Eating the Elephant: Report Development Strategies for when Demand Exceeds Supply

Building a single report can be an uphill battle, especially when the requirements are vague. Where do you even start when the list of report requests is in the dozens--or even hundreds?

While the demand for new in-house Power BI reports can spike for any number of reasons, the need to tackle report development in "bulk" is especially common when organizations migrate from a legacy reporting system into Power BI. Companies sometimes make this transition as a standalone project, or as part of a larger ERP Migration. Either way, the resulting workload can be hard to digest.

What steps can an organization take to minimize the time required to build each report? How do we untangle "needs" from the "wants" without letting anything critical slip through the cracks? Is there a way to validate the reports if a data migration is delayed? What strategies can we employ to keep track of the workload and ensure transparency into the process? (Hint: it's definitely not an Excel workbook)

Lenore will share key lessons learned from her experiences working on similar "bulk reporting" projects, both internally, as a former reporting "SME" (subject matter expert) and externally, as a current BI consultant who supports similar transitions.

Key topics will include:
- Best practices when preparing for a future data or reporting migration
- How investing the effort into certain Power BI features, such as templates, shared semantic models, and deployment pipelines can pay long-term dividends.
- Strategies for leveraging related Microsoft technologies, such as Power Automate and Azure DevOps, to streamline requirements gathering efforts and cut down on administrative burden.

Paginated Reports 201 – Build a Better Report

You’ve connected to your data source and generated a table with parameters in Power BI Report builder, but the basic structure of your report leaves something to desire. How do you upgrade your functional but ho-hum report without breaking it?
   
In this session, users will learn how to tackle a mix of structural and formatting challenges that often plague paginated report developers, such as getting headers to repeat on each page, leveraging date pickers, and incorporating two datasets within the same table. Attendees will leave with links to the sample files and instructions they can reference in future when tackling their own reports.

Workshop - Paginated Reports 101 for the Power BI Veteran

Scenario: you’ve just completed a Power BI report, and it’s downright majestic! There’s just one tiny problem: it turns out your report users need a simple table that will print out well instead. Now what?  
 
This hands-on session will go step-by-step in converting a Power BI analytical report into a Power BI paginated report that uses the same underlying Power BI Dataset.  We’ll break down what each section of Power BI Report Builder contributes to your report and discuss how the underlying paginated report logic differs from a standard PBIX file. 
 
Session attendees will have the opportunity to practice what they learn throughout session with hands-on support and time for Q&A. At the end of this deep dive, attendees will leave with practice files that they can reference for practice and as a starter template for developing their own paginated reports.  

This is a 90-minute hands-on workshop version of this presentation, which I have also presented as a 50-minute session without the hands-on component.

Mastering the BI Mullet - Managed Self Service BI

If your organization has big BI dreams and a limited BI budget, consider a BI Mullet.

Microsoft describes “Managed self-service BI” as “discipline at the core and flexibility at the edge.” This hybrid “BI Mullet” approach empowers end users to develop reports using tools maintained by a central data team.

With the right systems in place, the BI Mullet can encourage innovation and make the most of existing resources. With the wrong ones? Your mullet will get messy fast.
Join this session to learn practical strategies to keep your own BI Mullet on point, including:
• Simplify formatting with customized report themes and templates.
• Eliminate report writing guesswork by tweaking semantic model properties.
• Automate cross-team feedback and collaboration using Power Automate.
• Ensure data stays accessible when it should be and secure when it needs to be.

Every BI mullet will be a little different. Let’s get yours styled right.

Paginated Reports 101 for the Power BI Veteran

Scenario: you’ve just completed a Power BI report, and it’s downright majestic! There’s just one tiny problem: it turns out that your users need a report that can be easily printed, and fast! Now what?
 
This hands-on session will go step-by-step in converting a Power BI analytical report into a Power BI paginated report that uses the same underlying Power BI Dataset.  We’ll break down what each section of Power BI Report Builder contributes to your report and discuss how the underlying paginated report logic differs from a standard PBIX file. 
 
At the end of this deep dive, attendees will leave with practice files that they can reference, both for practice and as a starter template for developing their own paginated reports.  

Choosing the Right Reporting Tool for the Job (D365 Finance & Power BI)

The right reporting tool can make a huge difference in development costs and user adoption but knowing which tool to use (and when) can be a challenge. During this session, users will learn when to use standard Power BI reporting, paginated reports, Excel-based reporting, customized Dynamics 365 Finance reports, OData, or a combination to meet their specific reporting needs. We will dive into the wealth of out-of-the-box reporting Dynamics 365 F&O has, where to look, and what changes users can make without having to engage in any type of code changes. Finally, we'll review common D365-to-report "data plumbing" approaches to demystify how your critical information gets from point A to point B.

This session was first presented at Community Summit NA in collaboration with the inestimable Lauren Wooll.

Talk Data to Me

Aligning your data infrastructure to your company's key business needs is a team sport; IT simply can’t build the right tools and structure without guidance from various business stakeholders. Yet, it’s difficult to work together when you seem to be speaking different languages. ETL, Dual Write, API, Data Lake, Data Migration, Data Warehouse, Data…Lakehouse? It’s never a good feeling to feel lost in a group working session, or like you need to “stealth Google” concepts just to understand what everyone else is talking about.

If you’ve ever left meeting feeling like you needed a data translator, this session is for you! Join us for an overview of the most common data terms and concepts that cause confusion within the D365, Fabric, and Power Platform space. We’ll provide real-world examples and jargon-free explanations for key terms and concepts, so you can go into your next data project meeting with confidence.