A hands-on approach to Power Platform solution architecture

By providing best practice guidance and laying the foundations for the implementation, solution architects lead by example. They complement and enhance the technical capabilities of the delivery team, resulting in team output that is greater than the sum of the individual members. The following diagram illustrates the support, documentation, and tools a solution architect may provide to the various project teams and individuals:

Figure 1.22 – Illustration of a Power Platform solution architect’s hands-on role and responsibilities

Solution architects interact with a wide variety of teams during a Power Platform implementation, and will typically provide hands-on support to the following individuals:

• Supporting technical consultants and developers

Technical consultants and developers working on a Power Platform implementation benefit from access to high-level technical blueprints and detailed designs. The blueprints provide a clear direction for the technical implementation. Standardized toolsets, source control strategies, development templates, and a continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) framework will help guide the implementation using a common and consistent approach.

• Supporting functional consultants

Functional consultants benefit from design documentation in the same way as technical consultants. When provided with functional implementation templates (for example, Power Automate design patterns and Dataverse table best practices), consultants benefit from a consistent approach to Power Platform configuration and implementation, resulting in a maintainable and more closely aligned solution with published best practices.

• Supporting business analysts

Solution architects work hand-in-hand with business analysts to understand the product capabilities and licensing constraints, shaping the requirements and success criteria for the project. Solution architects provide a guide to Power Platform’s best practices to steer the requirements towards solutions that are supportable and suited to the platform’s capabilities.

• Supporting project managers

Solution architects facilitate the smooth running of a project by providing estimates and progress updates to project managers. Risks to the project are presented to project managers alongside solutions and options to mitigate those risks.

Using a hands-on approach, solution architects provide project team members and stakeholders with the toolsets and information required for a successful Power Platform implementation.