The Power Platform Center of Excellence (CoE) helps your organization make the most of Microsoft Power Platform and encourages new ideas. It collects knowledge and best practices so business teams can build low-code solutions that follow regulatory rules.
The CoE helps you build solutions faster and keeps your systems running smoothly. It supports tools such as Power Apps and Power BI, ensuring they are easy to use and meet your company’s standards.
This is the first article in a series. Here, I’ll cover the prerequisites. The next article will show you how to install the CoE Starter Kit.
Before setting up the CoE Starter Kit, review the prerequisites and recommendations below. This will help make the installation and setup process smoother.
Roles & Licenses
- You need to be either a Power Platform Service Admin or a Global Tenant Admin.
- A Power Apps Per User license is required.
- You will need either a Power Automate Per User license or a Per Flow license.
- A Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license is needed.
- You need either a Power BI Premium Per User license or a Per Capacity license.
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To collect usage information like app launches and unique users per app from the audit logs, you need access to an Azure app registration.
Reference: Before setting up the CoE Starter Kit
MS 365 Groups
Microsoft suggests setting up three MS 365 Groups, one for each persona, to help you communicate with different teams in your organization.
- Admin persona: Power Platform admins share key information and work as a team. When makers need help, they contact admins for support.
- Maker persona: Admins connect with makers to offer guidance and share updates. Makers also work together to exchange ideas.
- User persona: Administrators help users by providing support and answering their questions.
Reference: What’s the best way to communicate with admins, makers, and users?
Power Platform Environment
Microsoft suggests setting up two environments: one for testing and another for production.
- Set up an environment that includes a database.
- Choose English as the default language.
- Leave out any sample apps or datasets.
- Set the security group to “None” so everyone has access. Keep in mind that some parts of the CoE Starter Kit use approval actions, which means makers will need to interact with the environment.
- Once you’ve imported the solution and finished setup, set the “ProductionEnvironment” variable to “no” in your test environment. This way, you can test the CoE Starter Kit processes without impacting makers or end users.
Reference: Create your environments
Register MS Entra App
Register an MS Entra app for later use during installation.
Sign in to https://entra.microsoft.com/ and go to app registrations to create a new app registration with the specified API permissions.
Other Configurations
Go to the Power Platform admin portal, select Settings, then Features, and turn on the Power Apps component framework for Canvas apps as shown in the image below.
