Closing out on 2022

It's the holiday season again. This year flew by if you ask me.

As I did last year, I like to close this year with a little review and mention a few of the things I did.

Blogging

I can at least say I did a bit better than last year, writing a total of 12 posts this year. I still like to get some more time for writing posts, but motivation is still not easy... On the kind of posts: I like in-depth technical ones, where I explain a specific problem or solution I've come across.

And I've also written a lot about Administration and Governance type of topics, like:

• Naming Conventions
  
• Installing the PowerShell commandlets to Refresh a Dataset with PowerShell
  
• But also a No-Code Method to Refresh One Table From a Power BI Dataset in the Service

Speaking

Luckily, in-person speaking has returned again. I think I can speak for everyone if I say that we missed that very much the last year(s).
I've had some great speaking gigs this year, like a virtual presence at SQLBits, The Dutch Power BI User Day (Deep Dive as well as the free Saturday), DataGrillen, and (both virtual) New Zealand Business Applications Summit and the Pakistan Power Platform Bootcamp.

While I didn't have the pleasure to speak at dataMinds Connect this year, I did attend it with a few colleagues, which was again awesome!

MVP

I've been awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in the Data Platform category for the 3rd time in a row now! 

Learning goals

In May, I took the (then beta) exam DP-500 (Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate) and in early July I got the confirmation of receiving the certification!

Are you still interested in taking this exam? Have a look at my overview post.

I didn't do much reading, in books that is. I've read numerous blog posts, but not really any books. Let's up that game in 2023 and put in effort to do more reading.

I do like listening to podcasts, ranging from running (Susy Q&A, Klaas en Koen lopen weg) to tech (Knee-Deep in Tech, Kasper on BI, Explicit Measures). I like to listen to them during my morning or lunch walks and sometimes during running also.

Powerdobs

In February of this year, I started my job as the Unit Lead Power BI at Powerdobs B.V. It's a small consultancy company based in 's-Hertogenbosch, focused on the Azure Data Platform and Power BI. We now have 8 consultants (in one month 9 😀), with some backend, some front-end and a few both.

As the Unit Lead for Power BI (Sjoerd Donker is Unit Lead Data Engineering), next to client engagements, I am responsible for spreading knowledge about Power BI and also getting my colleagues excited about sharing knowledge, inside but also outside the company, through blogs and presentations.

I definitely thought my move to Van Lanschot Kempen (my previous employer) was the best I would ever make, because of the permanent employenent, less travelling and building a solid relationship and solutions inside one company.
However, I missed the point of being with my hands on the buttons of Power BI a bit, so I couldn't resist taking the chance to join this family of Power BI enthusiasts at Powerdobs. And it truely feels like a little family here! 💛

Sports/health

With a last year of running just over 1800 km's, I was a bit fed up with running in the first quarter of this year.

This year my total will be around 1120 km, so a lot less then last year, but I can definitely say I ran much more effectively. For example: I used to go running to and from the interval training at the club (4.5K), just to get more K's in. Now I take the bike to the training, so the training itself can be more effective, especially with an interval training.

On the half marathon goal (of 90 minutes): I had one try in October in Eindhoven, but that didn't go as planned. 😐

I did a half marathon today! Not the wanted PR, but still satisfied I completed it! #runhappy pic.twitter.com/rJ2sEsnVIF

— Nicky van Vroenhoven (@NickyvV) October 9, 2022

I still love the fact that all the #runhappy buddies are going strong!

Next to running I've also been doing a bit more workouts at home, being mainly pilates and strength exercises (with the Skimble app) to complement the running, and the last monhts also some yoga to start the day.

I've also been doing some cold showers and Wim Hof (a.k.a. the Iceman) breathing exercises once in a while the last year. But in the beginning of October I've had the pleasure of attending a Wim Hof (half day) workshop, on mindset, breathing and cold. So I took an ice bath! 😁

After that day, I've been consistently doing a cold shower every morning now! It feels amazing going through that stress and adrenaline rush in the morning, and feeling relaxed after a few seconds of focussing on my breathing.
I just have to get the breathing exercises incorporated more into my daily routine also.

That's all for this year. I whish everyone the best New Year's Eve and a great start of 2023!

Nicky. Out.

SSMS Error when refreshing a Power BI Table: Paramter name already exists

2 weeks ago I talked about A No-Code Method to Refresh One Table From a Power BI Dataset in the Service. I recently ran into an error using this method, so I thought it was worth sharing this error, and the solution 😀, with you.

TL;DR

Don't use the initial catalog when you're connecting to a Power BI dataset with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

If you want to now more details about the exact problem and solution, please read on below.

Problem

In my previous post I mentioned:

"With some tools it might be necessary to also provide the Initial Catalog (the dataset to connect to in your workspace). The datasets in your workspace will eventually show as databases under your AS-server:"

I did specifically say some tools, and might. 😁

So, to be even more specific, when using SSMS ánd the option for initial catalog, you run into the below error message:

I tried a few things before I got asked for some (external) help. A little bit of context around the problem:

• Note that the message itself also has a typo in it (paramter 😂).
• It happens to every table in every dataset (I tried so far) in this workspace. I tried another workspace and that refreshed fine from the UI.
• A colleague is getting the same error message in the UI for this particular workspace.
• Looking at the error I checked if there are params called name in the datasets, but there aren't.
• It's a test workspace in a deployment pipeline.

Solution

Luckily the solution is very simple! 

• Don't use the Initial Catalog option in combination with SSMS, leave it at <default>
• Or, if for any reason you need the above option selected, install SSMS 19 Preview 4
• This preview version is a side-by-side installation, so it installs next to SSMS 18.x

I hope this helped you if you encountered the same problem.

A No-Code Method to Refresh One Table From a Power BI Dataset in the Service

Context

A few weeks back I was working on a dataset at a client where I needed to import Excel files from a folder into said dataset. I filtered the files on a prefix and loaded around 30 files of the same structure to a table in my dataset. The Excel files are exports from a budgetting system (I know, right?) that have to be updated multiple times in the next coming weeks on an ad-hoc basis.

After the Excel files are updated I currently have 2 choices:

• Open the pbix-file and refresh the specific table that loads the files, and then publish to the service. This however again triggers a refresh in the service after publishing. Depending on the connection I have in the pbix (subset of rows from dev/test/prod) I might have to wait for the refresh in the service anyhow
• Refresh the dataset in the service and wait for that to finish

And it's not that the dataset is thát big, but of course waiting (for 20 to 30 minutes) for a refresh would be a waste of time. And it doesn't really matter how long it exactly takes, if you're waiting for something, it always takes too long, right?

Solution

But as you might have noticed from the title of this blog, there is also another solution 😀.
Spoiler alert: you do need a Premium license.

Marc Lelijveld previously talked about the automation of triggering a single table to refresh in the Power BI Service, with PowerShell and a TMSL script. 

But what if you're not (that) familiar with PowerShell and / or TMSL? And maybe it's not going to be part of an automated schedule, but you just want to be able to execute it ad-hoc, when necessary?

Luckily there's the XMLA endpoint to the rescue. You can connect to any Premium (Capacity or Per User) workspace via the XMLA endpoint with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to do a (single) table refresh.

There's a few things you'll have to consider before being able to do this..

• Enable XMLA read-write
• Get the XMLA endpoint connection string
• Connect via SSMS
• Refresh your table(s)
• Check the outcome of the refresh in SSMS
• Or alternatively check the refresh history in the service

Let's look at the individual steps in more detail.

Enable XMLA read-write

The first thing you need to do is to enable the option Read Write on the XMLA Endpoint of your Premium capacity.

This setting is available in the Admin Portal, either under Capacity settings or Premium Per User, depending on your license.

XMLA Endpoint connection

You can get the connection URL from the workspace Settings page, under the Premium tab.

More info on the documentation page.

Note: Connecting to a My Workspace by using the XMLA endpoint is currently not supported.

Connect via SSMS

Use SQL Server Management Studio to connect to the URL obtained in the previous step. Just be aware that you need version 18.9 or higher to do so.

Make sure you use the following option for Authentication:

• Azure Active Directory - Universal with MFA

Next to connecting to and looking at properties of your Power BI models, this method also supports executing DAX, MDX, and XMLA queries.

SSMS isn't the only tool supported by the XMLA endpoint, you can pick any of the tools mentioned here, e.g. Excel, SQL Server Profiler, DAX Studio or Tabular Editor to name a few of them.

With some tools it might be necessary to also provide the Initial Catalog (the dataset to connect to in your workspace). The datasets in your workspace will eventually show as databases under your AS-server:

UPDATE December 19th 2022:

When using SSMS and the option to use an Initial Catalog, you (might) run into an error, read my update post how to avoid this.

Refresh your table(s)

Now onto the actual refreshing of my tables. 

• Right-click the table you want to refresh and select Process Table

• Select the right processing option depending on your needs, I used a full refresh
• Optionally select other tables to refresh
• Click OK and wait for the refresh to complete.

Next to refreshing your table(s) in SSMS, you could also script out the refresh command and use it to automate the process. Because I only need to refresh it on an ad-hoc basis I'm good with my solution for now.

Refresh history

This type of refresh shows as a Via XMLA Endpoint in the Refresh History of your dataset properties in the service.

In any case you ever want to cancel a running refresh, also with Premium and the XMLA endpoint set to Read/Write, have a look at this post how to Cancel a refresh with a SessionID (instead of SPID) and DAX Studio.

Conclusion

In this post I provided a UI-only solution to refreshing a single table in your Power BI dataset. Hopefully this post gave you some insights.
Have you already used this method before?
Do you use it often?
Do you use other methods to refresh a table in a dataset?

I'd love it when you provide more details in the comments!

Let Me Google That For You

In case you're not familiar, let me first explain what I mean with the title.

Let Me Google That For You is a website, that let's you create a demo of how to do a user-specified Google search. It was designed for tech-savvy people that are frequently asked for help. Its purpose is to gently, but sarcastically, point out that by searching for the problem yourself first, you'd probably come a long way to the answer.

While Google is the brand name of a leading internet search engine company, it's also quite commonly used as a verb:

To search the internet for information about (a person, topic, etc.):We googled the new applicant to check her background.

And of course, there's also a Bing alternative: Let Me Bing That For You.

Or even Let Me DuckDuckGo That For You 😄

How to google

Because once in a while I see people ask questions that I can (easily) google, I thought it might be worth writing down how I like to perform my searches. 
It might be obvious already, but I like to use Google for that. I find it to be better at its job than others, even for Microsoft tech like Power BI and Power Platform.

When searching for information, there are a few things I like to do:

Start with the topic

Start with a 1 or 2 word, preferably as short as possible, topic, like:

• Power BI
• Power Query
• DAX
• (Power BI) REST API
• PowerShell Power BI

Keep it short/to the point

After that, add your question on the topic, but also as short as possible. Try not to add too much filler words like and, or, the and a(n). I also tend to stay away from How do I type of questions.

So instead of asking: how do i use the power bi rest api with an authorization header

I like to keep it short and to the point: power bi rest api authorization header

While the search results might not differ thát much, the most important thing to me is that Google suggests search words for you. That way you will get the most commonly asked questions to choose from. That's particularly usefull when you don't know exactly what you are looking for.
In case of an error message it's often quite clear, but if you're looking for more general things, or for authorization with an API, you might not know it's called a bearer token.

Errors

In my line of job I unfortunately quite often run into errors. I always use the exact error message that I encounter: word for word. If the error is too long I might try the first part/sentence of it. But keep it exactly as it is. But again, I start with a 1 or 2 word topic, followed by the error message.
A good habit was to create a blog post on the topic if I couldn't find a solution easily. Mainly back in the days when I used to work a lot with SSRS and SSDT.

Ask for help

Sometimes you just can't find it on the interwebs. Then your best bet is to ask for help! There's quite a good chance someone has run into that same problem before.
Ask you co-workers, use Twitter, the Power BI Community, Reddit, a private or public Slack group, whatever works for you.

I'm quite active on Twitter (@NickyvV) and have been using that for over a decade. If you are not, I highly recommend to start doing that. Not only for asking for help, but surely also for the amazing community of Power BI and SQL Server people hanging out there.

There are even specific hashtags you can incorporate in your search: #sqlhelp, #powerbihelp, #pbihelp
Those are monitored throughout they day by a bunch of people that want to give others a hand.
And it's still Twitter, so sometimes you come accross some people that are, let's say, a bit less welcoming.. 😃 

The majority of interactions is however positive, it's an amazing community!

Searching for Call for Speakers

Because I'm also active in the speaking community, I sometimes like to search for places where I can submit my talks. In my opinion Sessionize is the best platform to use, for speakers as well as conferences. It quickly let's you make a public speaker profile with presentations you can give, but also submit those presentations to conferences without the need to re-enter all the same details over and over again.

Since a while, the website has this Discover events tab which you can use to search for open call for speakers. Before this option was available, and I still do it sometimes to make sure I'm not missing anything on Sessionize itself, I used the option to search for keywords on a specific site on Google:

site:sessionize.com power bi

Closing

With this write-up, I hope I gave you some insights in my daily routine of getting help with things I run into. And to be clear, me having xx years of experience, having a certain title on LinkedIn or being a Microsoft MVP has nothing to do with my amount of searches or things I have to look up.
Sometimes we like to think we do, but we can't know everything. Also, Power BI (and Power Platform) is constantly changing. I would say I'm probably looking for some sort of help more than 20 times a day, every day!

Power BI Governance & Administration - Naming Conventions

 

Governance and administration, quite the exciting and popular topic. No? Well, it should be!
As I mentioned in my previous post about Governance and Administration, I have quite some experience and ideas around this topic. I thought it was time to share some of this knowledge and write it down.
I did a few posts on the topic already, including on PowerShell, the Power BI REST API and organizational visuals.

Let's Talk Naming Conventions

So let's start with the question:

What is a naming convention?

"Naming conventions are general rules applied when creating text scripts for software programming."

That's the Techopedia definition, which mostly applies to (traditional) software programming. This still applies to using it while programming SQL, M or DAX for example.

It can be any agreed syntax like one of the following:

• ThisIsPascalCase
• thisIsCamelCase
• this-is-kebab-case
• this_is_snake_case

But I think it's much broader than using only programming naming conventions these days.

In the context of Power BI, you can use naming conventions in (literally) all things that need a name, like gateways, workspaces, apps, etc.

Why

So why would you want to set up a naming convention for anything?

"They have many different purposes, such as adding clarity and uniformity [to scripts], readability for third-party applications, and functionality in certain languages and applications."

That still mostly applies to programming. I'd argue that in the context of Power BI it's also easier to find things in your Power BI ecosystem. Not only for Power BI/IT Admins, but also for report builders and end users.

How

And how do we set up a naming convention? I would say "it depends". 😁 Take a look at the never ending discussion around spaces or tabs.

I think it's not a matter of how you implement it, but the fact that you think about it, implement it and enforce and/or govern it. It's better to actually think about and agree upon a certain convention then to do nothing.

Where

And where do we use naming conventions? Because they started in traditional programming languages the logical place(s) to start are M and DAX.

I think the below 2 are the best known once for DAX:

• Always write a Column in the format TableName[Column Name]
• Always write a Measure in the format [Measure Name]

There are already quite some good resources available that talk about M and DAX:

• Power BI Antipatterns #13: Naming conventions in DAX by Daniil Maslyuk (@DMaslyuk | B)
• Power BI Datasets: Types And Naming Conventions by Sam McKay
  
• Naming Tables, Columns And Measures In Power BI by Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi | B), on using human-readable names, correct business terminology and being consistent.
• Power BI Best Practices by Matt Allington (@ExceleratorBI | B), where he talks about naming conventions in the 1st paragraph
• Naming temporary columns in DAX by SQLBI.com
• Naming variables in DAX by Marco Russo (@marcorus | B)

But besides using naming conventions in programming languages, good places to (start) using them are also:

• Gateways
• Gateway cluster/installations itself
• But also the Data sources in the gateway
• I like to include the type of gateway (File/SQL/...), location/server/database and the username, because that's still not visible in the new Power Platform Admin Center...
  You can vote for the idea View Username Of A Gateway In Data Source Settings :-) 
• Workspaces
• Marc Lelijveld (@MarcLelijveld | B) already did a comprehensive overview of workspace setup and naming conventions in this blog post.
• The name of a workspace can be 256 characters long, but just because you can, doesn't mean you should, right?!
• I also find the Implementation Planning docs very helpful, especially the don'ts in a workspace name:
• The word workspace
• The words Power BI
• The name of the organization, unless B2B is used
• Apps
• These don't always have to be the same name as the workspace, as the App is usually what all end-users see, and the workspace access is limited to a subset of people.
• Melissa Coates (@SQLChick | B) does a great job explaing Why to Use a Power BI App
• Dataflows
• Have a look at Marc's post How to keep your Power BI dataflows organized and optimized
• AAD-groups (used for Power BI)
• If the groups are used in a workspace, try to include the name/naming convention of the workspace itself, and maybe add the group(s) of users, like [workspace name]-admins/members/viewers
• Premium Capacities
• In case you only have 1, then it might make less sense, but in case you have multiple capacities, for me it makes sense to incorporate the type of the capacity in the name. So either P1/2 or the number of v-Cores asigned to that instance
• Identity & Access Management
• This might slightly be off-topic for most Power BI users, but if Power BI Admins are working closely with the IT/IAM team/system, and users need to get access to workspaces/apps via IAM, syncing the naming between Power BI, AAD(-groups) and IAM requests might be a good case
• ...?

Closing

I mentioned a lot of places where naming conventions can be beneficial. I use them because they promote consistency, and can provide more readability and clarity.

Have you implemented naming conventions anywhere? How do you use them? Or why not?

Certification Updates!

Last week was already a great week with these amazing things:

• My Microsoft Data Platform MVP renewal
• The delivery of an MVP thank you kit, containing an MVP mug, hoody and sticker, by the MVP team

Thanks @Microsoft @MS_KellyKaye and @TinaStenderup for this amazing MVP gift package! https://t.co/HprkpcYF1n pic.twitter.com/3V8hhg9EW4

— Nicky van Vroenhoven (@NickyvV) July 6, 2022

But aparently there was more! 😀

I noticed this weekend that several other people received their results on the DP-500 exam:  Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI, so I thought I'd check out mine too.

And you might have already guessed it: I passed! 🥳

DP-500 History

Almost 2 months ago I took the (then beta) exam DP-500, on which I wrote about earlier how to master this exam.

As the name of the exam suggests, this is not an exam for beginners. To recap a little bit from my previous blog post, the exam covers the following products/services:

• Microsoft Power BI, including some external tools
• Microsoft Purview (a.k.a. Azure Purview)
• Azure Synapse Analytics
• Azure Data Lake Gen2
• DevOps

At the end of June, the exam went live, so it's no longer in beta. This also means there is now an official course available. Although I think you could manage just fine with all the online material there is already. I mentioned quite a few in my last post. And new materials have already been added to that list, for example the newest course on PluralSight, called Optimize Enterprise-scale Data Models - DP-500, by friend and fellow MVP Nikola Ilic (@DataMozart, B).

But depending on the type of learner you are, you might do better with an in-class training, so it all depends... 😁

Never stop learning

I honoustly did not think I passed the exam, because it covers quite a few topics I do not master yet, or haven't touched that often. 

DP-500 Score report

And according to the scoring report I received, I still have some things to do on the following topics:

• Query and transform data (mainly Synapse questions for me I think hope 😀)
  This part of the exam covers:
• Query data by using Azure Synapse Analytics
• Ingest and transform data by using Power BI
• Explore and visualize data (also mainly Synapse, and some R/Python in Power BI probably)
  This part covers:
• Explore data by using Azure Synapse Analytics
• Visualize data by using Power BI

You can check out the detailed outline and all the subtopics off the exam here.

Renewed Certification

Last but not least, I also renewed my PL-300 certification (a.k.a. DA-100), the Power BI Data Analyst Associate. I got a notification that renewal was possible. It only took me 15-20 minutes, online behind my laptop. So no exam site or proctored exam room this time.

I made it with 96% of the questions right, I missed (I think) 1 question in data modeling 😇

Do you have any plans for exams? Did you get any certifications lately?

If you have any remarks and/or questions about one of these topics I mentioned, please let me know!

Power BI Governance & Administration

Today I'm writing a short post to try to get back into the habbit of writing. Because finding (and keeping) motivation can be hard, you know. 

I've actually started writing several posts, but I either hit a wall, found other (short-term) inspiration to start another post, or just never finished it. 

Now to the post of today. I've worked as a Power BI Service (and Power Platform) Administrator quite a while. I started doing admin tasks when I was working for Van Lanschot Kempen, and now at Powerdobs I'm often asked similar questions at clients. So I often run into things related to governance and administration of Power BI and Power Platform environments.

Earlier, I already wrote quite a few posts around these topics:

• Installing the PowerShell Power BI Management cmdlets
  
• and how to use those cmdlets to Refresh a Dataset with PowerShell
• How To Administer Organizational Visuals in Your Tenant
• My First Look at Read/Write XMLA Endpoints in Power BI Premium when that went in preview a while ago, which has gone GA in January of last year
• Using the Power BI REST API as Admin

I plan on doing more of these posts, including the following topics:

• Power BI Premium
• New and/or interesting features
• How to Monitor Power BI Premium
• Workspace and Gateway administration
• Managing data sources
• Naming conventions
• Tenant settings
• Power Platform environments for the Power BI Admin

If you're interested in any of these or other related topics, please let me know.
You can do that below in the comments or on Twitter!

Mastering The Role-based DP-500 Exam

In our world of data, I don't think we ever stop learning. In January 2021 I got both the DA-100 (now PL-300) and PL-900 certifications. But lately I've been busy learning again for a specific purpose. That purpose is the DP-500 exam, which I have scheduled to take for next week.
In case you are wondering: DP-500, is that a new exam? Yes it is! However, it's still in beta. That doesn't have to be an issue, there are just a few things you need to be aware of.

First, you will not immediately get your score after you take the exam, these will only be calculated when it goes out of beta. The exam is still in beta because they want to gather feedback on the quality of the exam and the questions. They might need to fix questions, or improve the quality or accuracy based on the data and comments from the participants. Usually, the scores to the exam will be released 10 business days after the exam goes live.

Second, the exam details page will list the skills measured, as well as a more detailed PDF, but there are no preparation materials, like learning paths, modules or instructor-led training. However, our amazing Power BI community already got you covered for a large part, more on that later.

Next, a good thing: you mostly get a nice discount to beta exams, if you act in time that is 😀. On April 19th, a post went out on the Tech Community site announcing the new exam and a discount code for the first 300 people scheduling it.

Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate

Now onto the exam, its full name is: Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI.

Let that sink in for a while. Designing, implementing, an enterprise-scale solution, with Azure and Power BI. That means it will cover the following products/services:

• Microsoft Power BI, including some external tools
• Microsoft Purview (a.k.a. Azure Purview)
• Azure Synapse Analytics
• Azure Data Lake Gen2
• DevOps

This exam is required for the new Microsoft Certified: Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate certification.

Are you interested to know where this certification/exam fits into the bigger picture, or are you interested in other certifications? Have a look at the Microsoft Certification poster.

Skills measured

This is the overview of the skills measured, you can download a detailed PDF here.

• Implement and manage a data analytics environment (25–30%)
• Query and transform data (20–25%)
• Implement and manage data models (25–30%)
• Explore and visualize data (20–25%)

I'm not going into more detail, because Andy Cutler and Nikola Ilic teamed up and did a great job already: New Certification: Microsoft Certified Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate.

He also lists resources for studying for every subject in the skills measured section.

Resources for studying

Next to the curated page by Andy, I find the below resources to be very helpful during my learning journey:

• Nikola Ilic (@DataMozart) has some great posts already on his blog, more are added every week
• Andy Cutler (@MrAndyCutler) has a YouTube channel and a blog
• Andy and Nikola are also doing a session at Dataweekender covering the skills needed for this exam: The Essential Guide to the new Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate Certification
• Wolfgang Strasser (@wstrasser) has a section on Purview on his blog
• Erwin de Kreuk (@ErwindeKreuk) also has great content on Purview and Synapse
• MS Learn content around the skills and products
• I created my own DP-500 collection

Are you interested in taking this exam, or maybe you already took it?

What do you think of it and would it be a good fit for you?

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Conferences and Speaking

It's a busy time, but there is also lots of fun stuff happening! Besides my move to Powerdobs earlier this year, there are also several interesting conferences that caught my attention! Let me tell you about them.

SQLBits

For starters, at the beginning of this month there was SQLBits, were I (virtually) presented a session called Power Platform Better Together: Create a Scoring App with a Live Dashboard.
In this session I showed how to use Power BI, Power Automate and Power Apps to create an interactive application. While I loved to be there in-person, I made the decision earlier this year to present virtual due to all the uncertainty back then. Although I do regret it after seeing all the excitement on social media, I still have some travel plans to other conferences this year.

If you don't know SQLBits, it's probably the greatest Data conference in Europe, spanning a whopping 5 days, including the free community event Saturday.

Here's a few stats from the conference this year:

• Over 450 hours of training delivered
• 232 speakers, over 25% of whom identify as diverse in our industry
• 67 helpers
• Over 1600 attendees Tue-Fri, with almost 2/3 in-person
• Plus another 900 registrations for the free Saturday
• Attendees from 38 countries
• Over £8K raised for Ukraine, in support of two Ukrainian speakers and a Ukrainian helper

Session recordings are still being worked on and will become available for registered attendees. But, in case you missed out, slides are already available at their website.

Power BI Global Summit

I bet the Power BI Summit is known you all, it is the biggest Power BI conference in the world. A multi-day event with speakers from the Microsoft Power BI team’s product group, community experts and MVPs from all around the world. This time I had the honor of hosting a Table Talk around the topic of Power BI Service Administration and beyond at the Global Power BI Summit, with my friends Tom Martens ( B | @tommartens68), Štěpán Rešl ( B | @tpnRel1) and Benni De Jagere ( B | @BenniDeJagere). We actually did it twice that day, in the morning and the evening, to accommodate all time zones across the world.

There was a lot of interaction, people asking questions in chat but also coming on camera for a live chat. We even got some people answering questions from time to time, which is great for the engagement. And that way I also learned some new things!

MVP Summit

Although every conference has its perks, I am pretty sure this is the one I'm most excited about!

As a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, you are eligible to attend the MVP Global Summit once a year, The event features a large catalog of in-depth technical discussions and feedback sessions, directly with the Microsoft product teams and engineers.

The MVP Award is a global program of recognized technology experts and community leaders who actively support technical communities through unique, innovative, and consistent knowledge sharing. These community leaders actively contribute to support the developer and IT Pro communities worldwide, helping them learn, build, and use our products.

My expectations are high! There will be a lot of demonstrations of functions and features that are not yet publicly available. Of course there are strict Non-disclosure agreements on all sessions on the MVP Summit, but that won't spoil the fun.

Due to the fact that the world is still not 100% back to normal, this year the Summit is still virtual, so the organizers are trying to accommodate all time zones. Most sessions are roughly from 4 PM until 5 AM here in Europe, so that's going to be a tough three days ahead... 😴

Power BI Gebruikersdag

Last but not least, this week also marks the start of the famous annual Dutch Power BI User Day: Power BI Gebruikersdag. It’s a great community event with lot's of local attendees and speakers.

You can have a look at a recap of one of the earlier conferences:

The association behind this user day has had a major overhaul, with 4 new board members, so I'm excited to see what they have been up to!

I'm also delighted to be presenting 2 sessions there:

• A (big) look into Query Folding on Deep Dive Friday! I've done Query Folding before, but this is a 2-hour long session going into (all) the depths! 😀
• Write-back with Power Apps in Power BI on Saturday, which is a new session, showing off how to use Power Apps inside Power BI to edit data in the backend.

Check the full schedule for all the sessions!

Closing

My very last point then, because in June I'll also be attending and speaking at DataGrillen, the only conference (I know of) that has Data, Bratwurst and Beer. 😀 But more about that later.

For everyone attending one of the conferences above, please come and say hi, ask a question, tell a story or just grab a drink and hang out! 💛

My Favorite Power BI Desktop February 2022 New Features

Last week it was that time of the month again! No not that time.
I mean time for the Power BI February 2022 Feature Summary blog post by Jeroen ter Heerdt of course.

Dynamic M Query Parameters

The new thing is that dynamic M Query Parameters now supports SQL Server (and more data sources). There are several use cases that come to mind and a few people have already blogged about this:

• Teo Lachev (@tlachev) talks about calling a Stored Procedure with a parameter, and the requirements you need to meet and consider to pull this off
• Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) has a similar approach, but uses a T-SQL Table-Valued Function with 2 parameters

The high level steps to dynamic M query parameters are:

• The source (SP/TVF) has to be in DirectQuery mode
• Create a parameter(s) in PQ
• In the model view, bind that parameter(s) to the column in your datamodel
• And then use the parameter(s) in your source in PQ

If you want to read up on all the features, supported datasources, limitations and risks, go read the documentation on how to use dynamic M query parameters.

New mobile formatting options

If you're into mobile formatting for Power BI, you're going to love this update. There's a lot more you can configure, now also independently from the web version.

To enable the new mobile formatting pane, the blog post says you'll have to enable the preview feature under Options, but after my installation of the February update it was already enabled:

And more...

Of course there's a lot more in the February update, to mention a few:

If you haven't started using Goals, there are more updates to it, including:

• Teams notifications integration,
• Multiple owners for a single goal and 
• The ability to create scorecards in My Workspace

Deployment Pipelines enhancements: there's a (fairly) new Azure DevOps extension and multiple pipelines working together, for example for disconnected reports and datasets

Download .pbix improvements: starting with this release you can download a .pbix file in more scenario's. Specifically, if a report is connected to a dataset that is configured for large models, incremental refresh or has been modified using the XMLA endpoint, you are now able to download that (connected) report, so not the dataset itself 😉

Read up on all the gotcha's and limitations of this export to PBIX.

Now go download that new update and check it out ourself! 😀

Book Review: Expert Data Modeling with Power BI

Somewhere last year I started reading this book on Power BI. It actually took me quite a while to finish it, because of [reasons]. 😀
But now that I finally finished it, I thought it would be good to write a short review on my thougths about the book, so you know if it is worth your time and money.

The book is from fellow-MVP Soheil Bakhshi (@biinsightnz | B) called Expert Data Modeling with Power BI. 

TL;DR

Yes, it is definitely worth it! 😁

The long version

I think the combination of good, practical examples and in-depth coverage of (Power BI) features is the best about this book. You can also follow along with the step-by-step examples, as I think going hands-on is the best way of learning things. With reading you can only pick up so much knowledge, while putting it in practice right away enriches the learning experience much more.

Next to that, the book is also filled with best practices for data preparation as well as data modeling.

Soheil is not afraid of touching upon and explaining more advanced and complex topics, like:

• Incremental refresh
• Calculation groups
• Aggregations
• The new composite models
• Slowly changing dimensions

One point of critique if you will: sometimes I felt that adding color to an image in the book, could get the message across better. But I also get that this makes the pages more crowded, and probably also more expensive, and is not the way Packt publishes their books 😀

All in all I very much enjoyed reading this book! And I definitely learned a lot.
I think I knew, or at least have heard of, all the features that were explained in the book. But if you've never used/implemented RLS you don't really know what you're up against. The same goes for aggregations or calculation groups for example. So reading up on those features with good examples has definitely enriched my knowledge.

I've already started reading my next book, so stay tuned for another review!

Starting A New Adventure

Van Lanschot Kempen

Last Thursday I had my last day working at Van Lanschot Kempen (VLK), where I worked roughly 4 years. I did great things and also had a great time.

Amongst others, I...

• ...had a great time working with my colleagues, especially our coffee moments walking to the 12th floor!
• ...started getting more and more involved with Power BI inside VLK
• ...organized a Power BI meeting at our office together with PBIG, and did an intro into what VLK is doing at the data and Power BI level together with @JeroenSchalken
• ...started a running club with my department, which lasted roughly for a year 😀
• ...started speaking (with Jeroen) at PBIG 2019 with an extended version of our intro talk
• ...went to Prague (with Jeroen), Mechelen, Dublin, Mechelen again 😁, and then everything went virtual...
• ...got a promotion to Lead Expert within VLK
• ...started going physical again to Copenhagen! Hopefully this will be the new norm again in 2022
• And even received my MVP award!

How I enjoyed that trip! Thank you everyone who contributed to this time! 💛

Powerdobs

Tomorrow will be the start of a new trip, together with my colleagues at Powerdobs. It's a small consultancy firm located in Den Bosch (Netherlands), focused on delivering solutions through quality, craftsmanship, long-term relationships and being sober and caring.

As the Unit Lead Power BI I'll be responsible for taking Power BI to the next level, both internally and externally. So expect to find me writing more blogs and doing more presentations!

Will the road ahead be straight and paved? I doubt that. There'll be enough bends, sidetracks and obstacles and bumps. That's where others pick me up. That's where I learn and come back stronger. 

And it will for sure be a great adventure!