The Clearly Podcast

Send a text This week we discuss an often neglected part of many BI implementations: testing.  It isn't glamorous, it isn't the headline-grabbing side of a project, but it is vital.  After all, what use is a report if it doesn't show the right information. We talk about different approaches to testing, from structured tests following a script to unstructured exploratory testing.  We...

Send a text In this episode we discuss project management for business intelligence. The complexity of BI projects has increased  significantly in the past 10 years so a structured approach to implementation is required. The historical approach to business systems implementations has been to use the standard reports that come with the application and amend at the end of the project. The complexity...

Send a text As we seem to mention this on almost every episode, we decided to devote an entire podcast to it - pre-aggregation. To start off with, a matter of terminology.  The official terminology is "aggregation".  In the title we talk about pre-aggregation - this is a matter of clarity since every aggregate function (sum, average etc) carries out an aggregation.  What is officially ca...

Send a text In this episode we offer practical advice to anyone thinking of starting a career as a Power BI consultant. We talk about: What a Power BI consultant does If an average day in the life of a Power BI consultant exists, what it looks like What experience and skills are useful to build on Skills v character and what we value the most Qualifications What we look for when hiring consultants...

Send a text Hugo Soto is the author of the Analyst Mindset a book that details the necessary mindset needed to make data driven decisions in corporate & small business settings, focusing on understanding, cleaning, dissecting, and presenting data, to create actionable business insights. In this episode we chat to Hugo about the journey that bought him to publishing the book and practical appli...

Send a text This week, we are mostly being rude about pie charts.  To be clear – we like pies, just not pie charts.  At the heart of the issue, is that bar charts give a better view of overall magnitude as well as the relationships between categories. We then move on to 3D charts – which are not in the standard visualisation set in Power BI – which always end up much harder to use than their 2D co...

Send a text This week we venture into the world of hairdressing - and the 2 programming languages at the core of Power BI. In a nutshell, M is the language used for importing data into Power BI and DAX the language used to manipulate data inside the Power BI data model. Reza Rad  deals with the differences in his blog post M or DAX? That is the question. Chris Webb posts a huge amount of really go...

Send a text In this episode we discuss Row Level Security in Power BI. Data security is a subject discussed as part of every implementation and a critical consideration when implementing any IT system, not just Power BI. Key points from the discussion - What is Row Level Security within Power BI - Where to use Row Level Security and where not to use it - The administration of Row Level Security an...

Send a text This week we look at big datasets.  And we should be clear, we are simply talking about large volumes - not "Big Data" as defined by volume, variety, and velocity. We discuss options such as using Analysis Services to offload the data processing workloads away from Power BI.  Premium per User is now in public preview, so this could offer a more cost effective long term soluti...

Send a text Branding is an important way of engaging with report users, and helping them to feel that the report is about their work.  In this episode, we look at how and why we should brand our reports. Microsoft has some very detailed documentation on how to create theme files here. For those less confident, Power BI Tips has create this handy theme generator. If you don't yet have a palett...

Send a text This week, we discuss hybrid models.  In short, this involves combining data from direct query or live connection with data that has been imported into the model. There are several reasons why you might want to do this.  As we discussed last week, there are many times that you will need to use a direct query.  The problem is that not all sources (eg Excel) support direct query, meaning...

Send a text This week, Andy discovers sound effects! We also talk about the relative merits of importing data into the Power BI data model vs querying the data source directly. Import is generally supported by all data sources.  Direct Query and Live Connection are more limited.  Generally speaking, databases are more likely to support Direct Query as well as import; file-based sources tend to onl...

Send a text Power BI Licensing may not be the most glamorous subject, but it is important to understand what options you have. This week we discuss the different tiers of Power BI pricing, and what you get for them.  Starting at the free tier, we cover what you can do without a financial investment, through to the Pro licence, aimed at business use, particularly in SMEs all the way up to Premium,...

Send a text In this first episode, we discuss the differences and similarities between Power BI and Excel.  When should you use Power BI?  When is Excel the best tool for the job? And when should you step away from both and look at an entirely different solution? We try to explode the common myth that Power BI is just "Excel on steroids", why you still need Excel, and how Power BI can ma...