Governance, Security, and ALM in Microsoft Power Platform

Introduction to Power Platform Governance

Microsoft Power Platform is a powerful and flexible suite of low-code tools that enables organizations to build digital solutions, automate processes, and analyze data. However, its flexibility requires a mature governance framework capable of balancing innovation and control.

Effective governance ensures that both citizen developers and professional IT teams can create solutions within a framework of security, compliance, and quality. Organizations must ensure that the proliferation of apps, flows, and environments does not get out of hand.

• Defining policies for environment creation and management
• Implementing tenant-level security controls
• Continuous monitoring and auditing of activities
• Adopting ALM practices for controlled solution deployment

Environment Management

Each organization must design a strategy for development, test, and production environments. Environment segmentation allows you to isolate customizations and maintain system stability.

According to Contoso Inc.’s implementation, a typical architecture includes multiple development environments for parallel work, a consolidation environment for packaging solutions, system integration test (SIT) and user acceptance test (UAT) environments, and a global production environment. Additional environments such as “Support”, “Preview”, and “Training” complete the setup.

Centralized environment management is performed through the Power Platform Admin Center, where capacity limits can be monitored, regions configured, and security policies enforced at the environment level.

Security and Authentication

Security within Power Platform is built on the principles of authentication and authorization. Authentication is managed through Azure Active Directory (AAD), while authorization is defined in Dataverse using security roles, column-level profiles, and business unit hierarchies.

Organizations can implement multilayered security, including:

• Conditional Access: restrict access based on location or device type.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): protect accounts with an additional verification factor.
• Single Sign-On (SSO): provide seamless and secure user experiences.
• Cross-Tenant Restrictions: control access from external tenants.

A mature security model also includes automated identity and license management, using Graph and Dataverse APIs to keep permissions synchronized across systems.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies

DLP policies are essential to maintaining data security across Power Platform. They define which connectors can be used together, limiting the ability to transfer sensitive data to unapproved external services.

As seen in the Contoso Inc. case study, tenant-level DLP policies were implemented to block social connectors and allow only business-relevant connectors within the Business Data group.

DLP policies can be classified as:

• Tenant-level DLP: applied organization-wide.
• Environment-level DLP: applied to specific environments for granular control.

The goal is to create a Power Platform ecosystem that is secure and compliant with data protection regulations such as GDPR.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)

ALM lies at the heart of Power Platform governance. It encompasses the practices, tools, and processes for managing the entire lifecycle of applications—from design and development to testing, release, and maintenance.

Microsoft distinguishes between two types of solutions:

• Unmanaged Solutions: open and editable, used only in development environments.
• Managed Solutions: locked and stable, used for test and production deployment.

Respecting this distinction is critical to avoid component overlap and to maintain release traceability.

ALM Tools and Automation

Microsoft recommends using Azure DevOps for automated release management. With the Power Platform Build Tools, teams can:

• Manage solution versions and publishers.
• Automate solution import/export between environments.
• Perform environment backups and restores.
• Monitor release status and deployment health.

Contoso Inc. implemented Azure DevOps as the central ALM tool, integrating Git repositories and pipelines for versioning, integration, and continuous deployment.

Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit

To support governance and resource management, Microsoft provides the Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit. This package includes Dataverse solutions, apps, Power Automate flows, and Power BI dashboards to help you:

• Inventory all Power Platform resources within your tenant.
• Monitor connector and DLP policy usage.
• Analyze app, flow, and environment distribution.
• Onboard new makers and ensure compliance.

The CoE Starter Kit accelerates the establishment of mature governance and provides a comprehensive view of your Power Platform ecosystem.