Why approach low code with a concept and plan?
“It’s all done quickly, isn’t it?”
Why go to all the trouble and plan everything in advance?
As a low-code developer, consultant, enabler, solution architect, part-time admin, I have often seen over the last five years that makers start directly in the UI without a clear direction. This often leads to challenges - from confusing solutions to a lack of focus on the actual user needs.
Why is planning important in low code?
Low-code platforms like the Microsoft Power Platform give us a gift:
They take a lot of the work out of development, testing and deployment for us.
It's like a prefab house kit - you save time and energy.
Due to the rapid development of agents, copilots and other (currently still) small helpers, the actual heavy lifting - coding, deploying, operating infrastructure and building business logic - is becoming ever easier and is disappearing into the abstraction layers of the platforms.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella describes it drastically:
But back to our low code project:
The Power Platform removes many technical hurdles for us: development, testing, deployment and infrastructure.
But the time saved should not be spent on more and more features or technical gimmicks, but on understanding the problem and user needs .
The three key questions before starting:
1️⃣ What problem are we solving and why does it exist?
2️⃣ What do our users really need?
3️⃣ What is our plan?
Let's use time and spend 80% of our time understanding and challenging the requirements and developing a solid design. Once we have a good (never perfect) plan, we start implementing it with full force and spend the last 20% turning the plan into a technical solution.
With the Microsoft Plan Designer, which I present in this video , Microsoft is attempting to integrate exactly this planning process directly into the Power Platform.
With this article, I would like to give you a tool that you can use directly to collect the entire requirements, conception and design part for your project on a clear "map".
The Power Apps Map: Low Code with Concept
To help you with your planning, I have developed the Power Apps Map (PAM) - an interactive Miro template for low-code projects. It brings together what I believe to be the essential steps for a successful project. At a glance, it guides you through the project together with your customer or department with lots of tips, tricks, helpful questions and prompts and helps you understand the problem and develop the right solution.
Video about the article:
It provides a clear structure for:
Requirements
conception
design
What the Power Apps Map is not :
No project documentation
No task management system
Not a classic planning tool
What the Power Apps Map is :
An interactive design canvas
An 80/20 solution for planning and design
A Framework for Citizen Developers
What is part of the Power Apps Map?
The Power Apps Map (PAM) is divided into various modules/slides/sheets (or in Miro also called "frames"), which can be filled out in more or less detail. In principle, I recommend that you use all of these modules, but of course you are free (and this is also very important) to weigh up the cost-benefit of each frame.
In subsequent blog posts, I will go into more detail about each frame and give you tips on how to use it.
In this blog I want to give you an initial overview of what is and is not part of the PAM.
1️⃣ Initial inquiry - the first appointment : Sort the inquiry, prepare for the first conversation.
2️⃣ Project team - who does what: Document roles, responsibilities and areas of responsibility.
3️⃣ Profile - what it's about : Record project goals and scope.
4️⃣ Users - for whom : Identify who the solution is intended for and understand their challenges.
5️⃣ Processes - how should it work : Describe the current state and define the target state.
6️⃣ User Stories - who wants what and why : Formulate requirements from the user's perspective - short and concise.
7️⃣ Solution Map - what for what : Plan which technologies will be used for which requirements.
8️⃣ App design - what should it look like : Create initial drafts of the user interface.
9️⃣ Data model - where is it stored : Define tables, relationships and storage technologies.
Conclusion
With the Power Apps Map you have all the important information on one “piece of paper”. This allows you to develop a user-centered and well-planned product without wasting time on unnecessary features.
In the next blog post I will delve deeper into the first step – the initial interview . Stay tuned!
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