Welcome to the final post in my series focused on providing revision notes for the PL-600: Microsoft Power Platform Solution Architect exam. In today’s post, I wanted to consolidate all of the content from the series into a single, concise post for ease of access. I’ll also provide some general advice and tips that I hope are useful for when you sit the exam.
This series has aimed to provide a broad outline of the core areas to keep in mind when tackling the exam, linked to appropriate resources for more focused study. Ideally, your revision should involve a high degree of hands-on testing and familiarity in working with the platform if you want to do well in this exam.
Microsoft has split the PL-600 exam into several different areas based on the specification found here. Therefore, I’ve linked the relevant blog/video content from the series for each applicable subject below.
Perform solution envisioning and requirement analyses (35-40%)
Initiate solution planning
- evaluate business requirements
- identify Microsoft Power Platform solution components
- identify other components including existing apps, AppSource apps, third-party components, and components from independent software vendors (ISV)
- identify and estimate migration and integration efforts
Identify organization information and metrics
- identify desired high-level organizational business processes
- identify business process improvement opportunities
- assess an organization’s risk factors
- review key success criteria
Identify existing solutions and systems
- evaluate an organization’s enterprise architecture
- identify data sources needed for a solution
- define use cases and quality standards for existing data
- identify and document an organization’s existing business processes
Capture requirements
- refine high-level requirements
- identify functional requirements
- identify non-functional requirements
- confirm that requirements meet an organization’s goals
- identify and document an organization’s desired business processes
Perform fit/gap analyses
- determine the feasibility of meeting specific requirements
- evaluate Dynamics 365 apps and AppSource options to solve requirements
- address functional gaps through alternate solutions
- determine the scope for a solution
Blog Posts
Exam PL-600 Revision Notes: Initiating Planning for your Power Platform Solution
Exam PL-600 Revision Notes: Evaluating an Organisation, Metrics and Existing Systems
Videos
PL-600 Exam Prep: Working with Dynamics 365 Applications and AppSource
Architect a solution (40-45%)
Lead the design process
- design the solution topology
- design customizations for existing apps
- design and validate user experience prototypes
- identify opportunities for component reuse
- communicate system design visually
- design application lifecycle management (ALM) processes
- design a data migration strategy
- design apps by grouping required features based on role or task
- design a data visualization strategy
- design an automation strategy that uses Power Automate
Design the data model
- design entities and fields
- design reference and configuration data
- design relationships and relationship behaviors
- determine when to connect to external data versus import data
- design data models to address complex sets of requirements
Design integrations
- design collaboration integrations
- design integrations between Microsoft Power Platform solutions and Dynamics 365 apps
- design integrations with an organization’s existing systems
- design third-party integrations
- design an authentication strategy
- design a business continuity strategy
- identify opportunities to integrate and extend Power Platform solutions by using Microsoft Azure
Design the security model
- design the business unit and team structure
- design security roles
- design field security
- design security models to address complex sets of requirements
- determine security model management policies and processes
- identify Azure Active Directory groups and app registrations required to support a solution
- identify data loss prevention (DLP) policies for a solution
- determine how external users will access a solution
Blog Posts
Exam PL-600 Revision Notes: Designing a Power Platform Solution
Exam PL-600 Revision Notes: Designing a Data Model for the Power Platform
Exam PL-600 Revision Notes: Designing Integrations for the Power Platform
Exam PL-600 Revision Notes: Designing a Security Model for the Power Platform
Videos
PL-600 Exam Prep: Customizing Existing Dynamics 365 Applications
PL-600 Exam Prep: Evaluating Power Automate Capabilities
PL-600 Exam Prep: Working with External Data Sources in the Power Platform
PL-600 Exam Prep: Building Crow’s Foot Notation Diagrams using Microsoft Visio
PL-600 Exam Prep: Power Platform Admin Center Overview
PL-600 Exam Prep: Configuring Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse
PL-600 Exam Prep: Overview of Microsoft Dataverse Security Features
PL-600 Exam Prep: Working with Azure Active Directory Groups in the Power Platform
PL-600 Exam Prep: Working with Azure Application Registrations in the Power Platform
PL-600 Exam Prep: Working with Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies
Implement the solution (15-20%)
Validate the solution design
- evaluate detail designs and implementation
- validate security
- ensure that the solution conforms to API limits
- resolve automation conflicts
- resolve integration conflicts
Support go-live
- identify and resolve potential and actual performance issues
- troubleshoot data migration
- resolve any identified issues with deployment plans
- identify factors that impact go-live readiness and remediate issues
Blog Posts
Exam PL-600 Revision Notes: Implementing a Power Platform Solution
General Exam Preparation Tips
- Hands-on preparation is essential if you wish to do well in the exam. You should ideally set up a Power Apps Developer Plan environment that you can use to experiment with the core functionality within the Power Platform.
- Keep abreast of the latest Microsoft Docs and Learning Path materials that are related to this exam, as the platform is continually changing all of the time.
- Familiarise yourself with the general format, length and expected types of questions within a Microsoft exam. If you want to get a feel for the level and type of questions to expect on the exam, you can also purchase an official practice test from Measure Up.
- Although it is possible to take your Microsoft exam at a test centre, chances are you’ll sit your exam using the online proctored experience. Take some time to familiarise yourself with the process involved here, and perform a system test well in advance of your exam date - the last thing you need on the day of the exam is to stress out due to a system or access issue.
I hope that you’ve found this series useful. Good luck when sitting the exam, and let me know how you got on!