Data Modeling Approach

[Nick555]

Hi. I will start by saying I am brand new to Power BI. I have been tasked with coming up with a way to develop dashboards/reports with Power BI. Currently they are using a number of SQL reports for their reporting needs. As I plan how to approach the task at hand I am wondering whether I should just build different vusualizations off each SQL report/code or whether it makes sense to create some sort of star schema to produce the visualizations. 

My understanding, at this point, is that they won't want to do alot of creating their own stuff. They are primarily interested in just getting the info from the SQL reports that they can drill down on by time and areas. Because of this I thought maybe it might be faster to just build the visualizations off the SQL but I want to do this "right".

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thx

[Nick555]

Thanks! I'll let you know how it goes. 🤞

[lbendlin]

You will find that this will be an iterative process.  Start off with "raw" tables (ie copies of the SQL data). Then add a calendar table, and start building a little data model. Keep asking your users for their feedback. Then gradually add tables to the data model as needed, and decide on the balance between normalization and denormalization.  It all depends on what business question your report is supposed to help answer.