Illuminate

From a process to a service

Illuminate was developed to replace a fragmented approvals process distributed across email, spreadsheets and manually maintained records. The task was to make requests and decisions easier to manage while preserving the information needed to understand what happened.

My work covered requirements analysis, solution design, Power Apps and Power Automate development, testing, deployment preparation and governance documentation.

Designing for the difficult cases

The application includes batch approvals, user and team information from Microsoft identity services, controlled attachments, structured data exchange and an auditable approval record.

I paid particular attention to missing permissions, incomplete data, workflow failures and actions affecting multiple records. Pagination and indexed data access address how the application behaves as record volumes grow.

These are operational questions as much as technical ones. A failed workflow needs to be visible to someone who can act. An efficient bulk action still needs understandable consequences. A record of approval needs enough context to be useful later.

Why this matters to the organisation

The intended value is a more manageable approval service, with clearer decision history and less dependence on fragmented records. Documentation and deployment preparation are part of that value: another person needs to be able to support and change the application.

The application is in testing. The next evidence should come from user acceptance, exception handling and representative workloads. I am not presenting projected efficiency gains as measured results.