Introduction: Planning a Power Apps project

If you just started using Power Apps, you might find it a little overwhelming to create an app from a blank screen.

You might have an idea in your mind, but perhaps you haven't fully thought through all the details and information you need to create an app. You might be a business user or IT pro who has never designed or built an app before. Or you might be a full stack developer who wants to know how working with Power Apps is different from traditional app development.

In these articles, regardless of your background or how much you know about app development, you'll learn about the steps to convert your ideas into a fully working solution by using Power Apps.

The basics of making an app are as follows:

1. Plan: Identify the who, what, when, and why.

2. Design: Model the data (decide how the data you need and create will be organized, accessed, and stored) and sketch out the app screens.

3. Make: Create the app.

4. Test: Have users try the app.

5. Deploy and refine: Get your app into the hands of users, get feedback, and decide what to change or add.

In this set of articles, you'll learn about each of these steps in detail. We've included a detailed example—an expense reporting app—to help clarify the concepts.

If you're a businessperson, you'll find that these articles help you plan and execute what might be your first app project:

• The Planning phase section should help you whether you're planning to build an app yourself or create requirements to pass along to another app maker. You'll be very familiar with many of the planning steps; some might be new to you.

• The Designing phase > Conceptual design section will help you begin to turn your business process into the screens and features of an app.

• For those who plan to make their own app, we've tried to make the Designing phase > Architectural design, Making, Testing, and Deploying and refining phase sections easy to follow for new app makers.

If you're a dedicated app maker who isn't an expert in the business process, you'll find that these articles are for you, too:

• Follow the Planning phase steps while interviewing your future app users, to help you deeply understand the business process.

• The Designing phase, Making phase, Testing phase, and Deploying and refining sections all include Power Apps–specific information to help make your project successful.

If you're a "full stack" developer:

• See the next article, Differences between Power Apps and traditional app development approaches.

• Then, if you're already familiar with app project planning, you may want to jump right to the Designing phase > Architectural design section, which is where the material specific to Power Platform starts.