Course Specifications

Course Number:

095214

Course Length:

3 days

Course Description

Overview:

As technology progresses and becomes more interwoven with our businesses and lives, more data is collected about business and personal activities. This era of "big data" is a direct result of the popularity and growth of cloud computing, which provides an abundance of computational power and storage, allowing organizations of all sorts to capture and store data. Leveraging that data effectively can provide timely insights and competitive advantages. Creating data-backed visualizations is key for data scientists, or any professional, to explore, analyze, and report insights and trends from data. Microsoft® Power BI® software is designed for this purpose. Power BI was built to connect to a wide range of data sources, and it enables users to quickly create visualizations of connected data to gain insights, show trends, and create reports. Power BI's data connection capabilities and visualization features go far beyond those that can be found in spreadsheets, enabling users to create compelling and interactive worksheets, dashboards, and stories that bring data to life and turn data into thoughtful action.

Course Objectives:

In this course, you will analyze data and create visualizations with Microsoft Power BI. You will:

• Analyze data with self-service BI.
• Connect to data sources.
• Perform data cleaning, profiling, and shaping.
• Visualize data with Power BI.
• Enhance data analysis by adding and customizing visual elements.
• Model data with calculations.
• Customize and filter visualizations.
• Use advanced analysis techniques.
• Share reports and create dashboards in the Power BI Service.
• Manage and collaborate in the Power BI Service.
• Enhance reports and dashboards.

Target Student:

This course is designed for professionals in a variety of job roles who are currently using desktop or web-based data management tools such as Microsoft® Excel® or SQL Server® reporting services to perform numerical or general data analysis. They are responsible for connecting to cloud-based data sources, as well as shaping and combining data for the purpose of analysis. They are also looking for alternative ways to analyze business data, visualize insights, and share those insights with peers across the enterprise. This includes capturing and reporting on data to peers, executives, and clients. This course is also designed for professionals who want to pursue the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst (Exam PL-300) certification.

Course Prerequisites:

To ensure your success, you should have experience managing data with a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. To meet this prerequisite, you can take any one or more of the following Logical Operations courses:

• Microsoft® Excel® for Office 365™ (Desktop or Online): Part 1 or Microsoft® Office Excel® 2021: Part 1
• Microsoft® Excel® for Office 365™ (Desktop or Online): Part 2 or Microsoft® Office Excel® 2021: Part 2

Optionally, having experience with other data analytics tools, such as Google Analytics™ or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce®, as well as a knowledge of database design concepts and basic programming constructs such as looping and branching, will help you get even more out of this course. The following courses are helpful but not required:

• Database Design: A Modern Approach
• Microsoft® Excel® for Office 365™/2021: Data Analysis with Power Pivot
• Data Analysis and Visualization with Microsoft® Excel®

Course-Specific Technical Requirements

Hardware:

For this course, you will need one computer for each student and one for the instructor. Each computer will need the following minimum hardware configurations:

• Sufficient processor speed, RAM, and storage space for good system performance when running Windows® 11/Power BI Desktop.
• Mouse and keyboard.
• Monitor capable of a screen resolution of at least 1,440 × 900 pixels, at least a 256-color display, and a video adapter with at least 4 MB of memory. 1,440 × 900 or 1,600 × 900 (16:9) are recommended because some controls (such as closing the startup screen) display beyond lower resolutions such as 1,024 × 768 or 1,280 × 800.
• High-speed, stable Internet connection.
• Mobile device to run the Power BI mobile app (optional).
• For the instructor's computer, a method to project and/or share the screen as needed for local and remote class participants.

Software:

Each computer will need to have the following software installed. Unless otherwise specified, the software should be full licensed versions.

• Microsoft® Windows® 11
• Microsoft .NET version 4.6.2 or later
• Microsoft 365® Business Premium (Trial)
  • Microsoft® Excel® Online
  • Microsoft® PowerPoint®
  
  

  NOTE: Students will need to be provided with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium trial email address that they can access during the course. Training centers can use their own Microsoft 365 accounts. Students using their own Microsoft 365 accounts may experience issues that limit some of the activities.

  
  
• Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
• Power BI ® Desktop
• Any web browser
• If necessary, software for viewing the course slides. (Instructor machine only.)

Course Content

Lesson 1: Analyzing Data and Reporting with Power BI

Topic A: Data Analysis and Visualization for Business Intelligence

Topic B: Interact with Reports in Power BI

Lesson 2: Connecting to Data

Topic A: Create Data Source Connections

Topic B: Configure and Manage Relationships

Topic C: Save Files in Power BI

Topic D: Secure and Troubleshoot Connections

Lesson 3: Cleaning, Transforming, and Loading Data

Topic A: Load, Clean, and Shape Data with the Query Editor

Topic B: Profile Data with the Query Editor

Topic C: Shape Data with the Query Editor

Topic D: Transform Data with the Query Editor

Lesson 4: Visualizing Data with Power BI

Topic A: Create Visualizations with Power BI

Topic B: Select Visualization Types with Power BI

Lesson 5: Enhancing Visuals for Data Analysis

Topic A: Customize Visuals and Pages

Topic B: Incorporate Tooltips in Visualizations

Lesson 6: Modeling Data with Calculations

Topic A: Create Calculated Columns with DAX

Topic B: Create Calculated Measures and Conditional Columns

Lesson 7: Customizing and Filtering Reports

Topic A: Create Data Hierarchies

Topic B: Filter Reports

Topic C: Discover Time-Intelligence Insights

Topic D: Configure Slicers for Interactive Filtering

Lesson 8: Performing Advanced Analysis

Topic A: Create Calculated Tables, Variables, and Parameters

Topic B: Perform Statistical Analysis

Topic C: Analyze Data with Advanced Power BI Features

Lesson 9: Sharing Reports and Creating Dashboards in the Power BI Service

Topic A: Publish and Explore Reports in the Power BI Service

Topic B: Create Dashboards

Topic C: Add Q&A to Dashboards

Lesson 10: Managing and Collaborating in the Power BI Service

Topic A: Manage Workspaces and Share Content

Topic B: Collaborate with the Power BI Service

Lesson 11: Enhancing Reports and Dashboards

Topic A: Optimize Usability and Performance

Topic B: Create Mobile Reports for Power BI

Appendix A: Mapping Course Content to Microsoft® Power BI® Data Analyst (Exam PL-300) Certification Objectives