- [Paul] Hello, and welcome to this video series
on the Power BI Adoption Framework,
which is about empowering every decision maker.
I'm Paul.
- [Manu] And I'm Manu.
- [Paul] And in this video, we will provide our view
on the different Power BI users
you could have in your organization,
as well as the training we recommend for them.
We've identified some key roles
that should be trained
in order to accelerate the development
of Power BI solutions.
We will give you an overview of what each role entails
and what training we would recommend for them.
This list covers most of the training needs
and scenarios that we've come across.
When we've run training for these various user roles,
we developed a Power BI solution for the team
using their data
and then trained the team on that solution.
This has two benefits.
The first one is that the attendees can relate
to the training datasets and business scenario,
so they're a lot more attentive and involved.
And the second benefit is they actually have
a prototype of a working solution,
which they can use and extend after the training.
Consumers are those, typically,
who only consume Power BI reports
and potentially interact with them
by changing filters, fields, or visuals.
Given that most of us interact with software
throughout our working day,
it's possible that people can learn to use Power BI
just by launching the reports and browsing them.
However, each tool is unique,
and we've noticed that a quick session
that provides an overview of the Power BI service,
the mobile app, and other key capabilities
like alertings, subscriptions, and Q&A
can get people excited and interested.
And it also speeds up the adoption
from an end user perspective.
Analysts typically perform
more detailed analysis than consumers,
although, they'd still be consuming a model
created by somebody else.
They typically do not create solutions from scratch
but are key users for BI solutions.
They're a bit more advanced than the consumers,
as they might download data locally
and mash it up with other datasets
to explore the data in more detail.
Apart from the topics covered in the end user training,
analysts can be trained on loading,
mashing up, and modeling data,
primarily because they may end up making changes
to an existing solution.
Analysts typically have a very good handle
on data visualization,
so the training should cover
advanced visualization options in Power BI,
including custom visuals and R visuals,
and also cover the preview switches
in the Power BI Desktop tool,
as they may be able to leverage some of those
preview capabilities for advanced analysis.
DAX is the language for writing calculations in Power BI.
Analysts typically end up writing calculations
in data models,
as they understand the business logic very well,
so the training should cover DAX to an intermediate level.
Power users are those who develop
end-to-end solutions using Power BI.
They're typically Excel-savvy users
who know how to mash up data
and understand the basic concepts of modeling data.
In addition to the analyst training,
the training for power users should cover
the organization's governance strategy in detail,
as they'll be the ones implementing it
in the solutions they develop.
Power BI is one of the key tools
in the Microsoft data analytics platform.
However, there are lots of other tools
like SQL Server, Analysis Services, and Data Factory
that can be leveraged for advanced scenarios.
Power users would benefit from knowledge
of those technologies as well.
Power users will typically develop solutions
using Power BI Desktop,
so they should be provided a detailed
Power BI Desktop training
that covers advanced data modeling techniques and scenarios.
One of the biggest strengths of Power BI
is its ability to blend data from multiple sources.
In reality, a lot of data cleansing and data munging
is required to mash up data coming from disparate sources.
There are various ways in which missing data,
erroneous rows, and duplicate rows
can be handled in such scenarios,
and the training should ideally cover
best practices for data blending.
Power Query is the tool that's used
for loading and cleansing data.
And M is the language that
the Power Query interface in Power BI Desktop uses.
M is a very powerful language,
and while the user interface has lots of options,
advanced users can write custom M scripts
to write repeatable functions.
Power users should ideally have an advanced training
on M and DAX.
Once the solution has been developed in Power BI Desktop,
power users will typically publish it
to the Power BI service for sharing with a wider audience.
In order to do this,
they should have a very good understanding
of how they can manage dev,
test, and production environments in the Power BI service,
and how they can share reports more widely
using app workspaces and apps.
Real-time dashboards in Power BI are implemented differently
and may require some developer skills.
So this topic should also be covered
in the training for power users.
Members of the BI development team will create data models,
reports, and applications, and insights
for colleagues throughout the business to consume.
This will enable analysts and power users
to create self-service content,
as well as supply interactive insights
to everyone else in the organization.
Typically, BI development teams
have a strong data modeling skill set,
so a customized training
that covers Power BI-specific concepts should be sufficient.
As technology experts become an enabler for self-service BI,
their key role is to surface a variety of data
for Power BI consumption.
So the training should cover best practices
around developing data sources
that are ready for consumption by the business.
The training should also cover
how the existing BI environments
can be integrated with Power BI
and how the data in Power BI models can be kept current.
If the BI development team has only developed
on Analysis Services multidimensional cubes previously,
then a module on Analysis Services tabular cubes
should also be included.
ALM and release management are key to DevOps,
which is the new trend in the IT industry,
and positively impacts project release timescales.
So the BI development team
should also be trained on those areas.
- [Manu] Web development teams develop internal
and external web applications for the business
and can embed Power BI solutions in these web applications.
This approach allows the app developers
to manage security within the app,
so an overview of the organizational governance
and security strategy is essential.
Web developers can also help develop real-time dashboards
and custom visuals for Power BI.
These are very specialist skills,
so the training course should cover these topics
only if they are required.
IT teams will also play various roles
in the lifecycle of a Power BI project.
The operations team are responsible
for keeping the lights on,
so they will be the first point of contact
if there are any issues with Power BI solutions.
This team also typically manages
the Power BI tenant settings.
Ideally, this team should first undergo
the end user training
so that they understand what they are managing.
They should then be trained on
the service management aspects of Power BI;
for example, managing the tenant-level settings.
The team should have a clear idea
of which parts of the service
are fully managed by Microsoft
and how Microsoft support teams can be contacted
if a support issue requires Microsoft involvement.
If the organization has a
Premier Support contract with Microsoft,
then there should be a clear understanding
of how it can be used.
The operations team should ideally review
audit logs on a regular basis
or automate notifications to identify unusual behavior,
and have a view of how users are using the service
through usage reporting.
If one or more Power BI solutions connect
to an on-premises database,
then one or more on-premises data gateways
will need to be installed in the organization's network.
These gateways will need to be managed,
so the IT operations team should be trained on these areas.
IT minor enhancements support team
are the ones who would normally take charge
of any IT-managed BI solutions.
These solutions may have been developed
by a business team, the internal BI team,
or an external consultancy.
A large part of the work that they do
will involve enhancing solutions
or solving complex issues,
so this team should at least have
the same skills as the power users,
and ideally, have skills that the BI
and web development teams have,
like release management.
These teams may need to manage data sources
and gateway connections,
so an understanding of these aspects of Power BI
can also be very helpful.
In this slide, we've summarized
the license and tool requirements
for the roles that we've discussed.
Please feel free to pause the video
and review this information.
Alternatively, you can also download the slides
and review this information later.
Now that we've discussed the different types of roles
involved in the lifecycle of a Power BI project,
it is a good time to reflect on these roles
and identify the roles that your organization
will require in the short- and the long-term.
The key action is to discuss
and document different user types,
what they need to be able to do,
and what licenses and tools they require.
One of the amazing things about our partner ecosystem
is that our partners adapt
to the change in technology quite rapidly.
A lot of our partners,
who would have typically developed BI solutions
for our customers,
are now actually enabling our customers
to develop their own Power BI solutions
through Power BI trainings.
If you're looking for a partner
who can offer Power BI training as a service,
then please check out the marketplace.
The link is in the description below.
We have included a link to the slides
that we've used in this presentation
in the description below.
Thanks for listening,
and if you have any feedback or questions,
please leave a comment below.
See you in the next one.