Tag Archives: power bi desktop

Power BI

Visualizing NFL Draft History with Power BI

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With the 2019 NFL Draft upon us, of course I wanted to visualize some NFL draft data in Power BI. So I put together this interesting set of visualizations based on some data I scraped from Pro Football Reference. The dataset includes drafts from 1936 to 2019 including picks through round 6 where applicable. I’ll update the dataset as the remaining rounds of the 2019 draft are completed. So feel free to take a look, interact with the dashboards, and let me know if you have any questions.

If you’re a football and Power BI fan, check out my NFL Stats Report in Power BI here.

There are three pages in the NFL Draft Picks Power BI report. Continue reading Visualizing NFL Draft History with Power BI →

DAX, Power BI

Calculating Quartiles with DAX and Power BI

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Like many of my blog posts, this post is inspired by some work I was doing with a customer who had a requirement to calculate quartiles of a ranked set of data. So I thought I’d take a few minutes to demonstrate how I accomplished this using DAX in Power BI. For this example, I’m going to be using the NFL dataset that I download as part of my NFL analysis dashboards I published last week.

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Continue reading Calculating Quartiles with DAX and Power BI →

business intelligence, Power BI, Virtualization

NFL Football Player Stats & Analysis 2018 is now available!

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I’ve had a lot of people ask me for this over the past few months and its finally (mostly) ready! There are still a few things I’d like to do with the data models and reports but I wanted to go ahead and get the content shared out since I know many people use this for the Fantasy Football drafts which generally happen during the third week of the NFL preseason.

So here it is. Continue reading NFL Football Player Stats & Analysis 2018 is now available! →

business intelligence, dataviz, Free Training, Power BI, power bi desktop, Power BI Desktop Designer, power bi premium, power bi report server, SQL Saturday

Making Sense of the Power BI Ecosystem Presentation Materials

I just wrapped up my first presentation on Making Sense of the Power BI Ecosystem at SQL Saturday #755 in Davie, Florida at Nova Southeastern University. The room was full and unfortunately people had to stand or sit in the back, but the audience was great and we had lots of fantastic questions!

Download the presentation materials for Making Sense of the Power BI Ecosystem

As I mentioned during my session, you can download my Power BI Architecture Diagram here.  Continue reading Making Sense of the Power BI Ecosystem Presentation Materials →

Analysis Services, Azure, Power BI, power bi desktop, SSAS, Tabular

Converting a Power BI Desktop File from Import to Live Query

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A customer of mine is in the midst of a proof of concept using SQL Server and Power BI. During the POC, all the modeling was done in Power BI Desktop. Now that the POC is coming to the next phase, the customer is ready to move the Power BI data model to Analysis Services. But the problem is that all the visualizations in the Power BI Desktop file based on the imported data model will need to be recreated in a new Power BI Desktop file using a Live Query connection to Analysis Services. If the visualizations and reports are extensive, this could be quite a bit of work.

In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through modifying a Power BI Desktop file with an imported data model to use an external data model hosted in Azure Analysis Services or SQL Server Analysis Services 2017. This isn’t supported by any stretch of the imagination but if you’re in a pinch and have to convert a Power BI Desktop file from an imported data model to Live Query then this may be helpful to you. Also, this method works as of the January 2018 release of Power BI Desktop but there’s no guarantee that this method will work in future releases of Power BI Desktop. Continue reading Converting a Power BI Desktop File from Import to Live Query →

Azure, Power BI, SQL Database, SQL Server Tools

Making Sense of Data Migration Assistant Assessments with Power BI

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The Data Migration Assistant is a great tool developed to assess your SQL Server environment for a migration to a modern SQL Server platform such as SQL Server 2017 or Azure SQL Database. If you’re assessing a single SQL Server with only a few databases, reading the exported results (which can be in .JSON or .CSV format) may not be that difficult. But if you’re assessing dozens of environments including hundreds of databases, we need a better way to understand the results. Continue reading Making Sense of Data Migration Assistant Assessments with Power BI →

Data Insights Summit, Microsoft, Power BI, Power BI Desktop Designer

Microsoft Data Insights Summit Day 2 Recap: Timeline Storyteller, Future of Power BI Desktop, and Freakonomics

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The theme of day 2 of the Microsoft Data Insights Summit was sessions, sessions, sessions! There were a ton of different sessions for attendees and for us to watch! In total, there are 75 different videos between the keynotes and the individual sessions posted on the Microsoft Power BI YouTube channel that you can go back and watch anytime, which is pretty amazing!

Read my Microsoft Data Insights Summit Day 1 Recap here!

Obviously I haven’t watched all 75 different videos, but I did watch a few so I’ve included some of the things I learned, announcements on new features, links to some of the especially interesting sessions, and my notes from a couple of those sessions below. Continue reading Microsoft Data Insights Summit Day 2 Recap: Timeline Storyteller, Future of Power BI Desktop, and Freakonomics →

Power BI, power bi premium, power bi report server, SSRS

Setting up the Power BI Report Server Preview

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Last week on May 17th the Power BI team announced the release of the Power BI Report Server preview. Power BI Report Server includes the ability to host Power BI reports, along with traditional SQL Server Reporting Services content, within the boundaries of your organization’s firewall.

I put together the following video that Continue reading Setting up the Power BI Report Server Preview →

Power BI, power bi desktop

Power BI Architecture Diagram v3 is Now Available!

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Download the latest version of the Power BI Architecture Diagram here!

Over the past couple weeks there has been a ton of news and announcements around the direction Microsoft is taking Power BI. Between Power BI Premium and Power BI Report Server, my head has been spinning trying to stay educated on all the new changes and enhancements. With all these announcements, it was definitely time to update my Power BI architecture diagram to reflect the addition of Power BI Premium and Power BI Report Server.

Here’s how to install and set up Power BI Report Server (Preview)

I’ve made a few changes in v3 of the Power BI architecture diagram. Continue reading Power BI Architecture Diagram v3 is Now Available! →

business intelligence, Power BI, power bi desktop, SQL Server 2016, SSAS

Microsoft Business Intelligence Materials from Discussion at Jacksonville University

Today I had the wonderful pleasure for leading a discussion regarding the products, services, and tools Microsoft provides in the business intelligence stack. I met with Jacksonville University students and faculty and also had the pleasure of speaking with members of local businesses that are interested in leveraging Microsoft technologies. It was a wonderful experience and I had a great time!

If you’d like to download my slide deck from the discussion and presentation today, you can find that here.

Continue reading Microsoft Business Intelligence Materials from Discussion at Jacksonville University →