Planning a Power Apps Project: Defining Business Problems, Evaluating Manual Costs, and Building a Project Plan

Planning is the most critical phase of building an application; during planning you should consider what problem the app will solve, who will use it, and which user goals it will satisfy.

This app will solve what problem?

Who are the users?

Which user goals will it meet?

Knowing the answers keeps the design on track and prevents treating the app itself as the goal rather than the solution to a problem.

Identify the Business Problem (Use Case)

The first step with Microsoft Power Platform is to define the business problem, often called a "use case" in IT terminology.

Ask yourself, "What business problem am I trying to solve?" and break the answer into a concise problem statement and the desired outcome.

Example statement: Expense reporting – create an efficient process for employees and accounting, enable faster budget tracking, and reduce audit exposure.

What Can Power Apps Do?

If you are building your first Power App, think about daily manual work that could be automated, such as moving data between email, spreadsheets, and databases.

Typical automation opportunities include gaps, complaints, or inefficiencies that still rely on paper or manual data transfer.

Tip: Choose a problem small enough to manage; even large processes can be broken into manageable automated pieces.

Consider real customer stories for inspiration and understand how the app will benefit colleagues and managers.

Usability – access anytime, anywhere

Mobility – use on the move

Integration – automate data collection

Training – track progress and certification

Democratization – empower departments to solve their own problems

Inclusion – reduce friction for remote or disabled workers

Efficiency – cut time and steps

Productivity – increase throughput

Timeliness – speed end‑to‑end collaboration

Scalability – handle higher volume

Analytics – store data for easy analysis

Reporting – faster, more complete management reports

Security – store and use data safely

Compliance – meet legal and accounting requirements

Sustainability – reduce waste and pollution

Consider the Cost of Solving the Problem Manually

Before starting, evaluate whether the project is worth the effort by estimating the end‑to‑end time cost of the current manual process, factoring in wages, benefits, and frequency of execution to calculate annual cost.

Automation may also provide cleaner, timelier data or avoid penalties (e.g., audit fines) even when time savings are modest.

This "back‑of‑the‑napkin" assessment ensures the project delivers value; a later article will explore cost‑versus‑business‑value analysis in depth.

Example: Expense Reporting

Traditional paper‑based expense approval is inefficient across multiple departments and employees.

Employees like Lee, Shawna, and Rebecca spend excessive time handling paper forms; Nick is overwhelmed by incoming documents; Abhay must transcribe everything into Excel for weekly budget reports; Charlotte only later learns the total spend.

Power Platform can replace paper forms with Power Apps screens, automate approvals with Power Automate, and analyze data in Power BI.

Expense reporting – create an efficient process for employees and accounting, enable faster budget tracking, and reduce audit exposure.

Assuming 150 reports per week, a $90/hour labor cost, and a one‑hour time saving per report, the organization could save at least $500,000 annually, outweighing licensing and development costs.

This example will be revisited throughout the series.

Understanding the Current Business Process

Now break down the existing process step by step to document how contributors currently solve the problem.

Identify contributors and their roles

Record the business workflow

By fully understanding the current state, you can pinpoint optimization opportunities for the Power Apps solution.