1. by George SQUILLACE “SQL” is in the name! April 2018
Power BI course 20778
Presentation setup:
Open Module 3 virtual machine. Have Power BI .iso file resources copied to D:\ of VM.
Make sure VM has an Access DB, AdventureworksDW and other relational DBs, an MD database, and a Tabular DB available.
Open a browser window connected to Azure.
Have a browser window open to the Wikipedia Tour de France 2016 article,
Have Android phone and iPad and make sure I’m already signed in to PBI.
Have the printed instructions (or have Skillpipe open) to Course 10989, Module
by George SQUILLACE
“SQL” is in the name!
April 2018

2. Agenda What is Power BI? What is the 20778 Course Content?
What must you know about proper student placement?
Why do you care?
Because Power BI is smokin’ hot right now!
I love Power BI, and I love teaching Power BI, but it is currenly, likely, THE MOST challenging course in terms of MTM scores and student satisfaction. You’ll see why shortly.
I love Power BI and I love teaching Power BI!

3. What is Power BI?
Collection of tools and technologies used to create data visualizations producing reports and dashboards for rapidly obtaining and sharing insights
Power BI is ecosystem, including the following items…
Power BI Desktop
Power BI Service website
Power BI mobile applications
More on each…
PBI is a collection of technologies oriented at, but not exclusively at, self-service BI.
It is an application. It is a service. It is an ecosystem.
What is the point:

4. Power BI Desktop Free desktop application Updates released monthly
Primary development environment for Power BI solutions.
Freely downloadable with monthly updates.
Free desktop application
Updates released monthly
The primary starting point for developing a PBI solution
Import or live connect to just about any data source
Used to create visualizations within a report

5. Power BI Service Cloud service found at www.PowerBI.com
Selected
Dashboard
Cloud service found at
Create a free account based on an address, but it must be a work or student address
The Power BI Service provides a number of features not present in PBI Desktop

6. Comparison: PBI Desktop v. PBI Service
Power BI Service
Power BI Desktop
Certain features are only available in the PBI Desktop
Certain features are only available in the PBI Service
Some features are available in both environments
Realize that EVERY ASPECT of the PBI environment is (rapidly) subject to change!

7. Power BI Mobile Apps Native apps for iOS devices and Android devices.
Data updates can be received and cached, with restrictions.
Dashboards can be explored interactively.
Can receive alerts to important data changes.
There are collaboration and sharing options such as annotations.
Mobile Q & A

8. Power BI Dashboard - Example 1
Visualizations used: Line graph, KPIs, Pie, Bubble, Column, Bar, Geography

9. Power BI Dashboard - Example 2
Visualizations used: Stacked Bar, Gauge, and more xxx

10. Power BI Dashboard - Example 3
Visualizations used: Area chart, Tree Map, data labels on the bars

11. Power BI Dashboard - Example 4
Visualizations used: xxx

12. Microsoft Course 20778
The only Power BI course currently offered
Topics
Importing data from a variety of sources
Shaping and combining data
Modeling data
Interactive visualizations
Power BI mobile apps
And more
Opinion: the course, as written, is not great, but…

13. Student Placement Issues
Achieving student satisfaction with this course is difficult
Students in open-enrollment and private group courses often arrive with a vary broad variety of skills
Students often arrive with a vary broad variety of development interests, hopes, and expectations
Some students will not perform data modeling
What is “The Big Lie”? Answer: Believing your data is “clean” and doesn’t need much processing.
Broad range of incoming skill sets
Broad range of development interests

14. Potentially Related Courses
55123, Report Builder Level 1 (2 days), and then,
55128, Report Builder Level 2 (2 days)
20761, Querying SQL Databases (5 days)
20767, Implementing a Data Warehouse with SQL Server (5 days)
20768, Developing SQL Server Data Models (3 days)
10990, Analyzing Data with SQL Server Reporting Services (“C”, now 5 days)
20779, Analyzing Data with Excel (3 days)

15. Thank you for your time!