Power Platform Worst Case – Day 2: Power Platform Horror Stories: Rated PG for Panic Governance

Power Platform Worst Case – Day 2: Power Platform Horror Stories: Rated PG for Panic Governance

In the world of low-code and citizen development, the Microsoft Power Platform stands out as a beacon of promise: rapid app builds, automated workflows, empowered business users. But with great power comes… well, if not great responsibility, then at least a high potential for chaos. This article takes a tour through some real-life “horror stories” of Power Platform adoption gone awry — not the bottom‐of‐the‐sea nightmares, but the “Rated PG” panic-governance moments that nonetheless give IT and governance folks serious grey hairs.

We’ll explore three main subsections:

1. “Shadow Makers & Mystery Apps” – when citizen devs run wild.
2. “Connector Creeps & Data Leaks” – when convenience meets vulnerability.
3. “Sprawl, Shadow Environments & the Administrative Maze” – when the platform multiplies unchecked.

Each part will include concrete anecdotes, lessons learned, and governance takeaways you can apply. And while we keep this PG-rated, it’s safe to say there are buried skeletons in many Power Platform tenants.

1. Shadow Makers & Mystery Apps

When business users (“citizen developers”) are empowered with the Power Platform toolset — Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI — wonderful things can happen: faster processes, fewer manual steps, imaginative solutions. Yet without supervision and governance, you also open the door to apps built in corners of your organisation that IT didn’t know about… and often can’t support. One blog post described it like this:

“Our first stumble with Power Platform governance came from a team lunch. One moment we were brainstorming, the next, someone had a working app alerting us of leftover cake in the kitchen. A triumph … A governance nightmare.” m365.news That innocent “cake-alert” app is cute, but imagine the same scenario in finance, HR, or regulatory reporting — an unsupported, unmonitored app doing business-critical work. And then there’s this frank Reddit comment: “The apps the ‘citizen developers’ did at my work are awful … The Power Platform is very powerful, but without any controls in place that are needed.” Reddit From these stories, three recurring issues emerge:

• Ownership ambiguity: Who built the app? Who maintains it? What happens when the creator leaves?
• Lack of ALM (Application Life-cycle Management): Many citizen apps skip versioning, testing, documentation.
• Speed over structure: The agility of low-code is a blessing and a curse — business users want fast, IT wants control. Governance takeaway: Set up a “maker charter” or “citizen dev guardrails” early. Require at least minimal documentation, naming conventions, assigned owners, and environment segmentation so that makers aren’t flying solo without IT visibility.

2. Connector Creeps & Data Leaks

Low-code becomes especially seductive when you realise you can drag in dozens of connectors and integrations — including external systems, Excel spreadsheets, Outlook flows, third-party APIs. But this connector convenience hides serious risk. A governance-oriented blog highlighted:

“Using Power Automate you can stitch multiple different services together … it’s so simple, that users don’t need to worry about complexities such as authentication … but this makes it all too easy for users to store an email attachment in a Dropbox account for convenient access.” rencore.com One high-profile incident: mis-configuration of the Power Apps portal service exposed 38 million records — including phone numbers, addresses, vaccination statuses — because the default setting was public unless changed. WIRED Key “horror scenario” elements here:

• Sensitive data moving outside established governance constraints (e.g., to unmanaged cloud storage).
• Connectors creating undocumented “side-channels” of data.
• Default settings that look safe but aren’t locked down. Governance takeaway: Define and enforce a connector policy (e.g., “approved vs. prohibited connectors”), apply Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rules, and review default exposure settings periodically. Remember: the “ease” of low-code means users may bypass established controls.

3. Sprawl, Shadow Environments & the Administrative Maze

Even if you manage the first two well, the sheer scale and flexibility of Power Platform can lead to sprawling environments, duplicated apps, forgotten workflows, unused flows, and a confusing mess of ownership and governance. From a blog on “tenant horrors”:

“Workspace sprawl: The Haunting of uncontrolled workspaces … users create countless folders, files, and collaboration sites without rhyme or reason… turning your environment into a haunted house of disorganisation.” Syskit Another article noted how fast the “fun” can turn to “governance nightmare” when dozens of makers start building uncontrolled apps. m365.news Typical symptoms:

• Multiple environments (dev/test/prod) not set up or enforced.
• Abandoned apps and flows still running, consuming licenses or data.
• Shadow IT: apps built outside of official channels yet used in production.
• No audit or monitoring — so no idea how many flows exist, who built them, what they do. Governance takeaway: Establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE), inventory your maker footprint, enforce environment strategies (Managed vs Unmanaged), deploy monitoring dashboards, retire unused solutions. Adopt a lifecycle model: build → test → publish → monitor → retire.

Summary

The promise of the Power Platform is compelling: business users empowered, automation simplified, innovation at pace. Yet every organisation that embraces low-code must recognise that with that power comes a new set of risks — and that absence of governance doesn’t mean “freedom,” it often means “fear.” The “Rated PG for Panic Governance” label is apt: these aren’t black-swan disasters with regulatory fines (though they could become those) but they are real, everyday governance nightmares that cost time, money, reputation and sleep. If your organisation is using Power Platform (or thinking of doing so), take these stories not as deterrents but as cautionary tales. Get ahead of ownership issues, connector risk, environment sprawl. Build your guardrails early. Empower your makers — but don’t leave them to fend for themselves. Because when low-code becomes no-control… that’s the real horror story.

Source: Power Platform Worst Case – Day 2: Power Platform Horror Stories: Rated PG for Panic Governance

 

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