Every release the same way. Every environment under control.
Azure DevOps pipelines that take your Power Platform solutions from development to UAT to production without manual steps, plus the data policies and governance your admins need as more people build on the platform.
- Azure DevOps
- Power Platform Build Tools
- Power Platform CLI
- Data policies
- Power Platform admin center
Low-code is still code. It needs releasing and governing like code.
Manual releases break things
Exporting a solution by hand, importing it, then fixing connections and settings in each environment is slow. Every manual step is another chance to get production wrong.
Production drifts from what was tested
When someone edits directly in UAT or production, what you tested is no longer what you run, and nobody can say exactly what changed.
Nobody knows what exists
As more people build apps, flows and agents, admins lose track of what is in the tenant, who owns it and which connectors it uses.
Three pipelines. One build. Approved into every environment.
Work happens in development. One run of the build pipeline starts the chain, each pipeline triggers the next, and the same managed package is approved into UAT and then production.
- 01
Build pipeline
Run with the solution name and a note on what changed. It stamps a date-based version on the solution in development, exports it as managed and unmanaged, and commits the unpacked source to Git with your note as the commit message.
- A date-based version on every build
- The managed package kept as the build artifact
- Source in Git, one folder per version
- Canvas apps unpacked into readable YAML, so changes can be reviewed
- 02
Deployment settings pipeline
Generates the settings files for UAT and production from the new build and merges them with the existing ones. Values already set are kept, new connection references are filled from a connection map for each environment, and variables a developer removed are cleaned out.
- Connection references and environment variables per environment
- Existing values never overwritten
- Unmapped connections flagged and emailed to the team
- Settings committed to Git next to the solution
- 03
Release pipeline
Waits for approval, deploys the managed package to UAT, then waits for a second approval before production. Each import applies that environment's settings, turns the flows on, and upgrades the solution in place when it is already installed.
- Approval before UAT and before production
- The same package in both environments
- Each environment's Application Insights key set in canvas apps
- Runs as a service principal, not a person's account
- No manual exports or imports
- The package approved in UAT is the package in production
- Environment settings versioned in Git, visible to the whole team
- Every release traceable to a build, a change note and an approver
Guardrails your makers can live with.
Good governance stops the risky things and stays out of the way of everything else. We set up the policies, environments and visibility that let IT say yes to more people building.
Data policies (DLP)
Policies scoped per environment that block the connectors you don't want in use, and keep business data apart from personal services.
Environment strategy
Separate development, UAT and production environments, each with its own service principal, connections and settings. Makers build in development; the pipelines release to UAT and production.
Power Platform admin center
Governance on Microsoft's own tooling: Inventory for every app, flow and agent in the tenant and who owns it, Usage for adoption, Monitor for operational health, and Actions for governance recommendations.
Still running the CoE Starter Kit?
For years Microsoft's CoE Starter Kit, built by its Power CAT team, was the standard way to govern Power Platform: flows and apps that collected an inventory of every app, flow and maker, with Power BI dashboards and compliance and clean-up processes on top. Microsoft no longer maintains it, and its core capabilities now live in the Power Platform admin center.
We build governance on the admin center. We also know the kit, so if you still run it we can help you move off it without losing visibility.
Working pipelines and policies in your own tenant.
ALM
- Build, deployment settings and release pipelines in your Azure DevOps project
- A service principal and service connection for each environment
- Deployment settings and connection maps for UAT and production
- Solution source in Git, versioned with every build
Governance
- Data policies that block unwanted connectors, set per environment
- Development, UAT and production environments set up for the pipelines
- Governance support in the Power Platform admin center
- Help moving off the CoE Starter Kit, if you still run it
Common questions
Do you use Azure DevOps or the pipelines built into Power Platform?
Azure DevOps, with Microsoft's Power Platform Build Tools. It keeps source control, approvals and custom steps in one place, and suits organisations that already run other software through Azure DevOps. For simpler setups the built-in pipelines can be enough, and we will say so if that is the case.
What happens when a solution needs a connection that UAT or production doesn't have yet?
The settings pipeline fills connections from a map kept for each environment. If it finds a connector the map doesn't cover, it marks that setting and emails the team. The release is waiting for approval at that point anyway, so the connection is added before anything is deployed.
Do you install the CoE Starter Kit?
No. Microsoft no longer maintains the kit, and its core capabilities now live in the Power Platform admin center, so that is where we build governance. We have worked with the kit, so if you still run it we can help you move off it without losing visibility.
Can you add pipelines to a solution that is already live?
Yes. When a solution already exists in the target environment, the release upgrades it in place rather than installing it fresh.
Want releases nobody has to worry about?
Tell us how you deploy and govern Power Platform today. We'll show you what an automated, governed setup would look like in your tenant.