The Microsoft Power Platform is an incredible low-code platform that enables people to create their own apps and automation to address business needs. However, the platform is huge and it can be overwhelming.
What are we trying to achieve?
Who is the solution for?
Who needs to be involved?
Do I build an app or a bot?
What type of app?
What licenses are required?
Where should the data be stored?
What are the security considerations?
Is it even worth building an app?
These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered when building a Power Platform solution.
Based on my experience, if these questions are not answered properly then there is risk of building solutions that...
Are built with the wrong components
Are not liked or adopted by users
Become difficult and costly to maintain
Are not licensed properly
Do not deliver a good return on investment
Do not meet business objectives
It all starts to get very overwhelming.
And this is why I have designed the Solution Canvas. 👇
The Solution Canvas for Business Applications is a one-page solution design template that teams work on collaboratively to understand and validate that they have all the components for a successful Power Platform or Dynamics 365 solution. It helps design solutions that balance the needs of people, the possibilities of technology and the requirements of business success.
Once a Solution Canvas is complete, stakeholders will have the information required to answer the following questions:
How much will it cost?
What resources do I need?
How long will it take to build?
Is it worth progressing further?
This article describes the Solution Canvas and how you use it.
You can download a PDF copy of the canvas for free here 👇
Or if you are a Miro user, you can find the Miro template here 👇
When to use the Solution Canvas
The Solution Canvas is ideally suited for fusion teams (business and IT working together) who want to collaborate on solution design.
It is particularly useful when...
Premium Power Platform licensing may be required
The solution will be used by many people
The solution includes complex or sensitive data
The outcomes delivered by the solution are critical to the business
Alignment across all stakeholders is required
Who participates in building the Solution Canvas?
The Solution Canvas should be populated in collaboration with a diverse group of people so that different ideas, skills, knowledge and backgrounds can all be taken advantage of. The group should include the following people at a minimum:
Business leaders/owners
End users
Power Platform / Dynamics 365 technical specialists
How to populate the Solution Canvas
It is recommended that a digital whiteboard tool, such as Miro, Mural or Microsoft Whiteboard, is used to collaborate on the canvas. You are going to want to iterate and change things as the solution develops.
As a group, work together to populate the different sections of the canvas with sticky notes. Each section contains questions to help prompt the process.
Let's look at each section of the canvas in more detail.
Purpose
The purpose row should primarily be populated by the business owner of the envisioned solution. This row is the north star of the project that aligns the team to a common goal and guide decision making.
People
The people row considers all of the people involved with making the solution a success. This row is extremely important as ultimately it is people that will determine the success or failure of the solution.
Technology
The technology row is where things start to get technical and we consider all aspects of the Power Platform solution. It is a good idea to have two or more people who have technical knowledge of the Power Platform included at this stage. We want to have all ideas up for consideration so that we can select the best components for the solution.
Getting the technology row 100% correct the first time is not the goal here. It is best to get ideas down as quickly as possible (e.g. via an ideation workshop) and then work together to choose the best ones. The solution row has sections that relate to one another so decisions that you make in one section may affect another. Work through the sections iteratively.
Thinking About the Technical Components
What Power Platform components should be considered for the solution? Remember that a Power Platform solution is not just confined to the Power Platform. Take advantage of the entire Microsoft eco-system and its ability to connect to line of business systems.
Example
The Solution Canvas example below is from a small project for a construction company. The company has a strict quality assurance process to make sure that it complies with industry regulations and safety.
The quality assurance process was paper based, tedious, time consuming, involved duplication of work, and with a high risk of human error resulting in non-compliance.
The solution described in the canvas is a Power App designed for a mobile device plus a back-office application.
What next?
Once you have completed the first round of populating the Solution Canvas. It does not end there. You are likely to go off and start prototyping, getting feedback from users etc. and there may be changes to the solution design. Come back and update the solution row of the Solution Canvas as you go. It will ultimately become part of the supporting 'As Built' documentation. Once the solution is delivered, the canvas will become a reference point to reflect back on and determine whether the solution was a success or not based on the success criteria.
Feedback
There have already been multiple iterations of the Solution Canvas. I am looking to develop it further, whilst keeping it a free resource for anyone who wants to use it. I would love to get your feedback on the Solution Canvas in the comments below, or start a conversation with me on LinkedIn 👉 Hamish Sheild | LinkedIn.
What do you like about the Solution Canvas?
What is missing?
What could be improved?
Hamish, I particularly like your statement "It will ultimately become part of the supporting 'As Built' documentation", as I am in the process of creating something similar myself for the solutions I've built, to use as reference material as well as support material for future iterations.