Setting up Power BI project Team Collaboration & Version Control

Team file sharing and version control may be managed through Power BI workspace integration with OneDrive and SharePoint team sites. In this post, I will show you how to get started and setup a new project.

Next Level Power BI – M Language Basics

This is a series of posts and exercises from a recent full-day workshop called Next Level Power BI. Check back for additional lessons and freely post your questions and feedback in the comments section after this post.

Power Query is a modern data acquisition and transformation technology and it is the “Get Data” component of Power BI and many other Microsoft tools. The query script language of Power Query is known as “M” or the Microsoft Data Mashup language. The menu options and selections in the Power Query Editor interface build this “M” script for you but to use Power Query at an expert level, you must understand fundamental concepts of the language. The post will step you through some essential mechanics of the language to build the necessary fundamental skills.

Chat with Donald Farmer at PASS Summit 2019

Enabling the modern data analyst by becoming shopkeepers rather than gatekeepers of information

I really appreciated the opportunity to sit down and talk with one of my heros in the industry. Donald Farmer has been recognized leader in the Business Intelligence and Analytics industry for the past two decades and his thought leadership is even more relevant today. He played a key role in shaping the Microsoft BI toolset as a Principal Program Manager from 2001 when the products we use today were in their infancy.

Next Level Power BI – SVG Databars

Power BI table and matrix visuals can render SVG object elements in a column or measure to display in-line web content. You can build dynamic content like KPI indicators, databars and sparklines by altering SVG element content using DAX expressions. In this post, I will show you how to create databars that show negative and positive values with different color fills based on category values. Of course, Power BI has built-in databars in the conditional formatting options for numeric columns but you cannot alter the color and other attributes dynamically – at least not yet. For the time being, this technique provides more flexibility than the built-in databar feature.

Next Level Power BI – SVG Symbols

In this first post in a series called “Next Level Power BI”, I demonstrate how to create dynamic databars using a Scalable Vector Graphic. A dynamic SVG databar, icon, sparkline or practically any imaginable graphic can be produced with calculated column or measure.

So, I wrote a bedtime book now?!

Is the 2010, first edition of my SQL Server Reporting Services Recipe Book so snooze-worthy that it is now being…

Power Platform World Tour Vancouver Presentations

These are copies of my presentation decks from the sessions today at the Power Platform World Tour event in Vancouver,…

Power BI Project Good and Best Practices

The purpose of this article is to outline a set of guidelines and recommended practices for managing Microsoft Power BI projects. This guide is primarily focused on the work performed by the IT-managed BI Solution Developers for formally-managed BI projects.

Again, this guide is primarily focused on the work performed by the IT-managed BI Solution Developers for formally-managed BI projects. Topics included in this guide:

  • Solution Architecture
  • Managing Power BI Desktop Files
  • Datasets and Reports
  • Version Control & Lifecycle Management
  • Workspace and App Management
  • Data Model and Power Query Design Guidelines
  • Dimensional Design
  • Query Optimization
  • Managing Dataset Size with Parameters
  • Implicit and Explicit Measures
  • If Users Need Excel, Give them Excel
  • Certified & Shared Datasets
  • Enterprise Scale Options

Power BI Product Suggestion: Show Measure Dependencies

I was just working on a client project where we have several complex measures that reference other measures. Sometimes it…

Power Platform Virtual Conference

I am happy to join several world-class speakers on July 23 & 24 for the Power Platform Virtual Conference. I will be speaking about how to create “no-code” Power BI custom visuals along with Mike Carlo from PowerBI.tips.

Drillthrough Navigation Between Power BI and SSRS Paginated Reports

Report navigation is, in my opinion, the essence of true data exploration and discovery. It lets business users see and understand important information in different forms; in summary and in detail, within context. SSRS and Power BI are truly a dynamic duo for reporting and data discovery. I wanted to post a follow up to these two articles because they are apparently very popular topics. Posted two days apart on my blog, they received 2,744 and 3,356 views. Woo!

Drillthrough from Paginated Report to Power BI

— report recipealso see: Drillthrough from Power BI to an SSRS Paginated Report In the recipe titled “Drillthrough from Power…

Drillthrough from Power BI to an SSRS Paginated Report

Navigating from a Power BI report to an SSRS Paginated report with filters and parameters.
This recipe primarily involves Power BI report design techniques. I’m not going to get into the details of Power BI report design but will cover the basics with a partially-completed report to get you started. If you are less-experienced with Power BI you can use this as an example for future report projects.

Power BI Performance Analysis

How can you find the cause of slow performance issues in Power BI? This post demonstrates some of the advanced…