Power Platform glossary

This Power Platform glossary defines, in a single sentence, the key terms you will come across in our courses: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, DAX, Dataverse and Microsoft Fabric. Each definition stands on its own and, where relevant, points to the related course.

Power Platform

Microsoft’s Power Platform brings together four low-code services — Power BI (analytics), Power Apps (applications), Power Automate (automation) and Power Pages (websites) — all built on Dataverse data.

Power BI

Power BI is Microsoft’s Business Intelligence tool for building interactive reports and dashboards from your data. See our Power BI Desktop course.

Report

In Power BI, a report is a multi-page set of interactive visuals built on a data model; it is the main deliverable an analyst designs.

Dashboard

A dashboard is a single-page overview that pins the key visuals and indicators together for at-a-glance monitoring.

DAX

DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is the formula language used in Power BI to create measures and calculated columns; it is covered in depth in our advanced Power BI course.

Power Query (M language)

Power Query is the data-preparation engine (using the M language) that connects, cleans and transforms data before loading it into the model. See our Power Query course.

Data model

The data model is the set of tables and relationships on which reports and measures are built; a star schema is the recommended design.

Measure (Power BI)

A measure is a DAX calculation evaluated according to the report context (e.g. total sales, year-to-date), as opposed to a value stored in a column.

Power Apps

Power Apps lets you build business applications with little or no code, connected to your data. See our Power Apps course.

Canvas app / model-driven app

A canvas app gives you free-form control over the interface; a model-driven app is generated from the Dataverse data model. These are the two Power Apps development approaches.

Power Automate

Power Automate automates workflows and repetitive tasks between your applications and services. See our Power Automate course and the advanced course.

Flow

A flow is an automation built in Power Automate: a trigger followed by a sequence of actions (for example, “when an email arrives, save the attachment”).

Connector

A connector is a ready-made bridge to an application or service (SharePoint, Outlook, SQL, etc.) used by Power Apps and Power Automate to read and write data.

Dataverse

Dataverse is the Power Platform’s managed, secure data store, structured as tables and shared across apps and flows.

Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Fabric is Microsoft’s unified analytics platform (data engineering, warehouse, real-time and Power BI) built around OneLake. See our Microsoft Fabric course.

Lakehouse

A lakehouse combines the flexibility of a data lake with the structure of a data warehouse; in Fabric it is a central storage item in OneLake.

Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s suite of business applications (CRM and ERP) built on Dataverse and closely integrated with the Power Platform.

Low-code / no-code

Low-code/no-code describes building applications and automations mainly through visual configuration, with little or no traditional programming.