Center of Excellence - Part 2

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of a Center of Excellence (COE) and how it should be staffed. I also mentioned the tasks and duties of a Center of Excellence briefly. This post will elaborate in more detail on the duties and tasks as I see them.

Detailed view on duties

In my first post on this topic, I introduced what I like to call DMPS - Develop, Maintain, Promote, Support. Again, this is an idealized view without having a specific industry in mind. My articles and posts are meant to be used as a template for you to adjust to your specific needs. Without further ado - let's have a closer look at the idealized tasks and duties of a Power Platform Center of Excellence team:

Develop the platform

The platform itself is already existing, but organizations usually create a plan on how to use the Power Platform environment. Very often, this plan includes a timeline that outlines when specific functionality should be rolled out. This plan also needs to include milestones and goals. The Power Platform provides a lot of functionality, which is as complex as powerful. For most organizations, a scheduled and thoughtfully planned roll-out plan makes sense to ensure that employees are not overwhelmed or confused by too much modern technology being released too quickly. Here is an example: it might be best for some organizations first to introduce the staff to PowerApps. Once PowerApps became established technology, Power Automate could be made available. Other organizations roll out the entire platform successively to entities that have already received training sessions and are well prepared to start using the platform. In other words: organizations need to create a strategy (which includes a timeline and milestones) regarding the roll-out and usage of the Power Platform - and the COE team is responsible for ensuring timelines and milestones are met, and nobody is left behind. This strategy needs to be synchronized with other corporate strategies and goals, which is the reason why at least the COE Lead (Reference) needs to attend other corporate committee meetings to stay up to date.

Maintain the platform

I think most of you would agree: the Power Platform is a complex environment, which requires expert knowledge to maintain it properly in an organizational environment. This includes managing settings for PowerBI, PowerApps, Power Automate, managing licenses (a rather complex topic), managing access permissions (can be even more complex), managing Dataverse environments, and integrating with other services provided by Microsoft 365. Also, a COE team needs to maintain a list of available (allowed) connectors to ensure, Governance and Data Security policies are met. In a nutshell: the COE team needs to ensure that the entire staff can utilize the Power Platform on a 24/7/365 basis and that any issues or disruptions are handled timely and efficiently. Collaborating closely with the corporate IT team and the Microsoft support is the key to success.

Promote the platform

It is not enough to kick off Change Management activities in a huge organizational environment to support new technology's roll-out. In fact, continuous promotion and advertising are required. No organization should expect employees to know how to make the best use of the Power Platform features after the change management team finished their activities. Based on my experience, the best way to promote new technology is to involve the staff and share examples of what others have created so far. Think of yourself: when you notice that your neighbor has built a shiny new patio in his backyard with just a few days of effort, you'll remember it when you're thinking about building a patio, too. It's all about leading by example, and in most cases, entities are proud of what they have created and are eager to present this to others. Just use this momentum!

Support the platform

Even if corporate entities receive elaborated and detailed training (which I highly recommend), it is as sure as ten dimes buy a dollar that entities will require additional support. Power Platform is meant to be used by citizen developers, but that does not mean that everything is straightforward. Power Platform is a complex and powerful environment with a user-interface that is mainly created for citizen developers. Still, there will be requirements that demand some expert knowledge, and that's where the COE's team of experts comes into play. Besides, the COE team is tasked with reviewing or auditing the internal architecture of some PowerApps applications or Power Automate flows to ensure the artifacts meet corporate security and governance policies. Don't get me wrong here! There is no need to audit each artifact that gets created, but there might be some apps or flows that, e.g., access specific data repositories that require approval from the COE team.

Additional activities

My Develop, Maintain, Promote, Support list of activities is an idealized list of activities. In real-world scenarios, the COE team will likely be tasked with additional activities like preparing and executing corporate training, creating reference architecture documentation, or acting as subject matter experts at other corporate committees. These additional activities can have an impact on the membership of the COE team. As every organization is different, so are the duties and participation of COE teams. To be successful, you want to take my idealized approach and adjust it to your organization's modus operandi.

To be continued ...

Other articles of this series

1. Centre of Excellence - Part 1
2. Centre of Excellence - Part 2
3. Managing Environments
4. Power Platform Connectors
5. When to use and when not to use
6. Connectors and Connections
7. Insufficient Change Management