PowerApps as a Quality Assurance Process

[JPChadd]

Hello,

I am very new to PowerApps. My IT background is generally as a Desktop Techie, with no prior programming experience, and I now have a new role that I am taking on responsibility for PowerApps, Flow, Forms and PowerBI.

One of the first things I have been asked to look at is converting the existing QA process into a more workable solution than the existing:

* Word document containing lots of questions that require individually being completed

* The file is then saved in on a shared drive for 'reference'

* No kind of reporting is done

Going forward and having looked into Flow, Forms and PowerApps, I probably need to do something with PowerApps as Flow and Forms don't seem the right way to go. I need to:

* Create a data source with all the questions in

* Create a PowerApp that will systematically allow those questions to be answered, with likely various 'what if' style * scenarios.

* The data to be centrally collected/stored

* The data will need to be able to be reported on, so this might be where Power BI comes in?

* In time I'll need to be able to get the App to email to confirm that certains tasks have been completed, in order that the next stage of a process can be kicked off

I have looked at various online training and watched videos on YouTube, but it all seems very overwhealming and from what I am seeing it shouldn't be, so I am looking for a little more guidance/reassurance that I am heading in the right direction and if possible any input that might also assist me.

Thanks,

James.

[RandyHayes]

You're on the path...just need to be on the right one.  It can be a bit crazy at first, but once you get in the groove it will make more sense.

I would start with all the documents and videos you can watch, but then, definitely take a look at the sample apps in the templates in PowerApps.  There is a lot you can learn from seeing it first hand.

Just a suggestion...your mileage will vary.

[Anonymous]

I've developed a quality assurance app using SharePoint as a backend.

I've created all the questions as choice columns in a list, brought that list into PowerApps as a data source and used the NewForm to submit information back to the list.

I would also suggest exploring Forms and see if the Branching in Forms would satisfy your requirements sufficiently, you can then add Flow in the background (eg when a new form is submitted, put the information into SharePoint for PowerBI...)

Any questions, please let me know! Happy to share some screenshots etc!

[JPChadd]

Hi and thanks for coming back to me.

I'll look at your suggestion around choice columns in a list and using that with PowerApps as a data source, as I say this is all very new to me to I'll try to get my head around it.

I had looked at Forms, but had come away from it as it only gives you the one option of a Form, from what I can see.

If I can elaborate my thought process, it might give a better understanding of what I am trying to do and even if I might be able to.

My idea is as follows:

Page 1 - This will be the opening page. Something with our organisation name/logo on and name of "Quality Assurance App" or something like that. There will be a button named "start" or "begin" maybe.

Page 2 - There will be a drop down list of all staff members names and the same for the list of our QA processes. The idea being to select your name and the QA process you want to undertake.

Page 3 - There will be a free text box to input the name of the device that is being QA'd and a "Next"/"Begin"/"Start" button.

Page 4 - This will load up the relevant Questions to the QA being undertaken. This will be stored/pulled from a sharepoint list (?) of pre populated questions and require each stage to be "ticked" off. There'll need to be a free text field at the end of this to input any issues or if it has failed.

Page 5 - This will be the final "completed" page. Once "Completed" or "Done" or whatever is pressed the results of the QA need to be sent off to the central repository of results.

At this stage an automated email needs to be sent to the relevant person/department to say that the QA process has been completed and now they're good to go with their section of work or if there has been a "fail", they will need to be able to see this result and proceed with dealing with the issue(s).

Another aspect to the above is that "management" need to be able to query the central results repository, so this is where I presume PowerBI would come into it's own.

Hope the above all makes sense?

As before, any input/advice/help would be most welcome.

Thanks,

James.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I think that sounds great, it's good you're planning each page and the process.

A couple of thoughts / inputs:

Page 1/2: I always try to minimize the pages a user has to navigate through, and often if a page is just a logo and a "next" button users get frustrated. You don't have to ask users to select their user name, as PowerApps has access to the logged in user through the User().FullName function, see here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/functions/function-user 

So your first page could be the company logo, a label that displays the name of the logged in user (for example "Welcome, xyz") and then a list (either drop down or buttons) of available audits. You could store the available audit names in a SharePoint list, and pull that into a Gallery and use a button for each audit.

Page 4: Yes, that's exactly what I have done - each audit question is a column in SharePoint and there's one "Comments/Notes" multiline text field in SharePoint that allows users in PowerApps to input comments. 

You can use the Office365 connector to send emails straight from PowerApps https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/connections/connection-office365-outloo...

Or you can trigger a Flow from PowerApps to send the email as well. 

Once you have data in your SharePoint list, you can connect PowerBI to it and build a dashboard for management. 

[JPChadd]

Hi,

Again thanks for the help and support!

Just to provide an update...

I have now concocted a Page 1/Landing Page the incorporates our corporate logo, name of the app, a "welcome, namename" message (nice idea btw!) and I have incorporated a drop down that allows you to select the relevant form, of which I have created one at present as a sharepoint list. At this time it seems to be working of a fashion, I just need to tweak a few bits an tidy the layout.

On my travels I have now discovered cascading drop down menu's, which would definitely work for us as we have a raft of different areas that require QA's to be completed, so I am thinking along the lines of an initial drop down to select the group of QA Forms and then a secondary drop down to select the specific QA Form to be completed.

Where I am maybe (or not?) overcomplicating things is I am wondering if need to create a sharepoint list for each of the individual word files that currently exist - there are loads! Whilst I can copy and paste, it will still be a lot of work and a lot of questions/scenarios overlap. Or might there be a way that I can create a respository of questions and say if this Group/QA form is selected, I want the App to select questions 1, 2, 3, 7, 9 etc from the 'pool'. Or am I in cloud cuckoo land or trying to run before I can walk?

Also can I use an Excel workbook as the repository for all the individual headings and some how link that to a sharepoint list of all the questions? Or would I be best to stick with using Excel or Sharepoint?

Again, thanks for any input or help 🙂

James.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

sounds like you're making great progress!

Shane has a fantastic video on cascading dropdowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkZG2boN7jQ&t=385s

And I would really recommend his videos as well for learning more about PowerApps, they're always my starting point when I try to achieve something.

I think your additional scenario with a question pool is possible, but it might be a bit trickier to achieve - you could have all questions in one list and in your PowerApps set the Visible property based on what QA form is selected at the beginning for example.

You can have two or more data sources in your PowerApps, but for questions and their answers I would probably stick to storing them in either Excel or SharePoint rather than duplicating them across both. 

Hope that helps!

Manuela

[JPChadd · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have watched quite a number of Shane's videos on Youtube and they're quite informative.

I have decided to take a look at the Forms and Branching route for now, because as you mentioned earlier it looks like it could be an easier option. My only reservation of this option is there seems to be limitations around the number of forms that can be created and finite number of responses.

If I choose to revisit the PowerApps route, I am sure you'll hear back from me on this community.

Thanks again,

James.

[Benton73]

Curious how this has gone... I am where you were about 4 years ago!

 Was the switch to Forms the right way or did you come back to the app?