you to create, modify and apply DLP Policies. Now, you may be thinking, “Wait, can’t I already do that through the Power Platform Admin Center?” Yes. Yes you can. The only addtional feature this app really provides is the ability to see what assets are affected when you add or modify a new policy. While this is extremely helpful, it seems like this would have been way easier to just add to the existing DLP editor in the Admin Center.

App Catalog

App Catalog is a canvas app an organization can direct their user to, or embed in a SharePoint or Team that can provide your end users with a lsting of all of the Published and Promoted app you may have deployed in the Power Platform. This is a handy app in order to give your users a one stop shopping area to get to the apps they may be most interested in using. Typically I tend to see this used in large organizations where new apps may be rolled out often, or where the Center of Excellence team want to eaily promote new and featured apps, without having to send multiple news related emails to all thier users. I would say the biggest drawback to this is when orgnaiztions don;t do a well enough job of directing their users to this app, and it falls by the wayside of regular users checking it for new Apps.

Set App Permissions

This app is typically used in Citizen Developer heavy orgnaizations, which we typically see Citizen Devs controlling the permissions to their apps. However even in those environments, allowing for Admins to be able to also manage security can ensure that users will continue to have access to those apps even if the original creator leaves the organization. This app allows admins to see and assign permisisons to all of the apps across all of the environments.

Set Flow Permissions

Almost identical to the “Set App Permissions” canvas app, this app allows you to set permisisons of Power AUtomate Flows. The one glaring exeption in this app however, is that currently there is no way to set the Owner of an orphaned flow. A huge miss on Microsoft’s part, and hopefully somethign they will remedy in the near future.

Environment Requests

This app is mostly useful in organizations that are going to leverage a formalized ALM process for centralized or Citizen development. It allows developers to request new environments for development, QA, or Production purposes, and gives admins the ability to Approve or Reject those requests. In addition, if a request is approved, it can automatically spin up the new environment based on the criteria the requestor entered in on submission.

The Environment request includes 2 canvas Apps, one for Admins and one for Makers. On the Admin side, when an environment request comes in, an Admin can view the request, Approve/Reject it, add security to it, add DLP policies to it, and view the Connectors requested by the Maker.

On the Maker side, they can submit new requests, and see the status of the various environments they have requested. Environment requests can be timeboxed, depending on the type of environment chosen, and can be automatically deleted when that time expires. When requesting a new environment, they just need to fill out a simple wizard to get the appropriate information over to the Admins:

App and Flow Inactivity notifications cleanup View

The App and Flow Inactivity notifications cleanup view (this needs a an acronym, AFINC maybe??) allows Admins to exempt Apps and Flows from the Compliance notifications that Makers will receive and prevent that app from being archived. Feels like this functionality should be rolled into the Admin view, but for now, it exists in the Canvas App.

Cleanup Old Objects App

This App is designed to help keep Makers compliant and allow them to remove Apps and Flows that may no longer be used or have become stale. It gives an nice overview to makers on what they have out in the tenant, and allows them to take action on these assets

When makers are in the app, they can approve or reject the automated deletion from the CoE Starter kit, and stay in compliance with any governance policies’ you may have put into place. Feels like this should be rolled into the Developer Compliance Center, but for now it has it’s own Canvas App.

While some of these apps may not critical to your organizations governance, the Starter kit is designed to provide as many options as possible no matter your structure. Don’t be afraid to tailor the governance and development of the platform to conform to your organization and culture, and if you get into a bind, feel free to reach out me at jo.karnes@centricconsulting.com to find out how I can assist you with your Power Platform journey!