Azure Low Code Ebook

Exploring the Possibilities
of Low Code Development

How pro developers can accelerate innovation
Exploring the Possibilities of Low Code Development 2
This e-book is for:

Software developers who want to
Estimated reading time:
maximize their skills and get recognized
9 minutes
for delivering superior solutions faster.
This e-book provides open-ended Power
Apps scenarios to explore, along with quick
design-thinking exercises.
Contents
Demand for software is not slowing down 3
Why highly skilled developers love low-code technology 5
Can low code make you a happier developer? 6
Enhancing development with AI 9
Line-of-business apps 14
Business processes automation 19
Working with data 24
User experience 28
Try Power Apps today 33

Demand for
software is not
slowing down
Overall employment of software developers, quality

assurance analysts, and testers is projected to grow
25 percent from 2021 to 2031.¹ Continuing rapid
increase in demand for software skills puts pressure
on developers to get more done. Without the right
tools, this can create daunting backlogs, increase
repetitive tasks, and reduce opportunities to think
creatively about software development.
¹ Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers : Occupational Outlook

Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2023
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Envision what satisfaction looks like
As a developer, what do you What would you do more of if

want to do less of? you had the time?
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Why highly
skilled developers
love low-code
technology
Developers are doing their best to keep up

despite limited time and resources. One way to
dramatically increase productivity is to use low-
code technology like Microsoft Power Apps.
If you’ve spent your career sharpening your

code skills, you might think a low-code
approach is too simple or restrictive. In reality,
low-code tools provide options for developers
to rapidly prototype, build, and optimize a
wide variety of applications, with seamless
connectivity to code-first development and
application lifecycle management.
Whether you need to build a quick prototype
The best low-code solutions include powerful or a scalable production app, low code
component frameworks that allow you to build, streamlines routine tasks and frees you to
manage, and repurpose components, as well focus on the creative and high-value aspects
as the ability to use a CLI and popular IDEs. of your work.
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Can low code

make you a
happier developer?
A recent global study² uncovered the top

five drivers of work-related happiness for
developers. In order, they are:
Salary 60%
Work-life balance 58%
Flexibility 52%
Productvity 52%
Growth opportunities 49%
² New data: What makes developers happy at work - Stack

Overflow Blog, Stack Overflow, 2022.
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I came out of school

as a computer science
major. Power Apps has
revolutionized the way I
think about code. It has
opened my mind to what
I believe is the future of
development.”
Gini Brandon
Nuclear Promise X >
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Of course, every developer is different, Growth opportunities: When you don’t

but most share at least some of these spend as much time on basic tasks, you have
priorities. While low-code development more time to invest in learning new skills.
may not guarantee a raise, it can definitely
With all those benefits helping you deliver
help in other areas.
successful software, maybe low code can
Work-life balance: Low-code platforms help you get that raise.
can remove repetitive labor so you
can get more done without constantly
Pro code + low code:

working 18-hour days.
Flexibility: When you have access to a

low-code platform, you have options.
3 ways to get started
You can choose which aspects of the
application to customize and which to
use off the shelf. Easy integration makes it
1 Build a full low-code app and extend it
with custom connectors and components.
simpler to bring in new functionality.
Productivity: Pre-built templates,

2 Build advanced APIs and components
from scratch in Visual Studio and then
controls, and interface components publish them to your organization for
enable you to draft a working application citizen developers.
and customize it quickly. You can reach
a functional state much faster and tweak 3 Create individual features with a low-
code approach, which can be integrated
from there to drive user value.
across your portfolio.
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Enhancing
development
with AI
AI offers incredible potential to enhance
applications and services. With abilities such
as object detection, category classification,
and entity extraction, it can enable new user
scenarios, automate complex workflows,
and help people make sense of big data.
However, custom coding AI solutions is highly
specialized and can take a long time.
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Our investment in the Microsoft

Power Platform will allow
NJDCA to leverage AI quickly
and easily in our solutions to
enhance our ability to meet our
customer’s needs and deliver
our services to the public.”
John Harrison
Director of Information Technology
New Jersey Department of Community Affairs >
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Accelerating app development with Building apps using

Copilot generative AI features natural language
Copilot in Power Apps, Power Automate, and Using AI Builder in Power Apps, you can
Power Virtual Agents generates code and easily build, train, and publish AI models
suggests improvements based on natural- without coding them. Templates and guided
language descriptions, saving time and processes put custom AI within easy reach of
helping you build what you imagine faster. any developer. You can choose from several
It streamlines data management, improves model types in AI Builder suited to different
efficiency, and simplifies chatbot development. business scenarios. For example, you can
build custom object-detection models to
identify objects in images.
Empowering app users with AI
The Copilot control introduces a cutting-

edge AI assistant you can incorporate into
apps, providing users with an AI-powered
experience to gain insights through natural-
language conversations. You can add this
control to almost any app and customize
its capabilities to answer specific questions
based on the available data.
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Microsoft tools
AI Builder >
Build custom models tailored to your needs or choose a pre-built model
ready for many common business scenarios.
Azure AI >
Integrate machine learning, knowledge mining, AI apps and agents, and more
into your innovations with a fully managed, cloud-based AI service.
Copilot in Power Apps >

Create Power Apps with the help of AI. Describe the app you want to build,
and AI will design it.
Copilot control >

Add conversational AI to your app and empower users to get insights using
natural language.
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Design thinking: 3 x 3
Think of three ways an app could deliver value to the business using
each of the following AI capabilities. Now imagine one app that uses
all three capabilities.
Object detection Predictive Text categorization All three

modeling
Example: Example: Predict Example: Route An app that predicts
Count items in staffing needs customer requests customer sentiment
a warehouse by analyzing text
and images in social
media posts
1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
Resources
Artificial Intelligence for Developers >
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Line-of-business
apps
Connecting people to LOB apps used to
mean writing and maintaining a fat-client
application designed especially for the
purpose. Because they are difficult to
update, users might be stuck using a client
application developed a generation ago in
technology terms.
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Any other product that

we could have started or
dabbled with would have
taken us months or even
years to get to where we are
today with Power Apps.”
Vish Pasumarthy
Chief Technology Officer and Director of Emerging Technologies
University Hospitals Cutler Center for Men3 >
³ Microsoft Customer Story-How UH is transforming men’s healthcare and finding 90% time
savings with tech-assisted personalization using Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft, 2023.
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Low-code LOB modernization What is a Power Apps Connector?
Today, you can combine low-code Power A connector is a wrapper around a REST
Apps with an API-first approach to scale LOB API (Logic Apps also supports SOAP
functionality across the business. This also gives APIs) that allows Azure Logic Apps,
you the agility to adapt and innovate more Power Automate, or Power Apps to
rapidly and avoids the lock-in that comes from communicate with that REST or SOAP API.
focusing on client applications alone.
Power Apps enables you to create custom

Build and secure your API
connectors that can be used to consume
RESTful APIs from other systems. You can
also create RESTful APIs using Power Apps Describe your API and define
and publish them to be consumed by other the connector
systems. This can help streamline data
exchange between different applications and
systems. Plus, you can expose the APIs to citizen Use your connector
developers on the platform to integrate with
the solutions they’re creating.
Share your connector
To help you integrate your data and business (optional)
processes, you can access hundreds of pre-
built connectors for Microsoft and third-
Certify your connector
party services and products, from GitHub
(optional)
to Salesforce to Twitter. To support more
tailored scenarios, use familiar tools like
Visual Studio to build custom connectors
with triggers and actions, then publish them
to Azure App Service.
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Microsoft tools
Connectors >
Integrate external functionality into your low-code app.
Azure Functions >

User serverless compute to surface data and connect services based
on triggers and bindings rather than hard-coded connections.
Azure API Management >

Expose APIs with a high degree of control and security, and scale them
to meet demand.
Azure SQL Database >

A managed cloud database simplifies data management and
optimizes utilization.
Visual Studio >

The Visual Studio IDE is a creative launching pad that you can use to
edit, debug, and build code and then publish an app. Over and above
the standard editor and debugger that most IDEs provide, Visual Studio
includes compilers, code completion tools, graphical designers, and
many more features to enhance the software development process.
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Design thinking: Three in one

Think of one LOB app in your business that is What if you could decompose that application
tied to a client app. and turn those functions into services?
What are its three Choose one function from the

key functions? list above and quickly list three
Example: Enable business reporting

new low-code apps that could
consume it.
1
Example: Help store personnel
know what’s in stock
2
3 1
Resources
Line of Business Extension - Azure
Solution Ideas >
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Business processes
automation
Many developers these days have hands-on
experience with automation. They simplify
their work using DevOps approaches such
as automated testing and deployment.
But this kind of automation doesn’t extend
to everyday business processes in many
organizations. Developers can apply their
experience to automate tasks for other users
and make their lives easier.
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We love where Microsoft is going

with ‘low-code meets pro dev.’ As we
look to the future, we’re excited to
see how it will help drive our digital
innovation journey at Western States.
The imagination and determination
of our employees coupled with the
power of Dynamics 365, Azure, and
Power Platform will challenge us
to reach farther and enable us to
achieve more.”
Justin Bailey
Director of Strategy & BI
Western States CAT⁴ >
⁴ Western States Caterpillar – fusion teams use Microsoft Power Platform to build mobile apps
for field staff | Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft, 2021.
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Low-code business process flows A specialized kind of flow called a business

and automation process flow provides a streamlined user
experience that leads people through a
Power Automate provides a drag-and-drop
defined series of steps. It uses a role-based
automation design experience so you can
approach to ensure appropriate security
quickly set up flows to add to your custom
controls. Although they are relatively simple
applications. As a pro developer, you can
in themselves, combining them with other
create custom process automation capabilities
processes and customizations can save
and connect them to Power Apps or Power
people time, reduce training costs, and
Automate flows. You can enable these
increase user adoption.
automations to be called even without an
API using Azure Functions and Azure API
Management. You can also build advanced
automation using serverless Azure Logic Apps.
Microsoft tools
Business process flows >
Easily set up structured business processes to simplify workflows.
Azure Functions >

Add powerful event-driven functionality to create new levels of automation.
Azure Logic Apps >

Schedule, automate, and orchestrate tasks and business processes, and
integrate apps, data, systems, and services using a professional-grade solution
for serverless workflows.
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Design thinking: Day in the life

Think of the most tedious and time-consuming process a typical employee has to endure.
What is a day in their life like? What opportunities do they miss?
Now imagine that process is automated.
What is their day like now? How has it improved?
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What could you automate with low code to help them achieve this better
workplace experience?
What approach would be best?
Resources
Learn about Custom business processes >
Build your first Power Automate for desktop flow >
Choose integration and automation services in Azure >
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Working
with data
Many businesses generate so much data,
they can’t keep track of it all, let alone use
it effectively. Bringing it together across
systems often requires significant effort and
building multiple data connections into an
application can be tricky.
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Don’t be fooled by the low-

code branding. Anything that
you can build with the full-code
solution, you’re likely able to do
with this as well. Really, consider
it a no-limits platform.”
Brian Hodel
Principal Developer, Power Platform
T-Mobile⁵ >
⁵ Microsoft Customer Story-T-Mobile uses RPA in Power Automate to

integrate systems during Sprint merger, Microsoft, 2022.
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Low-code data integration
Simplifying data connectivity is at the heart to read and write data in Microsoft Excel
of Power Apps. The most common data workbooks, SharePoint lists, SQL tables, and
sources in Power Apps are tables, which you many other formats, which you can store in
can use to store and retrieve information. cloud services such as OneDrive for Business,
You can use connections to data sources Dropbox, and SQL Server.
Microsoft tools
Microsoft Dataverse >
Quickly develop apps, add low-code AI tools, and identify and resolve
duplicate or conflicting data. Plus, it helps you protect your data with
advanced encryption, rich access control, and deep integration with
Microsoft Entra Identity.
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Design thinking: Randomizer

Write down five kinds of data used Randomly select two and quickly sketch
by your organization. an application that could deliver unique
functionality by combining them.
Example: Customer demographics
Resources
Integrate with Microsoft Power Platform
and Microsoft Dataverse >
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User
experience
As a discipline, development has become
increasingly user-centric in the past decade
or so. Today, user experience is an advanced
field with many technologies and practices
to choose from. It can also be challenging to
execute and optimize in the real world.
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Power Apps streamlined our

development pipeline and led
to faster implementation times
while still producing quality
applications, and we’ve only
just scratched the surface of
what’s possible.”
Lia Nowodworska
Head of Information Management
Balfour Beatty⁶ >
⁶ Microsoft Customer Story-Balfour Beatty transforms construction

to meet tomorrow’s challenges with Power Apps, Microsoft, 2022.
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Low-code UX
There are two easy ways to build a user- You’re not limited to built-in options, either.
centric Power App. First, you can design and Use your code-first skills in Visual Studio and
build a canvas app using a drag-and-drop the Power Apps component framework to
interface. Or you can use model-driven enhance the user experience. Add seamless
design focused on components to support server access via Web API, add new utility
complex apps. In model-driven apps, the and data formatting methods, access
layout is determined by which components device features like camera, location, and
you choose. If your data is in Microsoft microphone, and invoke UX elements such as
Dataverse, you can automatically generate dialogs, lookups, and full-page rendering.
model-driven apps as a starting point.
Microsoft tools
Unified Interface >
Provide a responsive experience across devices with apps that
automatically scale to screen size.
Power Apps component framework >

Create code components for model-driven and canvas apps that
empower users to work with data on forms, views, and dashboards.
Source code files for Canvas apps >

Extract source code for canvas apps and work with it in CI/CD
pipelines and Visual Studio.
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Microsoft Power Platform Build Tools for Azure DevOps >

Automate typical build and deployment tasks on Microsoft Power Platform.
GitHub Actions for Microsoft Power Platform >

Create workflows in GitHub repository to build, test, package, release, and
deploy apps; and manage components built on Microsoft Power Platform.
Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio >

Rapid creation, debugging, and deployment of plug-ins with Power Platform
Tools for Visual Studio.
Visual Studio connected service >

Support direct connect to Power Platform environment, with automatic
generation of custom connector and configuration of dev tunnel.
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Design thinking: Build apps from drawings

Make a quick sketch of an app you’d like to see.
Now, learn how to build apps from drawings using Express Design in Microsoft Power Platform.
Resources
Create your first component using Power Apps Component Framework >
Express design: Instantly transform visual designs into apps >
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Try Power Apps today
We hope this e-book has inspired you to give low-code development a try.
It’s about getting low-skill tasks out of your way so you can do more and ship
features faster. It’s easy to learn yet gives pro developers like you an open field
of options to explore. After all, nothing gets a developer more kudos than
beating a deadline.
Get started with the Developer Plan
Learn more at Power Platform

Developer Documentation >
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without notice. You bear the risk of using it. This document does not provide you with any legal rights to
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Exploring the Possibilities

of Low Code Development

This e-book is for:

Why highly skilled developers love low-code technology 5

Can low code make you a happier developer? 6

Enhancing development with AI 9

Business processes automation 19

Working with data 24

Try Power Apps today 33

Overall employment of software developers, quality

¹ Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers : Occupational Outlook

Envision what satisfaction looks like

As a developer, what do you What would you do more of if

Developers are doing their best to keep up

If you’ve spent your career sharpening your

Can low code

A recent global study² uncovered the top

Work-life balance 58%

Growth opportunities 49%

² New data: What makes developers happy at work - Stack

I came out of school

Of course, every developer is different, Growth opportunities: When you don’t

Pro code + low code:

Flexibility: When you have access to a

Productivity: Pre-built templates,

Our investment in the Microsoft

Accelerating app development with Building apps using

Empowering app users with AI

The Copilot control introduces a cutting-

Copilot in Power Apps >

Copilot control >

Object detection Predictive Text categorization All three

Any other product that

Low-code LOB modernization What is a Power Apps Connector?

Power Apps enables you to create custom

Azure Functions >

Azure API Management >

Azure SQL Database >

Visual Studio >

Design thinking: Three in one

What are its three Choose one function from the

Example: Enable business reporting

We love where Microsoft is going

Low-code business process flows A specialized kind of flow called a business

Azure Functions >

Azure Logic Apps >

Design thinking: Day in the life

What is a day in their life like? What opportunities do they miss?

Now imagine that process is automated.

What is their day like now? How has it improved?

What approach would be best?

Build your first Power Automate for desktop flow >

Choose integration and automation services in Azure >

Don’t be fooled by the low-

⁵ Microsoft Customer Story-T-Mobile uses RPA in Power Automate to

Low-code data integration

Design thinking: Randomizer

Example: Customer demographics

Power Apps streamlined our

⁶ Microsoft Customer Story-Balfour Beatty transforms construction

Power Apps component framework >

Source code files for Canvas apps >

Microsoft Power Platform Build Tools for Azure DevOps >