MCSA SQL 2016 BI Reporting Training & Certification Boot Camp – 5 Days

Introducing Power BI

Self-Service Business Intelligence (BI) has rapidly grown in popularity because of its ability to empower users to generate reports, process data, perform analysis, and more—all without having to depend on a report developer. The Self-Service BI trend is driven by Microsoft’s commitment to improving Excel and Power BI, both products having seen many enhancements over recent years. However, despite Microsoft enabling deeper data analysis with the four power tools added to Excel—Power Pivot, Power View, Power Query, and Power Map—they are not fully integrated into the Excel interface. Instead, they exist in separate windows. Add to this the complexity of publishing to SharePoint to share reports with colleagues, and it all becomes a time-consuming effort.

Using Power BI eliminates complications and barriers with a simple integrated user interface, and has the ability to publish rapidly to either a cloud-based or an on-premise portal to share reports easily. This module introduces Power BI, and explores the features that enable the rapid creation and publication of sophisticated data visualizations.

Lessons

• Power BI
• The Power BI Service

Lab : Creating a Power BI Dashboard

• Connecting to Power BI Data
• Create a Power BI Dashboard

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Develop reports using the Power BI Desktop app.
• Use report items to create dashboards on the Power BI portal.
• Understand the components of the Power BI service, including licensing and tenant management.

Power BI Data

Power BI offers a straightforward approach to report creation, and the ability to create and share dashboards without dependency on a report developer, or the need for Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft Excel has long been the tool of choice for data analysts who work in a self-service style. However, Excel does not offer a quick and easy way to share reports without the use of either SharePoint, or the creation of multiple copies of spreadsheets that quickly become out of date, or exist outside source control.

In recent years, power tools have been added to Excel: Power View, Power Query (known as Get & Transform in Excel 2016), and Power Pivot. Power BI brings much of this power into an integrated environment in the form of Power BI Desktop. Previously, Excel users have been inconvenienced by needing to transition between the different power tools, but Power BI Desktop brings the tools together. This means that Power BI is fast becoming an obvious choice for the analysis and sharing of data. However, analysts are likely to continue working with Excel for the foreseeable future. Power BI easily cooperates with Excel, and many other data sources. It’s this ability to create reports rapidly, by using data from a combination of sources, that really puts the power into Power BI.

Lessons

• Using Excel as a Data Source for Power BI
• The Power BI Data Model
• Using Databases as a Data Source for Power BI
• The Power BI Service

Lab : Importing Data into Power BI

• Importing Excel files into Power BI
• Viewing Reports from Excel Files

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the data model and know how to optimize your data within the model.
• Connect to Excel files and import data.
• Use on-premises & cloud SQL Server databases as data sources, with the R script data connector.
• Take advantage of the features of the Power BI service.
• Use Q&A to ask questions in natural query language and create apps.

Shaping and Combining Data

Power BI Desktop offers a self-service solution for creating visual, interactive reports and dashboards. Users can connect to a wide variety of data sources, combining data from on-premises databases, Software as a Solution (SaaS) providers, cloud-based services, and local files such as Microsoft Excel, into one report. The beauty of Power BI reports and dashboards is the ability to rapidly build reports to present this data so it is instantly readable—with clusters, outliers, and patterns in data visually brought to light. To achieve this, each report must have a dataset comprising tables and columns that are ready to add straight into visualizations. Data must be formatted for relevant currencies, numbers should have correct decimal places, additional columns and measures might be required, and data may have to be combined from multiple tables. With Power BI Desktop, you can do all of this, with powerful, built-in tools for shaping your data. This module introduces the tools that are available for preparing your data, and transforming it into a form ready for reporting.

Lessons

• Power BI Desktop Queries
• Shaping Data
• Combining Data

Lab : Shaping and Combining Data

• Shape Power BI Data
• Combine Power BI Data

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Perform a range of query editing tasks in Power BI.
• Shape data, using formatting and transformations.
• Combine data together from tables in your dataset.

Modeling Data

Microsoft Power BI is making its mark in the self-service BI world—because it can quickly create visually stunning, interactive reports, and dashboards. Power BI provides a straightforward way to combine data from a wide range of sources into a single dataset, and then work with that data to create cohesive reports. This module goes behind the scenes of the visualizations, and explores the techniques and features on offer to shape and enhance your data. With automatic relationship creation, a vast library of DAX functions, and the ability to add calculated columns, tables, and measures quickly, you will see how Power BI creates attractive reports, while helping you find hidden insights into data.

Lessons

• Relationships
• DAX Queries
• Calculations and Measures

Lab : Modeling Data

• Create Relationships
• Calculations

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe relationships between data tables.
• Understand the DAX syntax and use DAX functions to enhance your dataset.
• Create calculated columns, calculated tables, and measures.

Interactive Data Visualizations

Self-service business intelligence (BI) is becoming increasingly popular in organizations. This approach enables business users to access corporate data, and create and share reports and key performance indicators (KPIs) without dependency on a dedicated report developer. Business users can use the Microsoft Power BI suite of tools to connect to a wide variety of data sources. These include the main industry-standard databases, Microsoft cloud-based services—Microsoft Azure SQL Database, Azure Data Lake, and Azure Machine Learning—alongside Microsoft Excel and other files, and software as a service (SaaS) providers such as Microsoft Bing, Facebook, and MailChimp. The combination of flexibility and the ability to create visually stunning, interactive dashboards quickly makes Power BI an obvious choice for any organization that needs to provide its users with a self-service BI solution.

Lessons

• Creating Power BI Reports
• Managing a Power BI Solution

Lab : Creating a Power BI Report

• Connecting to Power BI Data
• Building Power BI Reports
• Creating a Power BI Dashboard

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Use Power BI Desktop to create interactive data visualizations.
• Manage a Power BI solution.

Direct Connectivity

Power BI service supports live direct connections to Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, big data sources such as Spark on Azure HDInsight, and SQL Server Analysis Services. DirectQuery means that whenever you slice data or add another field to a visualization, a new query is issued directly to the data source. Power BI works with SQL Server Analysis Services models that are running in multidimensional mode, so that you can use OLAP cubes and models in reports and dashboards. It doesn’t matter if you are using the Power BI service in the cloud, and an on-premises SQL Server Analysis Services implementation; the on-premises data gateway enables live connections between the cloud and on-premises data servers.

Lessons

• Cloud Data
• Connecting to Analysis Services

Lab : Direct Connectivity

• Direct Connections to Power BI

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Use Power BI direct connectivity to access data in Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse
• Use Power BI direct connectivity to access data in big data sources, such as Hadoop.
• Use Power BI with SQL Server Analysis Services data.
• Use Analysis Services models running in multidimensional mode.

Development with Power BI

The Power BI API is a REST-based API that developers use to access programmatically datasets, tables, and rows in Power BI. Using this API, you push data from an application into Power BI and integrate Power BI visualizations into an application. You can also add custom visuals to your applications and to Power BI dashboards and reports.

In this module, you will learn how to use the Power BI API to embed content in your applications and how to use custom visuals in your reports.

Lessons

• The Power BI API
• Custom Visuals

Lab : Using Marketplace Visualizations

• Using a Custom Visualization

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the Power BI Developer API.
• List the steps for creating custom visualizations.
• Import custom visuals into Power BI for use in Power BI reports.

Power BI Mobile

Data Analysis in Excel

This module looks at the classic Excel dashboard and at ways to extend it.

Lessons

• Classic Data Analysis with Excel
• Excel Pivot Tables
• Limitations of Classic Data Analysis

Lab : Building a Classic Excel Dashboard

• Formatting Data
• Building a Pivot Table
• Adding pivot charts and a slicer

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe classic data analysis with Excel
• Describe Excel pivot tables
• Describe the limitations of classic data analysis with Excel

The Excel Data Model

This module looks at the classic Excel data model and at ways to extend it.

Lessons

• Using an Excel Data Model
• DAX

Lab : Explore an Excel Data Model

• Create Calculated Columns
• Format Data Model Data
• Create Measures
• Analyze the Data

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe an Excel data model
• View data within an Excel data table
• Describe DAX

Importing Data from Files

This module looks at pre-formatting and importing CSV files.

Lessons

• Importing Data into Excel
• Shaping and Transforming Data
• Loading Data

Lab : Importing Data from a CSV File

• Import and Transform Data from a CSV File
• Add Data from a Folder

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Import data into excel.
• Shape and transform data.
• Load data.

Importing Data from Databases

This module looks at how to import data into Excel from a SQL Server database.

Lessons

• Available Data Sources
• Previewing, Shaping, and Transforming Data
• Table Relationships and Hierarchies
• Loading Data

Lab : Import Data from Multiple Sources

• Import Data from SQL Server
• Import Data from a CSV File
• Create a Data Table

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Identify available data sources.
• Preview, shape, and transform data.
• Explain table relationships and hierarchies.
• Load data from various sources.

Importing Data from Excel Reports

This module describes how to import data from a report.

Lessons

• Importing Data from Excel Reports
• Transforming Excel report Data

Lab : Importing Data from a Report

• Import Data from Excel
• Transform the Excel Data
• Load the Data into an Excel Data Model

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Import data from Excel reports.
• Transform Excel report data.

Creating and Formatting Measures

This module describes how to create and format measures.

Lessons

• DAX
• Measures
• Advanced DAX Functions

Lab : Creating Measures using Advanced DAX Functions

• Last year comparison
• Year to date
• Market Share

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Explain what DAX is and when to use it.
• Describe a measure.
• Use some of the advanced functions within DAX.

Visualizing Data in Excel

This module describes how to visualize data in Excel.

Lessons

• Pivot Charts
• Cube Functions
• Charts for Cube Functions

Lab : Data Visualization in Excel

• Create a Tabular Report
• Create a Pivot Chart
• Add Slicers to Charts

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Create and refine a pivot chart.
• Describe cube functions and when to use them.
• Describe a number of charts for use with cube functions.

Using Excel with Power BI