A platform owner inherits an environment with 300 flows, 80 canvas apps, and three Power BI workspaces. Half the flows have no clear owner; a third of the canvas apps are duplicates of each other. The platform investment is real and the governance debt is bigger. Power Platform plus D365 is the modern shape; the discipline that keeps it working is the part most teams underbuild.
Shared Dataverse
D365 model-driven apps run on Dataverse. Power Apps build on the same Dataverse. Power Automate flows use Dataverse triggers. One data layer, multiple UIs and automations — that is the platform benefit. The shared layer means a custom column added for a flow becomes available to canvas apps and Power BI without re-modeling.
Shared Dataverse benefits:
- One schema across CRM, ERP integrations, and citizen apps
- One security model
- One audit and compliance surface
- One backup and disaster recovery storyThe trade-off is that schema decisions affect everyone. A column added carelessly by one maker shows up in the maker portal of everyone else.
Power Apps to Extend D365
Canvas apps for tablet-first or field-use interfaces. Model-driven apps for standard CRUD on D365 tables. Do not replace D365 UI — extend it. The replace pattern produces a parallel experience that has to be maintained alongside the standard app and falls behind every release.
Extension patterns:
- Canvas app embedded in a model-driven form for custom UX
- Standalone canvas app for mobile workers using Dataverse data
- Model-driven app module for a slim persona view
- Custom page within a model-driven app for landing screensPower Automate for Workflows
Approval flows, integration to non-Microsoft systems, cross-module orchestration. More flexible than D365’s built-in workflows but can become a sprawl without governance. The most common sprawl pattern is per-user flows that solve the same problem in slightly different ways.
Anti-patterns to watch for:
- Multiple flows triggered on the same row update
- Flows that copy data between Dataverse tables (use plug-ins)
- Flows that loop over more than 100 records
- Flows without trigger filters
- Flows owned by individual users, not service accountsAdopt naming conventions and a quarterly cleanup cadence to keep the flow inventory honest.
Power BI Embedded
Embed Power BI reports inside D365 forms and dashboards. Users see analytics in context. Licensing caveats — verify Power BI seats for viewers. The license check happens at iframe load; users without a seat see a polite error rather than a broken visual.
Power BI license decision:
- Pro per user: small viewer base, occasional analytics
- PPU: heavy analytics users, no shared capacity
- Premium capacity: many viewers, shared workspaceThe capacity option scales best for read-only viewers but requires upfront capacity planning.
Governance
Center of Excellence (CoE) kit monitors Power Platform usage: active apps, flows, makers. Install it. Without visibility, citizen development becomes shadow IT. The CoE kit is a free Microsoft solution that ships with dashboards, alerts, and admin actions.
CoE kit components:
- Inventory of all apps, flows, environments
- Maker activity and usage telemetry
- DLP policy compliance checks
- App and flow ownership reports
- Automated cleanup workflows for orphaned assetsInstall the CoE kit before opening Power Platform to citizen makers. Doing it after is twice the work because the inventory is already messy.
DLP Policies
Data Loss Prevention policies separate connectors into Business, Non-Business, and Blocked categories. A flow cannot use a Business connector and a Non-Business connector in the same flow. Define the policy explicitly; the default lets makers combine connectors freely.
Standard DLP policy:
Business: Dataverse, SharePoint, Office 365
Non-Business: Twitter, Reddit, weather APIs
Blocked: Public file storage with no authReview the policy quarterly as new connectors land in the catalog.
Environment Strategy
Use distinct environments for Dev, Test, and Production. Use developer environments per maker to prevent crowding. Use a sandbox copy of production for UAT. The environment strategy maps to the ALM strategy; broken environment hygiene breaks ALM hygiene.
Solution Awareness
Every Power Platform asset that ships to production should live in a solution. Unsolutioned flows and apps cannot be deployed cleanly across environments. Train makers on solutions during onboarding.
What to do this week
Install the CoE kit if you have not, define a DLP policy and apply it, and pick one environment to audit for unsolutioned assets. Start the quarterly cleanup cadence with the makers who own the most flows.
