Power BI Project End-to-End: A Guide to Complete Solutions

Power BI is a tool used to shape raw data into informative visuals and reports. It comes with a user-friendly interface and formidable functionalities, which makes it an invaluable platform for individuals to refine their skills through hands-on projects.

Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, the Power BI practice project can help you grow your skills. In this guide, you’ll discover what the Power BI project is, how to create a Power BI project end-to-end, and the best practices for creating Power BI projects.

Table of Contents:

1. What is a Power BI Project?
2. How to Create a Power BI Project End-to-End?
3. How to Visualize in Power BI?
4. What are the Best Practices for Creating Power BI Projects?
5. What is the Limitation of the Power BI Project?
6. Wrap Up

First…

What is a Power BI Project?

A Power BI project involves using Microsoft Power BI to transform raw data into meaningful insights through interactive reports and visualizations. It involves:

• Data Collection: Gathering data from multiple sources like Excel files, databases, online services, and cloud services. It involves connecting to APIs or data warehouses.
• Data Preparation: Cleaning, transforming, and organizing the data using Power Query. You have to ascertain that the data is accurate and ready for analysis.
• Data Modeling: Create a data model to define relationships between multiple datasets.
• Monitoring and Updating: Always monitor the data and update reports as new data becomes available. Power BI gives room for real-time data refreshes.

How to Create a Power BI Project End-to-End?

Step 1: Define Objectives

You need to determine the purpose of the project and what insights you want to gain from the data. To do that, you’ll have to engage stakeholders to understand their requirements.

Step 2: Gather Data

Identify and connect to various data sources. These data sources could be databases (like Oracle, SQL Server), Web APIs, cloud services (like Azure, Google Analytics), or Excel files.

Step 3: Data Preparation

Use Power Query in Power BI Desktop to clean, transform, and prepare the data. These include:

• Removing duplicates
• Filtering out irrelevant data
• Merging multiple datasets
• Changing data types.

Step 4: Data Modeling

You should define relationships between different tables in the data model. This will help you perform complex calculations and create meaningful visualizations. Also, use DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) to create calculated columns and measures for advanced analysis.

Step 5: Design Visualizations

Use the report view in Power BI Desktop to create interactive visualizations like tables, charts, slicers, and maps. These visuals should clearly and effectively convey the insights. Furthermore, organize visuals in a logical layout for ease of understanding. If you’re looking to enhance visual appeal, use themes and formatting.

Step 6: Add Interactivity

Filters and slicers should be incorporated. This will enable users to interact with the data and explore different dimensions. The drill-through functionality should be enabled for deeper analysis of specific data points.

Step 7: Publish and Share

After finalizing the report, you’ll have to publish it to the Power BI service (app.powerbi.com) and share it with stakeholders. You can control who can view (or edit) the report with the user permissions.

Step 8: Create Dashboards

To create dashboards, pin key visuals from the reports. Dashboards provide a high-level overview of performance metrics.

Step 9: Set Up Data Refresh

Configure data refresh settings to keep your reports up to date with the latest data. It could be setting refresh daily, weekly, or as needed.

Step 10: Monitor and Iterate

Gather feedback from users to understand how well the project meets their needs. You also need to make adjustments to the reports and dashboards based on new data sources, user insights, or changing business requirements.

Step 11: Documentation

Create documentation outlining the data sources, visualizations, transformation processes, and user guides to facilitate future updates and knowledge transfer.

How to Visualize in Power BI?

Stage 1: Logging in to Power BI

• Log in to Power BI.
• Enter your email address and click the “Submit” button.

• You are redirected to your Microsoft account.
• Enter your password and click “Sign in“.

• You can choose whether to stay signed in.

• Once done, the Power BI home screen will open.

Stage 2: Creating a Data Set and Selecting the Data Set to Use in Your Chart

• Go to the left-side menu and click the “Create” button.
• Select “Paste or manually enter data“.

• We’ll use the sample data below for this example.

Channels	Initial Screening	Conduct Interviews	Employee Onboarding	Total Candidates
Social Media	Short Listed	Final Interview	Hired	32
Social Media	Short Listed	Final Interview	Not Hired	400
Social Media	Short Listed	Knocked Out		800
Social Media	Knocked Out			1100
Company Career Page	Short Listed	Final Interview	Hired	20
Company Career Page	Short Listed	Final Interview	Not Hired	250
Company Career Page	Short Listed	Knocked Out		500
Company Career Page	Knocked Out			900
Events	Short Listed	Final Interview	Hired	5
Events	Short Listed	Final Interview	Not Hired	100
Events	Short Listed	Knocked Out		200
Events	Knocked Out			350
Paper Media	Short Listed	Final Interview	Hired	3
Paper Media	Short Listed	Final Interview	Not Hired	80
Paper Media	Short Listed	Knocked Out		135
Paper Media	Knocked Out			700
Employee Referrals	Short Listed	Final Interview	Hired	10
Employee Referrals	Short Listed	Final Interview	Not Hired	70
Employee Referrals	Short Listed	Knocked Out		80
Employee Referrals	Knocked Out			110
Direct	Short Listed	Final Interview	Hired	25
Direct	Short Listed	Final Interview	Not Hired	150
Direct	Short Listed	Knocked Out		425
Direct	Knocked Out			600

• Paste the data table above into the “Power Query” window. Next, select the “Create a dataset only” option.

• Navigate to the left-side menu, and click on the “Data Hub” option. Power BI will populate the data set list. If no data set has been created, you’ll get an error message.

• Click on the “Create Report” dropdown.

• To add the Power BI Sankey Diagram Extension by ChartExpo, you’ll need the add-in or Power BI visual from AppSource. Navigate to the right side of the Power BI dashboard, and open the Power BI visualizations panel. Click the ellipsis symbol (…) to import the Power BI Sankey Diagram extension by ChartExpo. From the menu that opens, select the “Get more visuals” option.

• In the following window that opens, enter “ChartExpo” in the highlighted search box. You’ll see the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” as shown below.

• After clicking on the Sankey Diagram, you’ll have to click the highlighted “Add” button.

• Power BI will add the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” icon in the visualization panel.

• To draw the Sankey Diagram with ChartExpo’s Power BI extension, you’ll have to select the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” icon in the visualization panel. After that, a window opens in the report section of the dashboard.

• You’ll have to select the fields to be used in the Sankey chart.

• Follow the sequence below when selecting the fields.
  • Application Channels
  • Initial Screening
  • Conduct Interviews
  • Employee Onboarding
  • Total Candidates
• You’ll have to provide your email address or the ChartExpo license key. To see the Sankey Chart, add the key under the Visual section.

• There’s the option of adding the top header text in the chart under the General section.

• Next, click on Visual and set the number. Also, enable the options as shown below.

• You can change the “Node Font Style.”

• Here’s how to change the “Level Font Style.”

• You can see the Level Labels as shown below:

• You can change the Node color by following the steps below:

• Here’s “How to change Level 1 color.” You can also follow the same steps to change the Node color of other levels.

• After changing all-nodes color, here’s the final look of the HR Dashboard in Power BI using ChartExpo.

Insights:

• Social Media is the primary application channel with the highest number of candidates (1100).
• Company Career Page follows with 900 candidates.
• Events and Paper Media have comparatively lower candidate counts of 350 and 700, respectively.
• Direct applications have 600 candidates.

What are the Best Practices for Creating Power BI Projects?

• Define Clear Objectives: You need to establish specific goals for the project. This will guide your data collection and visualization efforts.
• Optimize Data Sources: Your data has to be clean, relevant, and organized. You should use Power Query for effective data transformation and cleansing.
• Design for Usability: Always create visually appealing and intuitive reports. Use consistent color schemes, clear labels, and appropriate visuals to enhance user understanding.
• Test Performance: Always check report performance and optimize DAX calculations to improve loading times.

What is the Limitation of the Power BI Project?

• Data Size Constraints: Power BI has a maximum dataset size of 1 GB for Pro users and 400 GB for premium users.
• Refresh Limitations: The frequency of data refreshes is limited in the Power BI Service. Pro users allow eight refreshes per day, and that may not cater to all your use cases.
• Licensing Costs: Power BI has a free version, but if you’re looking to access advanced features, you should opt for the Pro or Premium license.
• Mobile Limitations: The Power BI mobile version does not support all features available on the desktop version, and that leads to a limiting user experience on mobile devices.

FAQs

How do you create a Power BI Project from start to finish?

To create a Power BI project, you’ll have to gather and prepare data, model relationships, design interactive reports and dashboards, publish to Power BI Service, and regularly update and monitor performance.

How do you deploy a Power BI project?

To deploy a Power BI project, publish the report to the Power BI Service, share with stakeholders, set data refresh schedules, and manage user permissions for access control.

Wrap Up

A Power BI project involves transforming data into insights. Interactive reports are used during these transformation processes. To create one, you’ll have to gather data, model it, design visuals, and publish.

To get the most out of the Power BI project, you should organize data into a star schema for easier modeling and improved performance. You can do this by using fact tables linked to dimension tables. Also keep detailed documentation of data sources, transformations, and report designs for future reference.

Finally, gather feedback from stakeholders to make necessary adjustments and improvements.

Now you know what the Power BI project end-to-end is, and its benefits, what kind of data will you analyze with it?