I spoke at GPPB 2023 Denmark: adoption vs governance

The Global Power Platform Bootcamp 2023 Denmark ran on February 24–25, 2023, and I spoke on Power Platform adoption. User groups and communities around the world host these bootcamps so anyone curious about Power Platform can show up and learn from the people building real solutions. #powerplatform #GPPB23 #GPPB23DK

Thanks to everyone who joined the session. The challenge I left on the screen: think differently about how to adopt the platform at scale inside your organization, without getting buried in governance.

Slides: Power Platform Adoption, finding the right balance between platform governance and tenant hygiene vs. the value you get from actually using the platform.

Adoption vs governance

Adoption is how well your users pick up and use the solutions IT delivers. Governance is how well IT controls and monitors those solutions. Both matter, and they pull in opposite directions.

Lean too hard on governance and you fence users in with rules that suffocate the work. They go around you, or they stop using the tools at all. Lean too hard on adoption and you skip the security and compliance work that protects the organization. Users move fast, and so do the risks.

My take: put adoption first

Adoption first does not mean dropping governance. It means designing the platform around how people actually want to work, then layering governance into the parts that need it. If users see Power Platform as a tool that solves their problems, they are far more likely to follow the guardrails you put around it. If they see it as a maze, they will route around it (with shadow IT, with their phones, with screenshots in Teams).

What that looks like in practice:

• Build with users in the room, not just for them.
• Make the secure path the easy path. Default environments, default data policies, templates that pass review.
• Measure adoption (active makers, app usage, automations running) alongside compliance metrics. If one trends down while the other trends up, you have a balance problem.

Further reading

• Governance in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
• CIO.com: What is IT governance?

7 best Power Platform adoption moves to run in parallel with governance

1. Default environments come pre-fenced. Use Power Platform\’s environment strategy guidance to spin up a “Citizen Dev” environment with sensible DLP from day one. Makers do not pay the tax of waiting for IT.
2. Ship templates, not training videos. Three templates that solve real internal pain (leave requests, IT-asset return, room booking) drive more Power Platform adoption than a 90-minute walkthrough.
3. Run a Maker Office Hours weekly. One hour, one Teams call, all makers. Fastest unblock loop you can build.
4. Make the secure path the easy path. If the connectors makers want are on the green list, they will not go around you.
5. Measure adoption next to compliance. Active makers, apps in production, automations running, alongside DLP violations and break-glass usage. Both numbers belong on the same dashboard.
6. Pick public champions, not silent admins. A Power Platform adoption program lives or dies on whether makers see other makers winning.
7. Tie it to one business OKR. “Cut RPA backlog by 30% this half” beats “increase Power Platform adoption.”

Power Platform adoption tools I pointed people at

Start with the Power Platform adoption framework on Microsoft Learn. It is the canonical reference and it is short enough to read in one sitting. Then install the Center of Excellence Starter Kit and let it surface the makers and apps already in your tenant. You almost certainly have more than you think.

Related Power Platform adoption talks on this blog

• Power Platform Partner Day 2022 (Copenhagen): the Landing Zones architecture that makes Power Platform adoption safe at scale.
• Power Platform Partner Day FY23: how the “do more with less” frame changed the adoption conversation.
• Guest lecture at ITU Copenhagen 2023: the same adoption ideas, but pitched to students.