Power BI

Tips and tricks for creating a report

 

With Power BI, Microsoft has developed a cloud-based business intelligence tool as part of the Office 365 suite that is packed with possibilities. However, the sheer endless possibilities can cause you to get bogged down and errors can creep in when setting up the logic and connecting the data sources. The resulting inconsistencies are a problem in themselves and, when compounded, can lead to disastrous misinterpretations

There is no doubt that Power BI is fundamentally easy to use and allows users to create impressive reports in just a few clicks. The Power BI programming language, DAX for short, is similar to Excel formulas, but much more complex.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you get started with a Power BI project.

Use your own business language.

When modelling, it is beneficial to use terms that are commonly understood and are consistent with the language used in your organisation. Avoid ID numbers or terms that require explanation. The data must be recognisable by any authorised user, regardless of the system.

In-depth knowledge of the DAX formula language is required.

Power BI's programming language is DAX, a formula language similar to Excel formulas. However, it is much more extensive in terms of depth and complexity. It is important to familiarise yourself with DAX before starting a Power BI project. Ideally, people tasked with such a task should take a course or consult a specialist.

Overly complex data models can be disastrous.

A data model should be clean and clearly structured. Programming errors will be found more quickly and a disastrous accumulation of misinterpretations will be avoided. Scalability is also a given.

A star schema, consisting of a fact table and several dimension tables arranged in a star shape around the fact table, is a sensible approach. Facts represent events that can be counted or measured. For example, sales, costs or login details. The associated dimensions contain additional descriptive information, such as dates, regions, products or customers.

We also recommend encapsulating the logic in a separate layer. This way the data is clearly separated from the reports and not trapped in Power BI. It does not need to be reprocessed for each report, and the integration of additional data sources and scaling in general can be implemented much more securely and efficiently.

Less is often more.

Power BI has a lot of features, and it is fun to try them all out. But don't forget that simple visualisations are the easiest for the recipient to understand. People often try to cram too much information into a graph and overwhelm their audience. We recommend that you do not try to show too much information at once.