Analyzing your data with Power BI

Introduction to Power BI

This module introduces the fundamental concepts of the Power BI platform. It provides a high-level overview of the Power BI Desktop application and the Power BI Cloud Service.

• The need for Business Intelligence
• Self-Service BI versus Enterprise BI
• Core concepts of Power BI
• Introducing Power BI Desktop
• Introducing the Power BI Service
• Power BI Service Tiers and Features

Loading Data with Power BI Desktop

In this chapter you will learn how to create queries in Power BI Desktop to extract data from source systems like SQL Server, Oracle, Excel files, CSV files, and so on. Applying transformations that can filter, sort and clean the extracted data will also be covered.

• Core Concepts of Power Query
• Creating Queries to load data
• Applying Basic Transformations
• Working with Direct Query
• LAB - Creating queries with Power BI Desktop

Enhancing a Data Model in Power BI Desktop

You will gain insights into enhancing a data model by constructing hierarchies within tables and assigning columns meaningful names and appropriate data types. You will discover how to employ measures and calculated columns, thus advancing your model. Additionally, the significance of establishing accurate relationships between tables will also be covered.

• Renaming & Hiding Columns and Tables
• Column Data Types and Formatting
• Working with Numerical Columns
• Sorting Columns
• Data Categorization
• Creating Hierarchies inside tables
• Defining Calculated Columns and Measures using DAX
• Creating Measures using Microsoft CoPilot
• Working with Quick Measures
• Defining Relationships between Tables
• LAB - Enhancing a Data Model in Power BI Desktop

Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)

DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is the formula language used in the Power BI Data Model, Excel Power Pivot Data Models, and in Analysis Services Tabular. Among other things, it's used to create calculated columns, measures and tables. In this chapter, we will introduce the basic concepts of DAX. If students are interested in a deeper dive into this language, we refer them to the three-day course Mastering DAX

• DAX introduction
• Creating Calculated Columns
• Creating Tables
• Creating Measures
• Creating Measures using Microsoft CoPilot
• CALCULATE-Function
• Time-Intelligence Functions
• LAB: Introduction to DAX

Designing Reports in Power BI Desktop

After the data model has been fine-tuned, we can use it to create our reports. Power BI allows you to create very impressive reports, and in this module we will explore many visualizations as well as the interaction between these visualizations.

• Overview of the Report Canvas
• Adding Text Boxes, Shapes and Images
• Using built-in Visualizations
• Custom Theming
• Printing a Power BI Report
• Power BI Templates
• LAB - Designing Reports in Power BI Desktop

Enhancing Reports in Power BI Desktop

Sometimes a static report just isn't enough. In this module you'll learn how to make interactive reports which are easy to use for any type of end user. Take your reports to the next level!

• Slicers and Filters
• Drill through Pages
• Custom Tooltips
• Bookmarks
• Visual Hierarchies and Drill-down Behaviour
• Grouping and Binning
• Dynamic Behaviour with Parameters
• Custom Visuals
• Report Mobile Design
• LAB - Enhancing Reports in Power BI Desktop

Introduction to the Power BI Service

If you want to share models and reports with you co-workers, you should upload them to the Power BI Service. In this module you will learn about the general features of the Power BI Service, the next modules dive into the details.

• Power BI Service Overview
• Microsoft Fabric Introduction
• Power BI Service Tiers and Features
• Working with Semantic Models and Reports
• Creating and using Workspaces
• LAB - Introduction to the Power BI Service

Sharing Content in the Power BI Service

Power BI has different mechanisms to share content with other users: Sometimes you want to share in order to develop something together, or you want others to customize something, or maybe you want others to have read-only permissions on the shared object. In this module you'll learn how to accomplish this with the different sharing options in the Power BI Service.

• Sharing Reports and Dashboards with internal and external users
• Sharing content inside a Workspace
• Creating & Consuming Power BI Apps
• Publishing Reports to the web
• Subscribing to Report updates
• Embedding a report in SharePoint Online or Microsoft Teams
• Report Usage Metrics
• LAB - Sharing Content in the Power BI Service

Securing a Data Model

Security roles can be defined in Power BI Desktop. In the Power BI service, we can enforce row level security by assigning (groups of) people to the different security roles. We will see how to set up Row Level Security in Power BI Desktop, including Dynamic Row Level Security, and how to enforce it in the Power BI Service.

• Enhancing a Data Model with Row Level Security
• Configuring Row Level Security
• Implementing Dynamic Security
• Security and Relationships