Why Splitting Solutions Is Best Practice in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)

As organizations adopt the Power Platform to build scalable business applications, the importance of structured and efficient Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) becomes critical. A key best practice that often sparks curiosity is splitting solutions into multiple layers, common layers include—core, key functionality like portal, workflows, plugins, and security models.

While it might seem simpler to house everything in a single solution, breaking it apart offers significant benefits for maintainability, scalability, and team collaboration. Let’s dive into why this approach matters and how it supports ALM best practices.

The Logic Behind Splitting Solutions

At its core, splitting solutions aligns with the Separation of Concerns (SoC) principle. This principle ensures that each solution layer addresses a specific purpose, enabling better management and adaptability over time. Here’s how the separation works:

1. Core Components Solution

• Purpose: Houses shared foundational entities, relationships, and configurations.
• Why Split: Core components serve as the backbone of your application. Keeping them isolated prevents unintended changes when deploying feature-specific updates.

2. Key stand alone functionality like Portal

• Purpose: Contains functionality that primarily stands alone in a separate tool or design
• Why Split: Separating key functionality ensures that changes can be deployed without requiring core deployment or affecting workflows etc.

3. Workflows and Processes Solution

• Purpose: Contains Power Automate flows, business rules, and process configurations.
• Why Split: Separating workflows ensures that business logic is modular and can evolve independently of the core schema, reducing the risk of breaking changes. Often times workflows may need to be re-checked or activated after deployment, so separated them means less post-deployment steps if an update only affects tables.

4. Plugins and Custom Code Solution

• Purpose: Includes any server-side customizations, plugins, or custom APIs.
• Why Split: By isolating plugins, teams can independently test and debug custom logic without impacting workflows or the core solution.

5. Security Model Solution

• Purpose: Defines roles, field-level security, and shared permissions.
• Why Split: Security requirements often vary by business unit or region. Isolating security models allows for easier governance and compliance adjustments without affecting other components. It’s often the most frequently changed or deployed solution and the least impactful or

Key Benefits of Splitting Solutions

1. Simplified Updates and Deployments

When solutions are split, deploying updates to workflows, plugins, or security roles becomes more targeted. This reduces deployment risks and ensures changes can be validated in isolation.

2. Team Collaboration

Splitting solutions allows teams to work in parallel on different components without overlapping or stepping on each other’s changes. For instance, the security team can refine access models while developers enhance workflows.

3. Reusability Across Projects

Core solutions can be reused across multiple applications, saving time and ensuring consistency. This is particularly useful for large organizations that standardize on shared data models.

4. Easier Debugging and Testing

Isolated solutions mean you can test or debug individual components without the noise of unrelated layers. For example, testing a plugin becomes straightforward when it’s not bundled with workflows and security configurations.

5. Better Source Control and Versioning

Splitting solutions aligns well with source control tools like Git. Teams can independently version each layer, making it easier to track changes and roll back individual components when necessary.

Practical Example: A Sales Application

Imagine a sales application with the following needs:

• A core data model with leads, opportunities, and accounts.
• Automated workflows for lead assignment and opportunity follow-ups.
• Custom plugins for calculating commissions.
• A tailored security model for different sales regions.

Splitting these into separate solutions ensures:

• Core components remain untouched during workflow tweaks.
• Plugins can be updated without impacting the workflows.
• Security updates for regional compliance are handled independently.

When Not to Split

While splitting solutions is a best practice, there are scenarios where simplicity may be the better choice:

• Small-scale applications: For apps with limited complexity, the overhead of managing multiple solutions may outweigh the benefits.
• Rapid prototyping: During initial development, it can be more efficient to work within a single solution and split components later.

Be Discerning

If your design isnt using plugins, or only has 1 or 2 JS files, it probably isnt relevant to have a whole separate plugin solution. Similarly if theres no key stand alone features like a portal, then it makes sense to have Core, Workflows and Security as your only solutions.

How to Start Splitting Solutions

If you’re looking to adopt this approach:

1. Analyze your app architecture: Identify core, workflows, plugins, and security elements.
2. Use managed layers: Ensure that solutions are properly layered with unmanaged development layers and managed production layers.
3. Leverage deployment tools: Use Power Platform build tools to automate solution imports, exports, and deployments.
4. Adopt source control: Version each solution layer independently and track changes.

Final Thoughts

Splitting solutions might seem like an extra layer of complexity, but it pays off in the long run by enhancing maintainability, collaboration, and adaptability. As Power Platform applications scale in complexity, embracing this best practice can mean the difference between a chaotic development process and a smooth, well-managed lifecycle.

Are you currently splitting your solutions? If not, what’s holding you back? Let’s discuss how adopting this practice can streamline your ALM strategy.