The Best Way to Learn Power BI

Last Updated on June 24, 2024 by Amanda Milligan

The demand for Power BI skills is growing, with over 4,000 job openings on Indeed alone. According to Microsoft, 97% of Fortune 500 companies use Power BI to clean, transform, model, and visualize their data.

As a data professional looking to advance your career, you have to familiarize yourself with Power BI. This means that you have to undergo Power BI training and be certified by Microsoft. By learning how to use Power BI, you can enhance your ability to analyze data, create powerful data models, and develop visually immersive reports.

Fortunately, you can now have your Power BI training online at your own pace with various interactive courses and resources. These resources cover everything from preparing and transforming raw data to creating and sharing interactive reports. You’ll also learn to use tools like Power Pivot, DAX, and Power View, manage big data prep using Power Query, and modify data models with filters, functions, and slicers.

But when did Power BI come out? What is the best way to learn Power BI, and is learning Power BI worth it? These are important queries that every data professional must find answers to before they start their training. This article discusses the most effective way to learn Power BI.

What Is Power BI?

Power BI is a business intelligence platform developed by Microsoft to provide data professionals and business managers with tools for collecting, cleansing, visualizing, scrutinizing, and sharing data. Its user interface is quite friendly and intuitive, making it easy for users with knowledge of Excel to adapt quickly.

With Power BI, users can create detailed data models and generate interactive insights. The platform supports transforming and modeling data, which is essential for thorough data analysis. Users can create measures and calculated columns, obtaining actionable insights from various data sources.

Power BI’s deep integration with several other products from Microsoft makes it quite adaptable. It’s a self-service data tool that can easily be used by novices with the right training. The software is compatible with Windows and virtual devices. If your company wants to keep its data and published reports within its premises, you can use the Power BI Report Server.

How to Learn Power BI

Because the main aim of learning Power BI is to get certified by Microsoft so that you can be more competitive in the job market, you need to take the training seriously. 

ONLC offers several training options to help you learn Power BI effectively:

• Instructor-led Training: Live, hands-on classes with real-time support from experienced instructors. These interactive courses can be attended from any ONLC training center or your own location using your computer.
• On-Demand Training: Self-study, self-paced courses available 24/7. These include video tutorials, live labs, and assessments, allowing you to learn Power BI at your own pace and convenience.
• Group Training: Customized training solutions for business teams to meet specific learning objectives, schedules, and budgets.

Once you’ve gone through the entire training process, you’ll be able to learn Power BI features like DAX, the M language, and the Power Query editor. You’ll also be able to create Power BI reports, develop good data models, and generate interactive insights.

With these skills, You’ll be able to easily take the PL-300 certification exam and pass. Here are the main steps you have to take to learn Microsoft Power BI:

Familiarizing Yourself with the User Interface

The first step you need to take when learning Power BI is to understand its user interface. Because this data tool is free to download, you can easily get it from Microsoft. If you aren’t using Windows, you’ll have to run it on a virtual machine. Once you’ve successfully installed the program on your device, take time to go through the main aspects of the user interface.

Focus on these key areas when you’re exploring the Power BI interface: 

• Navigation Pane: Access different views like Reports, Data, and Model. Learn to switch between these views and understand their functions.
• Ribbon Toolbar: Familiarize yourself with commands in the ribbon toolbar for data import, visualization creation, and report formatting.
• Visuals Pane: Practice adding and customizing visualizations. Understand the settings and properties of charts, graphs, and other visuals.
• Fields Pane: Use the Fields pane to drag and drop data fields into your visualizations. Explore creating hierarchies and calculated fields.

Understand the basic features and start working with real data right away rather than spending a lot of time studying the interface. Regular practice and exploration will help you become proficient in using Power BI quickly.

Creating Your Visualizations With Sample Data

Once you’re familiar with the user interface, start developing visualizations in the Report View. You should do this using clean data sets because you won’t have to do a lot of modeling or data cleansing. That way, you can learn how to import data and create reports effectively.

Here’s how you can get started. 

• Import Sample Data: Begin by importing sample data sets into Power BI. This helps you practice without worrying about data quality issues.
• Create Basic Visualizations: Start with simple visualizations such as bar charts, line graphs, and pie charts. This helps you understand the basics of creating visuals.
• Explore Report View: Use the Report View to arrange your visuals and build comprehensive reports. Experiment with different layouts and formatting options.
• Apply Filters and Slicers: Practice using filters and slicers to refine the data displayed in your visualizations. See if you can add interactivity to your reports.
• Experiment with Different Visuals: Try different types of visualizations to see how they represent your data differently. This helps you understand what type of visualizations to do for different data sets.

By regularly practicing with clean data sets, you can quickly become proficient in creating effective visualizations and reports in Power BI.

Modeling and Cleaning Data

Although you should use clean data sets to create your visualizations during training, ultimately you have to learn how to model and clean data. Once you’ve understood how to create visualizations, you should do more complicated analysis with this data tool by designing data models and calculating values.

Use DAX to calculate values and Power Query Editor to clean your data. While these features may appear intricate at first, you’ll eventually figure out how to deploy them in real-life data modeling and cleansing situations.

Here are other key steps to focus on:

• Loading and Transforming Data: Import your data into Power BI and use the Power Query Editor to perform initial transformations like removing duplicates, filtering rows, and combining data from multiple sources.
• Creating Data Models: Establish relationships between different tables in your data set based on common fields. This step is important for creating a data model that can be used for advanced analytics.
• Defining Measures and Calculated Columns: Use DAX to create measures and calculated columns. Measures are used for dynamic calculations, while calculated columns are useful for static data transformations.
• Optimizing Data Models: Remove unnecessary columns and tables. This not only improves performance but also makes your data model easier to understand and use.
• Validating and Testing: Validate the relationships and test calculations. This step helps identify and correct any errors.

Publishing Reports

In a realistic job setting, you’ll be expected to share your data analysis results and actionable insights across different departments for decision-making. Therefore, you need to learn how to publish your reports using the Power BI service. You start by creating the report in Power BI Desktop and then publish it to the Power BI service.

Once the report is successfully published, share it with your colleagues. To practice this, you have to sign up for the Power BI Service tool and familiarize yourself with the interface.

Learn how to set permissions to control who can view and interact with the reports. You can also utilize collaboration features by inviting colleagues to view and comment on your reports.

Also, make sure that you use row-level security and sharing permissions to control access to data and reports so that sensitive information is only accessible to authorized users.

Building Your Project Portfolio

The final step in your Power BI training is using the skills you’ve acquired to create an end-to-end workflow. This will help you to put your skills to use and build a project portfolio that you can use to convince potential employers to hire you!

Take these steps below to create a portfolio even if you do not have any professional experience: 

• Define a Project: Choose a project that interests you and aligns with the skills you have learned. This could involve analyzing business data, creating financial reports, or visualizing sales data.
• Gather Data: Collect relevant data from various sources. Ensure your data is comprehensive enough to showcase different Power BI capabilities such as data modeling, transformation, and visualization.
• Model and Transform Data: Use Power Query Editor to clean and transform your data. Establish relationships between tables and define calculated columns and measures with DAX to create a robust data model.
• Create Visualizations: Using the Power BI Report View, develop comprehensive and interactive visualizations. Focus on creating reports that provide actionable insights and are visually appealing.
• Document Your Workflow: Create detailed documentation of your project workflow, explaining each step from data collection to report sharing. This documentation will be valuable for potential employers to understand your process and thought approach.

Try to work on real-world projects that can demonstrate your proficiency with Power BI. This will make you a more attractive candidate to potential employers.

Master Power BI With ONLC Training

Learning Power BI is an essential step for any data professional looking to advance their career in data science. 

By following the comprehensive training options provided by ONLC, you can become proficient in Power BI’s powerful features. From creating visualizations to modeling and cleaning data, you’ll be prepared to pass the PL-300 certification exam and build a strong project portfolio that showcases your skills. 

Start your online Power BI training today to unlock new opportunities in data analytics.