Background

When covid struck in 2020 I decided to explore Power Apps, already having years of experience with Azure. This article summarizes the journey, sharing the experience and gotchas I came across - hoping you will find it useful!

Why

Initially, I just wanted to try out something new and expand the skillset. A As I was progressing, I saw other benefits as well:

• carefree experimentation without surprise bills: for learning there are no credits, just a trial that’s expanded every few months
• becoming more product oriented: As Gregrly Orosz states it in his article on Product-minded engieer “They often challenge existing specifications, suggesting alternative product approaches, that might work better.” - and playing with PowerApps helps you see problems from other perspectives
• finally more recently: Microsoft has been adding more AI capabilities to Power Apps like here

Developer acccount

To start playing with the Power Platform, I needed to set up a development account. Luckily, I came across a guide by Joe Camp, Dona Sarkar and Gomolemo Mohapi that you can use too in order to set up the trial: here

Products

Here’s a quick tour:

• PowerBI: a visualization tool - creating different graphs from data
• Power Automate (incl. Power Automate for Desktop, AI Builder): like a cousine of Azure Logic Apps
• Power Apps: no-code app development (using drag & drop)
• Power Virtual Agents (with Copilot): chatbot products

How to start exploring those and other products? Go to https://www.microsoft365.com/apps

Power Automate vs Logic Apps

When I was starting with Power Apps, I initially struggled with getting started. However, Power Automate turned out to be a great spot, because there’s an Azure counterpart of the offering (Logic Apps) and it’s easier to spot the difference between oferrings.

Try creating a pipeline in Logic Apps, replicate it in Power Apps - or start in Power Apps right away! For example, by implementing RSS parser

Excellent community content to go through: here

Low-code programming language: Power Fx

Power Fx is a language used in Power Apps. Worth to explore how low-code programming languages operate: docs

Certification

Keith Atherton covered Power Platform exams: link