Power Automate is part of the Microsoft Power Platform and is a powerful tool to create automation flows for workflow processes. In this course, we cover the capabilities of the Power Automate service. You will learn how to identify common components such as flow types, connectors, conditions, expressions, and approvals.
You'll also learn how to build basic flows that can be started immediately with a button, based on an automated trigger, or on a set schedule. We'll explore how to update your flows and correct any issues that might interfere with your flow running successfully.
Furthermore, this course will help you in preparing for the Microsoft PL-900 certification for the Power Platform.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the different types of flows
- Identify and choose the proper type of flow trigger
- Find and use templates to run or modify a flow
- Use and change data connectors
- Be able to describe templates, connectors, loops and conditions, expressions, and approvals
Intended Audience
- IT professionals who are interested in obtaining the Microsoft PL-900 certification
- Those tasked with automating tasks from Microsoft 365 applications and external application integration
Prerequisites
- Basic knowledge of the Microsoft 365 applications and a license to create Power Automate Flows (a trial of an Enterprise version would work as a temporary testbed)
Power Automate was introduced in April of 2016 as Microsoft Flow and has been a useful tool ever since. Since the name change to Power Automate in 2019, the application has been gaining popularity and is taking the place of popular SharePoint workflows. In fact, in November 2020. SharePoint 2010 workflows were turned off for most entities.
Power Automate flows were the best tool to replace those workflows with. Power Automate can connect to a wide variety of applications within Microsoft, and outside. Here are some examples of what Power Automate can accomplish.
- Press a button on your mobile phone to check the weather or your GPS location and bring up a map
- Update your social media from a pre-approved SharePoint list of future posts
- Run complex approval workflows combined with forms, documents, and notifications
- Move documents that meet a certain criteria to another location with more storage space
- Output items from a form to a SharePoint list or Excel Spreadsheet
- And Flag a quality issue to shut down production across the world. Notify all production managers and require a mitigation form be filled out before resuming production
All of these are real-life scenarios and there are many more. In this course, we will touch upon the different types of Power Automate environments and types. We will learn about the best ways to start a flow for a specific need based on templates or starting from scratch.
We will also explore the components that make up our flows like connectors, loops, conditions, expressions, and more. After becoming familiar with these building blocks, we will take you through building, testing, and modifying a flow so that you will be able to build one yourself.
So let's go ahead and get started.
Ron is an experienced professional with in-depth expertise in SharePoint, Power Automate, Power BI, and Microsoft 365. He enjoys involvement in corporate presentations, training, change management, communications, marketing, and facilitation.
Ron brings this experience together to design SharePoint solutions that meet his client’s business, training, and collaboration needs. His skillset includes: Program Management, Change Management, SharePoint Site Administration and Architecture, Project Management, Graphic Design, and Technology Infrastructure Expertise. Ron is an expert skier and speaks Japanese as a second language.