How to create data model that can be used and extended by power users?

[Kelin]

Is there a possibility to create a Data Model that contains daily updates, RLS, etc. which Power Users can connnect to and create their own Power BI reports on it?

However, they should not be restricted to Measures only and no additional data sources.

In the company that I work at, various business teams have independently started creating Power BI reports. This causes load on the Data Warehouse, is questionable in terms of governance. But our IT team would not be able to handle all the requests and their frequent change requests. Therefore, I would like to introduce some kind of "self-service" platform in Power BI for our Power users.

The idea is that I create a data model (be this (DataSet, DataMart or similar) which loads from our data bases, provides the main dimensions and fact tables contains Quality Control, Row Level Security, manages the incremental updates, etc.

Then the Power Users can connect to it, create their team-specific mapping, enrich with separate data sources and make reports based on that.

e.g. the Forex team will want to track the hedging ratio of each fund and have the limits/thresholds coming from their Excel file, the ESG team will want to monitor the exposures vs. Watchlists, the back office will want to see whether all transactions have been processed in time, and each countries' Compliance teams will want to see their data using mapping for their own regulators, etc.
==> it is unrealistic to expect that IT can implement this and we wouldn't want custom mappings to be usable/visible for all.

I have tried using both DataSets and DataMarts for this, but the problem is that then only Measures can be added and no columns or secondary data sources.

I understand that what I am looking for is not standard behaviour of Power BI, but there are bound to be other companies that need to enable non-IT people to user Power BI while at the same time wanting to enforce RLS (without relying on these power users to implement this).

What I am missing? Is there something obvious that I am missing?

Thanks a lot!

P.S: For the time being, we are using an on-premise Data Warehouse but cloud-based Power BI

[Idrissshatila]

Hello @Kelin ,

I think you should take a look at Pbip ( Power BI Desktop Projects).

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-overview

If I answered your question, please mark my post as solution, Appreciate your Kudos 👍

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[Kelin]

Hi @Idrissshatila 

Thanks for your suggestion. While projects are indeed useful for us in the DB/IT team, it unfortunately is not what I am looking for.

Maybe it could help to clarify what I need, if a use an example from the database context

1. existing Operational & Reporting DataWarehouse
2. IT creates views/table-valued functions/user defined procedures that contains joining, global business logic, RLS, etc. These objects are exposed to non-IT users.
3. Power users may access these objects, create team-specific reports and enrich with their own data

End users will use access the team-specific reports. That way they cannot bypass row-level security.

I am looking for the equivalent in the Power BI context.

Ideally, the Power Users would connect to the official PBI dataset/datamart in the official workspace and can publish their own reports to their own workspaces. IT refreshes the dataset after the overnight batch and the power users would update theirs thereafter.