Microsoft Power BI for Analysts

Paths

Microsoft Power BI for Analysts

Authors: Stacia Misner Varga, Rory Neary, Eugene Meidinger, Tim Boles, Matthew Calderwood, Andrew McSwiggan, Jim Kay, Alexander Arvidsson

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence suite designed to simplify the path from data to insights. This skill starts with the general end-to-end workflow using by Power BI,... Read more

Related topics

Tableau Qlik Excel DAX M SQL

What you will learn:

  • The core functions and workflows of Power BI Desktop
  • General mechanics of building visualizations and dashboards
  • The interactions between Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service
  • Most common use cases
  • The basics of the DAX formula language
  • The basics of the M language
  • Best practices in dashboard and visualization development
  • Best practices in data user management

Pre-requisites

  • Data literacy
  • Data analytics literacy
  • Basic computer use

Beginner

Experience the workflow of creating your first simple Power BI report, and load and shape data for analysis in Power BI Desktop.

Building Your First Power BI Report

by Stacia Misner Varga

Mar 1, 2021 / 1h 31m

1h 31m

Start Course
Description

Do you need to use Power BI and don’t know how to get started? In this course, Building Your First Power BI Report, you’ll learn how to access and explore data in a Power BI report. First, you’ll learn how to import an Excel workbook into Power BI and how to fix your data so that it is more usable for reporting. Next, you’ll discover the modeling capabilities available in Power BI to further enhance your data and improve the reporting experience. Finally, you’ll learn how to add data visualizations and static report elements to a report so that you can explore your data from multiple perspectives. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge to create simple Power BI reports using your own data.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Preparing Data for Power BI
  3. Creating Data Models in Power BI
  4. Creating Reports

Power BI Data Import Playbook

by Rory Neary

May 6, 2019 / 1h 46m

1h 46m

Start Course
Description

Every Power BI report starts with data, which can be housed in a multitude of ways. In this course, Power BI Data Import Playbook, you’ll learn fundamental skills for making and using connections to sources of data in your reports. First, you’ll explore how data importation fits within the context of building a simple end to end Power BI report. Then, you'll delve into other data sources starting with structured sources such as databases all the way through to unstructured ones including Excel and web data sources. Finally, you'll learn about data privacy and even get to discover how to create tables from thin air using DAX (Data Analysis Expressions). When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of Power BI data importation needed to enable you to begin building insightful Power BI reports.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Understanding How Import Fits within the Power BI Model Production Process
  3. Connecting to Databases, Data Warehouses, SSAS Cubes, and Power BI Data Models Using Power BI
  4. Connecting to Databases through Direct Query
  5. Configuring Privacy Levels for Data Sources
  6. Connecting to Online Sources Using Power BI
  7. Connecting to SharePoint Data
  8. Connecting to Text and CSV Data Sources from Power BI
  9. Loading Data Using an R Script
  10. Importing Excel Data and Workbooks to Power BI
  11. Connecting to Web Data Sources from Power BI
  12. Storing and Connecting to Your Office 365 Data Files
  13. Using Blank Queries to Create Data Tables
  14. Entering Your Own Data by Hand
  15. Creating Tables from Thin Air
  16. Course Wrap Up

Power BI Data Preparation Playbook

by Eugene Meidinger

Apr 29, 2019 / 2h 1m

2h 1m

Start Course
Description

In order to model your data in Power BI, you need to clean it up first. In this course, Power BI Data Preparation Playbook, you will learn how to do so with Power Query. First, you’ll learn when Power Query is the right tool for the job, and how to navigate the Power Query editor. Next, you’ll explore how to add data transformation steps and access the underlying query code. Finally, you’ll discover how to fix errors and go even further using Python and R. By the end of this course, you'll feel completely comfortable using the Power Query Editor.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Choosing the Right Tool for the Right Job
  3. Navigating the Query Editor
  4. Adding and Removing Steps in Your Data Recipe
  5. Accessing the Underlying Query Code
  6. Fixing Errors in Your Workflow
  7. Extending the Query Editor with R and Python

Modeling Data in Power BI

by Stacia Misner Varga

May 12, 2021 / 4h 56m

4h 56m

Start Course
Description

Data in its raw form is rarely useful for reporting and analysis. In this course, Modeling Data in Power BI, you'll learn how to use Power BI to transform raw data into meaningful insights. First, you'll learn how to gather data and apply transformations to easily blend multiple sources together, reduce the data to its most useful elements, and prepare the data for exploration. Next, you'll discover how to configure the model to support Power BI features for insightful visualizations, geospatial analysis, and natural language queries. Finally, you'll explore the basics of DAX, Power BI's expression language, to add calculations to your model. When you're finished with this course, you'll have the skills and knowledge of Power BI data modeling that you can use to build your own models that support a variety of analytical requirements and take full advantage of Power BI's capabilities.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Loading Data
  3. Exploring Additional Techniques in the Power Query Editor
  4. Enhancing a Power BI Model with Relationships and Hierarchies
  5. Improving the Data Model for Reporting
  6. Using DAX to Enhance a Power BI Model
  7. Working with Dates and Time in Power BI
  8. Applying Evaluation Context

Intermediate

Develop complex calculated measures using DAX, and create and share more impactful reports and dashboards from your data.

Getting Started with DAX Formulas in Power BI, Power Pivot, and SSAS

by Eugene Meidinger

Mar 28, 2018 / 2h 58m

2h 58m

Start Course
Description

If you want to use Power BI, Power Pivot, or SSAS (tabular mode), you'll need to learn DAX. In this course, Getting Started with DAX Formulas in Power BI, Power Pivot, and SSAS, you'll learn the basics of the DAX language. First, you'll learn how DAX works and why it has such good performance. Next, you'll explore how to encapsulate business logic using calculated columns and measures. Finally, you'll discover a variety of ways to manipulate filters or analyze your data. When you're finished this course, you'll have the skills and knowledge of DAX to model and analyze your data with the DAX expression language.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Understanding What Makes DAX so Unique
  3. Planning Your Data Governance: Power BI, Power Pivot, or SSAS Tabular?
  4. Thinking in Columns, Not Rows
  5. Adding Business Logic with Calculated Columns and Measures
  6. Filtering Data Using CALCULATE
  7. Looping Over Data with Iterators
  8. Analyzing History with Time Intelligence

Effective Reporting with Power BI

by Tim Boles

Feb 12, 2019 / 2h 19m

2h 19m

Start Course
Description

It has been said that "a picture is worth a thousand words". The question is as if the picture is saying what the author intends. In this course, Effective Reporting with Power BI, you will learn foundational knowledge for creating effective and engaging reports. First, you will learn how to integrate basic visualizations into a report. Next, you will discover how to enhance the visualizations to build compelling reports. Finally, you will explore how to create interactive reports and dashboards. When you're finished with this course, you will have the skills and knowledge in Power BI needed to communicate data stories through clear and compelling visualizations.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Guide Tour to Power BI Fundamentals
  3. Creating Basic Reports
  4. Creating Reports to Show Relationships
  5. Handling Unusual Data
  6. Implementing Key Performance Indicators
  7. Leveraging Interactivity in Reports

Creating Dashboards with Power BI

by Matthew Calderwood

May 3, 2019 / 4h 4m

4h 4m

Start Course
Description

So, you have cleaned your data, designed your data models, and built some reports. You’re now ready to deliver this content to users… but have you considered what dashboards have to offer? Power BI Dashboards are a unique and effective way of providing users quick and easy access to the data that is most important to them! This can be done in a way that not only enhances the reports that you have already written, but also improves the way that users interact with your reporting content. In this course, Creating Dashboards with Power BI, you will gain the ability to design, build, and deliver dashboard-based reporting solutions. First, you will understand the use-cases for dashboards, and learn how to make your report visualizations ‘dashboard ready’, whilst also learning some design principles that will help make your dashboards look clean, modern, and easy for users to read. Next, you will discover how you can go beyond standard report visualizations and enhance your dashboards with media tiles, including how you can even use custom web content to create integrations with sources outside of Power BI. Finally, you will explore how to manage and secure your dashboards, before going though the various options for sharing your new content with your users, including how to package your reports and dashboards into apps. When you're finished with this course, you will have the skills and knowledge to use Power BI Dashboards - and take your solutions all the way from initial concept, through to delivery, and beyond.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Creating Your First Dashboard
  3. Designing Dashboards for Users
  4. Building Dashboard Content
  5. Adding Media to Dashboards
  6. Applying Themes and Styles
  7. Managing Dashboards
  8. Understanding Data Security Behaviors in Dashboards
  9. Sharing and Collaborating with Dashboards

Deploying and Publishing Power BI Reports

by Eugene Meidinger

Oct 16, 2018 / 1h 44m

1h 44m

Start Course
Description

Power BI is an incredible business analytics tool. However, your reports are useless if you can't share them with others. In this course, Deploying and Publishing Power BI Reports, you'll cover all the different ways to efficiently publish and deploy your own Power BI reports. First, you'll learn about all the pieces that go into an app workspace. Next, you'll explore different ways to embed Power BI reports, such as in SharePoint Online or Microsoft Teams. Finally, you'll discover the best options for when you need to scale up the number of users to share with. By the end of this course, you'll have the necessary knowledge to make the right choice for deploying your Power BI reports.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Publishing Power BI Reports
  3. Sharing Reports and Dashboards
  4. Staging and Sharing with App Workspaces
  5. Embedding Reports in Intranets and Extranets
  6. Scaling up with Premium Capacity
  7. Embedding Reports in Custom Applications
  8. Deploying On-premises with Power BI Report Server

Common DAX Expressions and Scenarios Power BI Playbook

by Andrew McSwiggan

Jul 8, 2021 / 5h 23m

5h 23m

Start Course
Description

As a data professional, have you ever wanted to produce an array of data objects using the DAX language? In this course, Common DAX Expressions and Scenarios Power BI Playbook, you will learn foundation skills in dimensional modelling and programming with the DAX Language in Power BI Desktop. First, you will learn the basic design principles. Next, you will discover how to write DAX code to implement the basic model framework. Finally, you will explore the DAX language and use it to extend and enhance the model. When you have completed this course, you will have the skills and knowledge needed to make your data available via a robust and flexible self service analytical interface. Software required: Power BI Desktop.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. A Structured Approach to Power Bi Design
  3. Creating Text Columns for Data Analysis
  4. Creating Calendar Columns for Data Analysis
  5. Creating Measures with Aggregation Functions
  6. Creating Groups Bands and Hierarchies with Conditional Values
  7. Creating Intelligent Measures with Iterating X Functions
  8. Taking Control of the Evaluation Context with CALCULATE
  9. Filtering Measures with Time Intelligence Functions
  10. Create Complex Measures for RFM Analysis with CALCULATE

Advanced

Leverage advanced Power BI services like Quick Insights and Q&A, and apply powerful data-centric languages against your data.

Effective Quick Insights and Q&A in Power BI

by Jim Kay

May 3, 2019 / 3h 33m

3h 33m

Start Course
Description

Have you ever wanted to provide a simple, self-service way for data consumers to query your data? What if they could just type a question or even just speak their question and have a useful chart or report 'magically' appear with the answer? In this course, Effective Quick Insights and Q&A in Power BI, you will gain the ability to optimize your Power BI datasets so that they will work seamlessly with the powerful Q&A and Quick Insights features. First, you will learn what these features are capable of doing when applied to a 'tidy and polished' dataset. Next, you will discover how to optimize your datasets so they will support these features. Finally, you will explore how to extend the Q&A feature to work with data stored not in the cloud, but inside your own on-premises data center. When you're finished with this course, you will have the skills and knowledge of data modeling needed to supercharge your Power BI datasets using both Q&A and Quick Insights.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Simplifying Data Queries with Q&A
  3. Simplifying Data Analysis with Quick Insights
  4. Optimizing Data for Q&A by Making Your Data Tidy and Polished
  5. Exploring Data with Q&A
  6. Mining Data with Minimal Effort Using Quick Insights
  7. Voicing Questions Using Cortana
  8. Enabling Q&A for an On-premises Dataset
  9. Migrating a Power BI Dataset to an SSAS Database

Querying and Shaping Data in Power BI Using M

by Eugene Meidinger

Sep 11, 2019 / 2h 36m

2h 36m

Start Course
Description

We all have to deal with semi-structured data that is scattered across multiple data sources. In this course, Querying and Shaping Data in Power BI Using M, you'll learn how the Power Query formula language known as M can automate data cleanup. First, you'll learn how to extract trapped data. Next, you'll discover how to massage and shape it. Finally, you'll explore how to work with text and date values. By the end of this course, you'll have a deeper understanding of the M language.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Meet M, a Macro Language for Data Prep
  3. Extracting Your Trapped Data
  4. Molding Your Data into the Right Shape
  5. Combining and Merging Multiple Data Sources
  6. Cleaning up Messy Text Values
  7. Manipulating Dates and Times

Leveraging Timely On-premises Data with Power BI

by Eugene Meidinger

Jul 7, 2017 / 1h 22m

1h 22m

Start Course
Description

Sometimes when using Power BI, you need to access fresh on-premises data. In this course, Leveraging Timely On-premises Data with Power BI, you'll learn how to implement and configure a data gateway. First, you'll discover what data gateways are. Next, you'll explore how to install and configure them. Finally, you'll learn alternate query modes for faster refreshes. When you're finished with this course, you'll have the knowledge to tie your Power BI reports to your on-premises data. Software required: Power BI Desktop.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. Understanding How Power BI Works with On-premises Data
  3. Installing Data Gateways
  4. Administering Data Refreshes
  5. Enabling Real-time Data

Power BI Playbook: Securing Shared Data with Power BI

by Alexander Arvidsson

Jun 21, 2018 / 1h 6m

1h 6m

Start Course
Description

Without the ability to effectively share and disseminate data in an organization, the true power of data analysis and visualization is left locked away. In this course, Power BI Playbook: Securing Shared Data with Power BI, you will gain fundamental knowledge to effectively share and secure data with Power BI. First, you will explore the security model and how Power BI secures data. Next, you will learn how to effectively share and distribute data. Finally, you will discover how to secure access to the shared data. When you are finished with this course, you will have the skills and knowledge needed to use Power BI the way it was meant to be used - to share data and empower your users.

Table of contents
  1. Course Overview
  2. An Overview of Power BI Security
  3. Granting and Denying Access to a Report
  4. Implementing Multi-factor Authentication for Power BI
  5. Securing Access to Content Using App Workspaces
  6. Implementing Row-level Security
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Learning Paths

Microsoft Power BI for Analysts

  • Number of Courses13 courses
  • Duration35 hours
  • Skill IQ available Skill IQ

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence suite designed to simplify the path from data to insights. This skill starts with the general end-to-end workflow using by Power BI, then conveys tactics for loading and working with your data to enable analysis. Creating, deploying, and securing your reports and dashboards is covered as well. In addition, you’ll learn powerful techniques specialized to Power BI, such as creating calculated measures with Data Analysis eXpressions (DAX), manipulating data with the powerful M language, and taking advantage of services like free text Q & A.

Courses in this path

Beginner

Experience the workflow of creating your first simple Power BI report, and load and shape data for analysis in Power BI Desktop.

Building Your First Power BI Report

  • by Stacia Misner Varga
  • 1h 31m Duration
  •  (411)

Power BI Data Import Playbook

  • by Rory Neary
  • 1h 46m Duration
  •  (83)

Power BI Data Preparation Playbook

  • by Eugene Meidinger
  • 2h 1m Duration
  •  (69)

Modeling Data in Power BI

  • by Stacia Misner Varga
  • 4h 56m Duration
  •  (137)

Intermediate

Develop complex calculated measures using DAX, and create and share more impactful reports and dashboards from your data.

Getting Started with DAX Formulas in Power BI, Power Pivot, and SSAS

  • by Eugene Meidinger
  • 2h 58m Duration
  •  (185)

Effective Reporting with Power BI

  • by Tim Boles
  • 2h 19m Duration
  •  (94)

Creating Dashboards with Power BI

  • by Matthew Calderwood
  • 4h 4m Duration
  •  (33)

Deploying and Publishing Power BI Reports

  • by Eugene Meidinger
  • 1h 44m Duration
  •  (72)

Common DAX Expressions and Scenarios Power BI Playbook

  • by Andrew McSwiggan
  • 5h 23m Duration
  •  (93)

Advanced

Leverage advanced Power BI services like Quick Insights and Q&A, and apply powerful data-centric languages against your data.

Effective Quick Insights and Q&A in Power BI

  • by Jim Kay
  • 3h 33m Duration
  •  (20)

Querying and Shaping Data in Power BI Using M

  • by Eugene Meidinger
  • 2h 36m Duration
  •  (30)

Leveraging Timely On-premises Data with Power BI

  • by Eugene Meidinger
  • 1h 22m Duration
  •  (62)

Power BI Playbook: Securing Shared Data with Power BI

  • by Alexander Arvidsson
  • 1h 6m Duration
  •  (40)

Learn with the best

Stacia Misner Varga
Stacia Misner Varga
Stacia Misner Varga is an instructor, author, and principal consultant of Data Inspirations. Her career spans more than 30 years, with a focus on improving business practices through technology. Since 2000, she has provided consulting and education services for Microsoft’s data platform and authored or co-authored many books covering this topic. In addition, Stacia has been a frequent speaker over the years at technology conferences worldwide.
Rory Neary
Rory Neary
A Microsoft Power Platform Developer with a finance background and a deep passion to help businesses realize their potential with Office 365.
Eugene Meidinger
Eugene Meidinger
Starting out as an accidental DBA and developer, Eugene Meidinger now focuses primarily on BI consulting. He has been working with SQL Server for five years now, and is certified in Querying and Administering SQL Server 2012. He regularly presents at various SQL Saturday events.
Tim Boles
Tim Boles
As a teenager, Tim found a love for teaching, learning, writing, and computers. He believes that everyone should be a lifelong learner. Tim has been teaching for nearly 21 years, either full or part-time. Tim is an Oracle Database Administrator with over 17 years of experience. He works out of Pittsburgh PA and lives in West Virginia with his wife and kids.
Matthew Calderwood
Matthew Calderwood
Matt Calderwood is a Software Engineer with a passion for all things programming, AI, Data, and Machine Learning.
Andrew McSwiggan
Andrew McSwiggan
Passionate about Business Intelligence and delivering knowledge and insight to support better decisions. An advocate of Self-Service Reporting, Analytics Data Visualisation. Andi has delivered face to face Business Intelligence training covering topics such as Report Design, Dimensional modeling, and Data Visualisation. Andi is a keen cyclist and amateur cook and lives with his wife in Southern Spain.
Jim Kay
Jim Kay
Jim Kay has worked with SQL Server and many of the Microsoft Data-Related tools for almost as long as they have existed. This doesn't mean he knows everything about them, but he does know enough to be dangerous...
Alexander Arvidsson
Alexander Arvidsson
Alexander is a Senior Consultant, Microsoft Certified Trainer and speaker and has spent the last 20 years with data-related infrastructure. He focuses on SQL Server, Oracle, Azure and Power BI.

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