The MVP Program has a long-term commitment to skilling through technical communities. In this interviews series focusing on skilling initiatives, we will be highlighting MVPs who actively contribute to the Skilling Program.
Tell us a little about yourself. What is your focus as an MVP and what do you do professionally?
“I’m a Business Applications MVP working as a Principal Software Architect at the business consulting company ORBIS SE. As I have a long history of developing Microsoft CRM (Dynamics 365) Apps, it was natural to me to move on to Power Apps, with a stronger focus on model-driven apps. I really love the possibilities offered by Power Apps Component Framework (PCF), which is the main area I focus on. The code components are very powerful, but the combination of pro-code and low code is the real power. So, beside code components I focus on Custom Pages, and the way Power FX allows us to easy integrate components and build performant apps very fast.”
Why is skilling important and why do you want to contribute to skilling the broader community?
”The Power Platform is developing very fast (which is great) but sometimes it is hard to keep track of the news. It’s not only about the announcements as such, but also about gaining the knowledge of how a new technical possibility can be understood and be applied. Because only when we get a deeper sense of the value of the technology and use-cases, can we move on and start to design the app architecture based on it.
I hope that sharing the knowledge will help others to solve similar problems and will inspire them to find new ways. In the end it will help the platform to grow and will help me to improve and get inspired to do better too. “
How do you share your knowledge when skilling people?
“It all started in the early days of the Power Apps code components (PCF). I needed a platform to ask questions and communicate with others working with Power Apps and found the “Power Apps Pro Dev & ISV” forum: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Pro-Dev-ISV/bd-p/pa_component_framework. As I got more experience, I found myself answering questions. It made me so happy to help and contribute, but the questions also pushed me to think further, consider different aspects and better understand the platform.
Some forum questions showed me the need for a more thorough description of some aspects, so I’ve started to write blogs. Writing became the main way for me to share my knowledge. Every time I solve a problem, I think about the developers who might face the same problem later, and try to help them by writing blogs on my blogsite “Dianamics PCF Lady”: https://dianabirkelbach.wordpress.com/ .
Lately I’ve started a YouTube Channel too (https://www.youtube.com/@PCFLady), which allows me to explain problems in an lighter way.
Since I write and talk about code, I publish all my code examples on GitHub: https://github.com/brasov2de.”
Microsoft
