Glossary
Concepts within Power Platform
Glossaries from Microsoft
Power Automate glossary Model-driven apps glossary
| Acronym | Meaning | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AIAD | App in a Day | Global training concept where you learn about Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse etc. See In a Day. |
| AID | Analytics in a Day | Global training concept targeting Data Engineers/Architects. See In a Day. |
| ALM | Application Lifecycle Management | The lifecycle management of applications which includes governance, development and maintenance. |
| CDM | Common Data Model | A set of standardized, extensible data schemas that Microsoft and its partners have published. |
| CDS | Common Data Service | A service for storing data in the could, back-end for model-driven Power Apps, security management and more. |
| CoE | Center of Excellence | Center of Excellence for the Power Platform, take a look at the Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit |
| CRM | Customer Relationship Management | The concept of managing customer relationships. |
| CWA | Custom Workflow Activity | Classic workflows can be extended by creating a CWA. |
| DIAD | Dashboard in a Day | Global training concept targeting Business Analysts. See In a Day. |
| GA | General Availability | Release of software which is good enough to be made available outside the originating company. |
| MAIAD | Modern Excel Analyst in a Day | Global training concept targeting Excel Data Users. See In a Day. |
| PCF | Power Apps Component Framework | The framework which Microsoft uses for developing components to Power Apps. |
| PVA | Power Virtual Agents | One of the four main services of Power Platform. Build No-Code/Low-Code chat bots. |
| RPA | Robotic Process Automation | Automate usage of legacy applications. Set it up with Power Platform, part of Power Automate. |
| PPAF | Power Platform Adoption Framework | Also abbreviated "PowerPlatformAF". A community-driven framework for adopting, managing, governing, and using Power Platform to develop solutions at scale. |
| PSA | Project Service Automation | One part of Microsoft Dynamics 365 |
| RPAIAD | RPA in a Day | Global training concept targeting Business and IT users. See In a Day. |
| ISV | Independent Software Vendor | An organization specializing in making and selling software. |
| URS | Universal Resource Scheduling | Scheduling for any entity in Dynamics 365 Sales, Field Service, Customer Service, and Project Service Automation, including custom entities |
| xRM | eXtended Relationship Management or any Relationship Management | Where it all started. 😉 From xRM to CDS to Dataverse. |
Terminology updates within Microsoft Dataverse!
What we once knew as Entity, Field, Record, Option Set and Two Option are now Table, Column, Row, Choice and Yes/No. Terminology updates
Fusion Team personas
Fusion Teams is a concept often mentioned during Microsoft events. When Business Users and Developers work together in order to create Business Applications a so called Fusion Team is formed. There is a Microsoft Learn learning path about Fusion Teams and in the beginning Thereses a chapter ”Meet the Team”, which introduced the following roles: Full-stack developer, Office Manager, people from the business, different departements e.g. Inventory Management in the example, Lead Technician, IT responsible.
Roles
You often see Citizen Developer vs. Professional Developer. The Citizen Developer is usually someone at an organization who knows the business and who uses low-code tools to create business applications which support business processes, takes away manual work and make the business more productive. A Professional Developer typically is someone who writes code using an IDE (integrated development environment) and writes traditional code and extends with code where the low-code takes you no further.
A Maker is someone who uses the low-code tools and create apps, chat bots, automations etc. An Admin typically manages environments, settings and Users etc.
Have you seen other descriptions of these personas? Let us know!
Also see Release Plan for a description from a feature perspective, what personas the features that are to be rolled out targets.
The Power Platform Adoption Framework also brings up different roles and personas.
Power Platform Weekly personas
The community driven weekly newsletter PPWeekly uses personas with related icons in order for their subscribers to more easily find content relevant for them. The following personas are used:
🤵🏻 Business User
🦸🏻♀️ Maker
🧭 Decision Maker
👩💻 Developer / Architect
🚀 Admin / Center of Excellence
📅 Events & Webinars
About the CRM functionality from Microsoft
First there was Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Then came Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE). Then came Power Apps and the former Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365 became customer engagement (model-driven) apps, built on Power Platform. These apps are also referred to as first-party model apps. Examples are Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The on-premises version still goes under the name Dynamics 365 CE.