Identify basic Microsoft Power Apps capabilities: Review

My team's engineering lead kept mentioning 'model-driven apps' as a solution for some internal tooling, and I honestly couldn't picture what he meant. This module took less than an hour, and it seemed like a fair price to pay to get on the same page.

The main thing it did well was finally clarifying the difference between Canvas apps and Model-driven apps. Canvas is for pixel-perfect UIs where you're building a specific user experience from scratch. Model-driven is for when you have a structured data source (like a list of clients or projects) and you just need a functional interface *on top* of that data, fast. The distinction was the whole reason I was here, and it delivered on that.

But let's be clear: this is not a 'how-to' guide. The sections on creating an app with Copilot are basically just screenshots of a conversation. You read a prompt, then see what Copilot spits out. There's no sandbox, no editor, no 'try it yourself.' It's like watching someone else use the tool. I read through it, took the knowledge check (which was pretty easy), and was done in maybe 45 minutes.

It worked for my purpose. I now have the mental model to have a more intelligent conversation with my tech lead. I can ask, 'Are we thinking Canvas for this, or is this a Model-driven problem?' For that, it was perfect. But if you actually want to *build* something, this isn't it. This is the pre-read before the real meeting starts.