Course Description

This comprehensive Power BI course equips you with the skills to transform raw data into compelling visual insights. You'll master the entire business intelligence workflow—from connecting to diverse data sources and building robust data models to creating interactive dashboards and reports. Learn how to apply data transformations, build calculated measures using DAX, and effectively share your insights across your organisation. By the end of this hands-on course, you'll be able to confidently use Power BI to analyse complex datasets and communicate data stories that drive business decisions.

Target Student

This course is ideal for data analysts, business intelligence professionals, and business users who need to create reports and dashboards from organisational data. It's perfect for those looking to move beyond Excel for data analysis, including finance professionals, marketing analysts, operations managers, and anyone responsible for presenting data-driven insights. You'll benefit most from this training if you're comfortable working with data in Excel and are now ready to enhance your analytical capabilities with a dedicated business intelligence tool.

Pre-requisites

Attendees should previously have knowledge of Excel with some familiarity with Excel Pivot Tables and Excel Functions like SUMIFS and VLOOKUP. People with Database, Programming, or other BI experience will be qualified for the course even if they don't have direct Excel experience.

Course Requirements

• Attendees will need the Microsoft Power BI desktop software downloaded and installed onto their computer/laptop. This is free and can be downloaded from here.
• Attendees will also need a login for Power BI, which they may have already if they use Microsoft 365.
  You can check if you have a Power BI login here.
• A Pro (i.e. paid) licence for Power BI would be ideal, but it’s only needed for a very short part of the course, so a Basic (free) licence is absolutely fine.

Course Content

What is Microsoft Power BI

• Understanding the Power BI environment
• Installing Power BI Desktop

Understanding Data Sources in Power BI Desktop

• Importing a variety of data sources into Power BI Desktop
• Connecting to Excel Workbooks, Access Databases, CSV Files and other data locations.

Exploring Power BI Desktop

• Working with the Fields and Visualisation Panes
• Using Report View to create visualisations
• Using Data View to sort and Format data

Creating a Data Model in Power BI desktop

• Understanding the Data Model
• Using Relationship View
• Creating Many-to-One relationships
• Refreshing Data

Visualisations Workshop using Power BI Desktop

• Adding visualisation to the Report Canvas
• Understanding and controlling interactions between visualisations
• Using Drill Down and Drill Through on visualisations
• Creating and using Hierarchies

Introduction to DAX in Power BI Desktop

• Exploring the importance of custom calculation within the Data Model
• Creating Calculated Columns & Measures
• Understanding Evaluation Context
• Using CountRows and DistinctCount Functions

Using Queries in Power BI Desktop

• Understanding the role of Queries in data import
• Understanding Extract, Transform & Load (ETL)
• Data transformations
• Applied Steps
• Creating and using Query Parameters

Publishing to Power BI Service

• Publish your Report to PowerBI.com
• Creating Dashboards

Using Power Pivot Data Model in Power BI Service

• Creating visualisations in Power BI Service using Power Pivot data

Sharing your Dashboards & Content Packs

• How to share your interactive Power BI Dashboards with people both inside and outside your organisation.
• Sharing using Power BI, Web, PowerPoint and others