PL-900 Practice Question: Describe the business value of Microsoft Power Platform
A government agency needs to modernize a paper-based permit approval process. The solution must enforce strict access control, provide an audit trail, and allow citizens to submit applications online. The agency uses Microsoft 365 and has a Power Platform license. Which approach should they take?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume Power Apps canvas apps can serve as an external citizen portal, but they require internal user licenses and cannot be accessed anonymously, whereas Power Pages is specifically designed for external-facing, authenticated self-service portals.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use Power Pages for citizen submissions, Dataverse for storage, and Power Automate for approvals
It combines Power Pages for external citizen-facing submission portals, Dataverse for secure, auditable data storage with role-based access control, and Power Automate for automated approval workflows. This architecture meets all requirements: strict access control (Dataverse roles), audit trail (Dataverse change tracking and auditing), and online citizen submissions (Power Pages).
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use Power Automate with AI Builder to process paper forms and store in SharePoint
Why it's wrong here
AI Builder extracts data from scanned paper, and SharePoint stores files, but neither delivers a citizen submission portal, enforced access control or an immutable approval audit trail. This approach fits digitising existing paper archives, not replacing the intake process with online applications and governed approvals.
- ✗
Build a Power Apps model-driven app for internal staff and a canvas app for citizens
Why it's wrong here
A canvas app alone lacks the Dataverse table structure, role-based security and per-record auditing that a model-driven app provides for staff processing. Citizens need an authenticated portal, not a canvas app. This split suits internal line-of-business tooling, not a governed public-facing permit workflow.
- ✗
Use Power BI to create a dashboard and Power Automate for approvals
Why it's wrong here
Power BI renders read-only visualisations and Power Automate orchestrates flows; neither provides citizen-facing data entry, row-level access enforcement or a per-record audit history. This pairing suits internal reporting on already-captured data, whereas the scenario requires an application layer with authenticated submission and traceable approvals.
- ✓
Use Power Pages for citizen submissions, Dataverse for storage, and Power Automate for approvals
Why this is correct
Power Pages provides authenticated citizen-facing submission with Microsoft Entra ID access control, Dataverse stores records with full audit history, and Power Automate enforces the approval workflow. Together these meet the strict access, audit trail and online submission constraints.
Quick reference
Access Control Model Comparison
| Model | Acronym | Who Controls Access? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discretionary Access Control | DAC | Resource owner | Small teams, file shares |
| Mandatory Access Control | MAC | System / security labels | Classified govt / military |
| Role-Based Access Control | RBAC | Administrator (via roles) | Enterprise environments |
| Attribute-Based Access Control | ABAC | Policy engine (user + resource attributes) | Fine-grained, dynamic policies |
| Rule-Based Access Control | RuBAC | System rules / ACLs | Firewall rules, network ACLs |
Go deeper
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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