Paul Turley's SQL Server BI Blog
sharing my experiences with the Microsoft data platform, SQL Server BI, Data Modeling, SSAS Design, Power Pivot, Power BI, SSRS Advanced Design, Power BI, Dashboards & Visualization since 2009
When starting a Power BI project, you have many choices to make. Decisions like how to source your data, where and how to create queries to cleanse, transform and reshape the data; where and how to create calculations and the nuances of modeling are just the tip of the iceberg.
This week, Christian Wade from Microsoft announced on the Microsoft Power BI blog that a new ribbon “External Tools” was added to the preview features of Power BI Desktop in the July update. In earlier posts, Christian has promoted community developed tools such as Tabular Editor, DAX Studio and the ALM Toolkit that can be used as replacements or extensions to the Power BI development experience. These three tools are autmatically added to the ribbon by default if they are installed, but you can add your own applications by following the instructions in the this Microsoft document titled Using external tools in Power BI.
This is an introduction to a series of posts and pages that will provide a comprehensive set of best practices for successful Power BI solutions. In previous posts. Let’s start with a simplified flowchart and condensed decision tree. This first whiteboard drawing is the first half of the Power BI design process, ending with the data model, before measures, visualization and solution delivery. There is a lot more but I think this is a good starting point. Let’s start the conversation here and then I will enhance this post with a more complete list of topics.
…for BI data model development.
For several years, Visual Studio has been my go-to tool for designing semantic data models used for Business Intelligent reporting. Back in 2005, I used the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) Visual Studio add-in for SSIS, SSRS and SSAS projects to develop BI solutions with multidimensional cubes. In 2012 when Microsoft began the transition from on-disk cubes to in-memory SSAS Tabular models, I used SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) to create tabular models. It was a rocky road at first. The Tabular design was fragile to put it mildly.