This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press book: Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and Mobile Reports.  Each of the posts is a condensed version of the material covered in a corresponding chapter from the book.  The goal for this posts is to provide useful and meaningful information you can use.  For more comprehensive details, I refer readers to the rather lengthy book itself.  Note that large portions are copied directly from the book manuscript that may refer to figures and screen capture images that have been removed for brevity.

• Database and query essentials
• Understanding relational database principles and concepts
• Data source management
• Datasets and using query design tools
• Query authoring using the Report Builder query designer
• Query authoring with SQL Server Management Studio
• Using single and multi-select parameters

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This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press book: Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and Mobile Reports.  Each of the posts is a condensed version of the material covered in a corresponding chapter from the book.  The goal for this posts is to provide useful and meaningful information you can use.  For more comprehensive details, I refer readers to the rather lengthy book itself.  Note that large portions are copied directly from the book manuscript that may refer to figures and screen capture images that have been removed for brevity.

• Using report design tools
• Using report data building blocks
• Preparing the report data
• Designing the report layout
• Setting formatting properties
• Validating report design and grouping data

Report design is both a science and an art. It is a science because there are definitely standard and repeatable methods for designing common report types.

Continue reading →

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press book: Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and Mobile Reports.  Each of the posts is a condensed version of the material covered in a corresponding chapter from the book.  The goal for this posts is to provide useful and meaningful information you can use.  For more comprehensive details, I refer readers to the rather lengthy book itself.  Note that large portions are copied directly from the book manuscript that may refer to figures and screen capture images that have been removed for brevity.

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER

• What’s changed in SQL Server 2016?
• Installing a report server
• Building an enterprise deployment
• Using tools to manage the reporting life cycle
• Exploring report server architecture
• Leveraging reporting services extensions

Continue reading →

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press book: Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and Mobile Reports.  Each of the posts is a condensed version of the material covered in a corresponding chapter from the book.  The goal for this posts is to provide useful and meaningful information you can use.  For more comprehensive details, I refer readers to the rather lengthy book itself.  Note that large portions are copied directly from the book manuscript that may refer to figures and screen capture images that have been removed for brevity.

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER

• Report designer enhancements
• Modern browser rendering
• Parameter layout management
• Introducing Mobile Reports and KPIs
• New printing and rendering options
• The new web portal
• Power BI dashboard pinning and integration

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A big THANK YOU for all those who attended the Business Analytics Day in Chicago this week.  It was a very successful and well-attended event.  Thank you to Angie Horel, Jessica Minnie, Wendy Pastrick and Dan English for heading-up a terrific event.  We had a packed house for the Mastering Power BI session and a diverse audience across roles and experiences with the tools.  I’ve presented several Power BI sessions over the past two years or so and this one has prompted me to share a few thoughts.

I think we’ve arrived at a point where these tools (Power BI Desktop, Power Query, Power Pivot nd SSAS Tabular) are already familiar to most people attending sessions.  This marks a significant point in the on-going evolution of the Power BI tool set where people are taking it very seriously and the industry has accepted it as a serious solution platform.

My approach up to this point has been to deliver one session to students and attendees with various levels of skills and experience, advising them to set their expectations accordingly.  With the median skill level on the rise, it is time to start offering classes and sessions at different levels for beginners and more advanced audiences.  Power BI already appeals to users across the spectrum of business-centric and IT-centric disciplines.  As a platform with features for novice desktop users and advanced solution integrators, Power BI now spans more depth and breadth than any other Microsoft product in my experience.  With this realization, I’m expanding my approach for teaching and mentoring by developing training material for different levels and audiences.  I’m in the process of developing a three-day Power BI course with beginner and advanced-level options along with some help from other Power BI technology experts.

This past week, I had the honor of being interviewed by Carlos Chacon and Steve Stedman from the SQL Data Partners Podcast. 

It was quite an honor to talk about new features of SSRS in SQL Server 2016, my new Wrox Press SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services book and the PASS Business Analytics Day.  A big thanks to Carlos and Steve for welcoming me to their podcast show.  I’m quite impressed with the quality and professionalism of this production.  You guys do a great job.  Look for Episode #77 – New Reporting Options in SQL Server 2016.  After well over a year of hard work, the book has gone to press.  Amazon shows that they will be shipping copies by February 6th.

I’m working on a series of blog post excerpts from each major topic in the book.  These posts will include abridged chapter summaries, complete with walk-through demonstrations and samples.  Subscribe to future post notifications to get the entire series.

PASS Business Analytics Day in Chicago

January 11 is the big day for the Power BI workshop, part of the PASS Business Analytics Day in Chicago.  The workshop covers Power BI from the ground-up for business analysts and IT pros.  You’ll learn basic data importing from files and databases, transformations, modeling and reporting.  Then, we will cover many advanced-level topics like working with on-prem, enterprise-scale data, complex transformations and modeling, DAX essentials, dashboard and report best practices.  We’ll also take a peek at using R visualizations.  No matter what your role is, you are bound to learn some useful skills and techniques.  The flexibility of the Power BI platform is pretty amazing.  If you are new to Power BI, we will teach the basics and you’ll see how it can be used in a variety of settings.  If you are an experienced data analyst or IT data professional, you will learn to use Power BI to create scalable, professional solutions.

Since the event has exceeded attendance registration expectations, they are moving our session into a larger room.  I’ve been putting the final touches on the new session content demos and lab exercises.  I’ll be covering more than ever before in a full-day Power BI workshop.

If you are attending, make sure you have the latest version of Power BI Desktop installed.  We’ll be handing out all the exercise data and samples on USB drives at the beginning of the event.  Plan to have at least 2 GB of free storage space for these files.