Skills for the Power Apps developer
It seems to me that Power Apps will prove to be a game-changer by enabling businesses and organisations to build bespoke apps designed to meet very specific needs.
For the purposes of this article lets assume that I mean canvas apps, however there is a lot of correlation with Model driven apps.
The curious thing about Power Apps is that the product is pretty well where it needs to be as of today but the major blocker for a global revolution is that there simply aren’t enough people out there with anything like the skills that they would need to be able to build robust business product.
So let’s assume that you can’t buy in Power Apps skills or maybe that you have some but need to grow some more. What would you be looking for in an individual to identify them as a potential Power Apps developer? In this article I’m going to outline some of the skills that I would be looking for when identifying candidates with the potential to be high performers.
EXCEL
It feels kind of strange to start with a product rather than personal skills but in this case the Excel formula structure and Excel cell construction is so closely related to that of Power Apps that is the number 1 skill.
The Excel and Power Apps teams work closely together so that any new formulas created are aligned to each other. With this in mind this also opens the door to the many years of formulas created by individuals within excel that can theoretically be borrowed or referenced to enhance a PowerApp.
MATHS
Power Apps is the product that is the most mathematical that I’ve ever seen. Variables can be easily created that can be used in an algebraic fashion. X and Y properties exist to govern the position of everything that you see on a screen.
EMPATHY
You need to be able to consider your products from the perspective of other users. If people don’t like your product they won’t use it, and you should be aiming for them to love them.
LOGIC
To my mind there are 2 kinds of logic. Firstly, the more mathematical/excel based ‘If X=1 to this otherwise do that’ and secondly there is the type of logic where you put yourself in the shoes of a user or administrator and be able to see whether or not a form (as in business world this is the most likely application) has a logical flow.
DESIGN
Having an eye for design is a skill people have to a greater or lesser extent. To be fair it doesn’t come naturally to me, but I do know that from making lots of products some designs work better than others and it is a skill that can be learned.
INITIATIVE
Power Apps won’t go to you, you have to go to Power Apps. If you create a blank app it will stay blank until you do something. Additionally, many technical solutions may require techniques that feel like work-arounds mainly because the problems you have been facing haven’t been faced before, so looking them up on Google won’t necessarily yield any results.
LIFELONG LEARNING
The product is ready, but is changing all the time. Good sources for keeping up to date are twitter and the Power Apps blog, but even the latter tend to focus on ‘big’ updates whereas some of smaller adjustments can still be game changers. Keep up with it. I’ll be honest in saying that there are times when staying at the cutting edge can be difficult to manage versus traditional tools and skills that stay very similar over long periods of time.
PERSEVERANCE
Some problems will require high levels of determination to find the exact syntax you need to solve your problem and when those fail you may need to pull back stick your head up and work out if there ways around the problem or if the items is even needed (i.e. do you really need to collect the data at all or is it a nice to have)
PATIENCE
Not necessarily my forte, but patience may be required of yourself as you may not have the skills that you need at your fingertips and similarly the same may be true of those around you. You’ll also need a level of patience on the part of your sponsors or users. I can almost guarantee that unless they are very familiar with digital form building you may produce a product to the exact specification requested but nevertheless you, and they, know that it’s not quite right and that adjustments, sometimes significant may be required.
USE THE COMMUNITY
The Power Apps community at this stage is currently populate by a relatively small but passionate group of individuals building highly imaginative solutions designed to stretch the product. Make use of these by joining https://powerusers.microsoft.com , follow people on twitter posting using the #powerapps or @Power Apps references. By all means take a look at my youtube channel www.youtube.com/dataspinners and don’t forget to join https://dynamics365society.uk which contains a Powe rApps bank that you can make use of once you sign up (for free).
GO ON A COURSE
Personally, I’m quite happy with an online course as typically these are completed over a longer period of time which for me is a better way of allowing the learning to sink in. The best single free resource is https://courses.edx.org where DAT207x is a very useful starting point. You can search up courses run in a classroom setting, but you will need to ensure that you invest time in utilitizing the product one you’ve completed it as otherwise you’ll lose your knowledge quite quickly.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This article was intended for hirers or individuals trying to make some sense as to the range skills needed for Power Apps excellence. Hopefully, it isn’t too daunting. Whatever you do, start small but build usable solutions. This particular tool offers us astonishing scope for us to run our businesses in efficient ways and the more we can grow as a community the closer we will all get to a culture of efficiency the impact of which may be widespread, more operations, better scheduling less wastage all by putting the right information in front of the right people at the right time.