Governance
Developing a workplace culture of enablement
Simply put, governance refers to the process of managing the development and deployment of data-driven applications in a consistent and controlled manner, ensuring that they adhere to organizational policies, standards, and regulations. This includes defining data requirements, ensuring data quality and security, establishing development processes, and managing the lifecycle of the applications. The goal of data application development governance is to maximize the value of data assets while minimizing risks and ensuring compliance.
Components for Effective Governance

Standardization
Ensure applications conform to the established governance model and adhere to conditions
Environments
Establishing development, testing and production environments for the appropriate life cycle of applications and their successful deployment.
Security
Establish security groups and protect against data loss and exposure of sensitive business data.
Providing guidance that the right licensing models are chosen for balance of features and cost effectiveness.
Monitoring
Once implemented, effective monitoring is key to ensuring you stay out of the woods. Tools like Microsoft CoE are beneficial for this.
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Our Experience Implementing Governance
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- We begin by gaining an understanding of the governance maturity within the organization. This includes understanding established processes and guidebooks. What is the appetite for governance and understanding of its importance within the senior leadership team?
- Once we have governance buy-in, we identify the stakeholders and classify them into groups and roles,
- Makers (citizen developers)
- IT professionals
- Governance owners (who will monitor etc.)
- Next, we engage the key stakeholders on why governance is needed and the benefits it brings. We share the steps that are required to implementing governance and share stakeholder engagement that is necessary for success.
- Tools and technology are selected and implemented to assist with the implementation and monitoring of governance. This could be a combination of out-of-box reporting available from within M365 up to selecting and implementing the CoE.
- Guidebooks/SOPs are created for makers to ensure they understand the steps required to develop and launch a new app. In our experience, items such as naming standards, branding guidelines, input validation, data connections to use/avoid are central to these documents.
- SOPs are created for governance owners (IT) to provide training on monitoring and compliance, including training on CoE. Training will vary depending on the familiarity, maturity and competency of IT governance group.
- Convverge provides ongoing support for the complete governance process as required. As an organization’s maturity increases, the necessity of Convverge input and leadership is lessened.
- Tools and technology are selected and implemented to assist with the implementation and monitoring of governance. This could be a combination of out-of-box reporting available from within M365 up to selecting and implementing the CoE.
- Guidebooks/SOPs are created for makers to ensure they understand the steps required to develop and launch a new app. In our experience, items such as naming standards, branding guidelines, input validation, data connections to use/avoid are central to these documents.
- SOPs are created for governance owners (IT) to provide training on monitoring and compliance, including training on CoE. Training will vary depending on the familiarity, maturity and competency of IT governance group.
- Convverge provides ongoing support for the complete governance process as required. As an organization’s maturity increases, the necessity of Convverge input and leadership is lessened.
Governance on Power Platform
Power Platform is a suite of low-code development tools that allows teams to create custom applications, automate workflows, and analyze data. While Power Platform provides numerous benefits for organizations, it also introduces governance challenges that must be addressed to ensure that the platform is used in a controlled and secure manner. In this guide, we'll discuss the need for governance while using Power Platform and provide some best practices to help business leaders manage the platform effectively.

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Fusion development is becoming increasingly popular as organizations seek to modernize their application development processes and deliver custom applications faster. Low-code and no-code platforms such as Microsoft Power Platform, Mendix, and OutSystems are commonly used in fusion development, alongside traditional programming languages such as Java, .NET, and JavaScript.
What is Microsoft's Center of Excellence?
Microsoft's Center of Excellence (CoE) is a program that helps organizations build and scale internal capabilities for implementing and managing Microsoft technologies effectively. The CoE provides a framework for organizations to establish best practices and standards for using Microsoft technologies such as Azure, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and others.
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- CoE is a starter system to build a governance model and keep IT in the loop.
- Designed to protect against Power Platform development from spiralling when too many users (citizen developers) start creating solution.
- Best way to oversee security, ongoing development, inventory of solutions with adherences to the organizations governance model.
- Helps to keep Power Platform clean with visibility into applications and workflows that are no longer used.
- Clearly see areas of the business that are benefiting and which ones can use some help.
- Assists with accelerating adoption of citizen development within the organization.
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Governance is critical for the effective use of Power Platform. It can help organizations manage the platform securely, consistently, and cost-effectively. It can also help organizations in achieving a higher user adoption rate, increasing efficiency, and enhancing the overall performance of the platform. By following the best practices mentioned in this guide, business leaders can establish a comprehensive governance strategy that maximizes the benefits of Power Platform.
Questions about establishing governance for your business? Let's talk!
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