A custom programme and portfolio management application on Microsoft Power Platform

What was delivered, in short

INSTAR designed and implemented an application for programme managers and the PMO on Microsoft Power Platform: Power Apps and Dataverse at the core, Power Automate and Dataflows for synchronisation and business logic, Power BI for management dashboards, all inside the organisation's Azure cloud. The system holds programmes, programme structure by component, roadmaps, key stakeholders and risks; reporting is assembled from data automatically. Three environments, a strengthened role model, user and administrator guides. Implementation took about half a year, from design to handing administration over to the client's IT department.

About the client

A Ukrainian company of about 150 employees delivering digitalisation services nationwide. A project-based organisation: dozens of concurrent programmes and projects in thematic clusters, several clients with different reporting requirements, an in-house PMO, a regular portfolio committee and a supervisory board. Its corporate project management system was already described in a regulation; now it needed a working tool.

Business challenge

Reporting to leadership, clients and the supervisory board was narrative: text plus financial figures. Data on programme delivery was scarce, lived in separate files with different people, and assembling a picture of "where we are on scope, dates and risks" meant days of manual work before every meeting. Risks were logged irregularly; nobody tracked milestone dates systematically. Standard Microsoft planning tools were already in use, but they gave data at task level, without the programme and portfolio layer, with access limitations and standard tables that could not carry the required volumes and logic.

Specific needs

• One application for programme managers, coordinators, project managers and the PMO where the whole programme is visible: components, projects, roadmap, stakeholders, risks.
• Data flows in from the operational planning teams already do, with no double entry.
• Risk management with automatic alerts: new risk, changed risk, approaching or overdue dates.
• A role model that mirrors the real structure: who sees only their own projects, who sees a programme with sub-programmes, who sees the whole portfolio read-only.
• Separate environments for development, testing and production.
• Management dashboards on Power BI: programme health, statuses, roadmaps, risks; company operational risks and per-programme risks separately.
• Documentation for users and administrators: access, security, backups, audit, handover of administration.

What was delivered

Step 1. Preparing people. First, training teams on operational planning in standard Microsoft tools, so that a flow of primary data appeared: projects, tasks, dates, owners.

Step 2. Data architecture. Three environments: test for development and change verification, operational where teams plan, and production where data lands automatically every day through Dataflows into custom snapshot tables built for the organisation's needs and free of standard-table limits. The data flow is one-way; production became the single source of truth for reporting.

Step 3. Application and logic. Power Apps for programmes, projects and risks; six Power Automate cloud flows for data enrichment, owner-based record visibility and notifications: email to the programme manager, project manager and PMO when a risk is added or changed, monthly risk snapshots for the risk burn-down chart. Five security roles with organisation-, business-unit-with-children- or own-records-level rights, tied to the business unit hierarchy.

Step 4. Dashboards. Power BI on top of production: portfolio overview, programme health and statuses, roadmaps, per-programme risks and company operational risks. Used at the portfolio committee several times a year, in reporting to clients and the supervisory board.

Step 5. Handover. Three iterations of testing with real users, role testing, a user guide, an administrator regulation (access, roles, business units, backups, audit, restore, handover of rights to IT).

INSTAR team: solution architect, testing and implementation consultant, Power Platform developer.

Business impact

• From narrative reports to data-driven management. Instead of text and finances, leadership sees plan versus actual on roadmaps, real scope delivery and a risk assessment: are we on time, will we deliver the promised scope, will we hit the targets.
• Reporting assembles itself. Dashboards for the portfolio committee, the supervisory board and clients refresh from data automatically.
• Risks under control. Automatic alerts on new and changed risks and on approaching dates, plus a monthly risk history for trend analysis.
• Security and manageability. Three environments, a role model matching the organisation's structure, an access regulation, backups and audit, administration handed to the client's IT department.
• A base for the next step. Data on programmes, components, stakeholders and risks accumulates in one place. This is the foundation of a data-driven management strategy: automated controls, portfolio analytics, further applications on the same platform.

Let's talk

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