SQLBits 2020

The Incidental Business Analyst (BA) – Designing a Finance Power BI Data Model to Tell a Story

Join this session to learn the key steps in designing a data model: Know Your Audience (KYA), Complete a Scoping Template, Define the data granularity/scope and design a conceptual model. We will use time-tested methodologies based on Kimball Data modelling techniques, including a Bus Matrix and Starnet, complete with templates available for you to freely download.
There is a lot of focus on all the technical aspects of Power BI – including DAX and data modelling – but what about the starting point when it comes to building a report? How do you identify user stories, define the scope of a reporting solution and plan/design your data model so that it will support your reporting requirements (without the need for overly-complex DAX)? Join this session to learn the key steps in designing a data model: Know Your Audience (KYA), Complete a Scoping Template, Define the data granularity/scope and design a conceptual model. We will use time-tested methodologies based on Kimball Data modelling techniques, including a Bus Matrix and Starnet, complete with templates available for you to freely download. The examples used in this session will be based on finance datasets, complete with a Trial Balance, Chart of Accounts and Journal entries. It will therefore be of particular interest to those who work in the finance sector or are interested in working with finance data, though the concepts shown will be applicable to any sector or industry.