Standardized Power BI Framework

[LikeItABot]

I work in financial services for an automation team. We use Power BI for our data visualization tooling. I am looking to create a set of 3-5 standardized framework of dashboard templates my org reuses across use cases. This way, we don’t have to get in habit of creating highly customized dashboards each time new end user wants one and this will be our standard/out-of-the-box offering.

Datasets will vary, so likely need a stand-alone DB or Python on forefront before feeding necessary data elements to PBI. Thoughts?

I want the dashboard templates to be tailored to less tech savvy folks (i.e., tables, matrices, cards, slicer, donut, line graph, etc.). Likely will allow for light customization on each template, if end user desires. End goal is to never spend more than a month or so creating a dashboard for any use case, so likely won’t do any highly complex use cases.

I’m thinking one template on KPIs for my org, one template for general overview of automation output for an automated process, one for output comparison, one for roadmap, etc. Open to suggestions on approach and format or other interesting template ideas.

Thoughts on how to do this most effectively? Thoughts on best way to format these? Thoughts on best way to visualize this type of data?

Thanks a lot!

[Idrissshatila]

HEllo @LikeItABot ,

you need to know from your users which are the most used kpi by them and how do they want it to be present, then you build these templates where you practice the best ways of doing it, get feedback from users to have it done perfect then whenever it's needed again you copy paste it and change the datasource.

Make sure to have the column and table names same as in power bi in order to have a smooth load and get things done fast.

make sure it's done as star schema data model for better performance https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/star-schema

remove unnecessary columns that you won't be needing it in your analysis for better refresh.

limit your data for the range you need your analysis with, just get what is relevent for the users.

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[LikeItABot]

Thank you.  I agree, Star Schema is great.  I will use it. 

To clarify, I will be building dashboards across various unique use cases, so the raw data and data sources will be mostly unique each time.  There likely may be overlap, though (that is not unique), such as "date" or "description" that may always be a static field in each dataset.  I want to use a standardized framework/template/dashboard that I can apply across every use case (light customization is fine).  Each template will show the most important data, every time. I want the foundation and makeup of these templates to be solid. Any additional thoughts on how to form and create these?  

What is the optimal way to do this in Power BI and spit it out in the same fashion each time?

Any thoughts on how to properly format and visualize the data for each dashboard, so they're easy to understand for less tech savvy users and super clean?

Thank you!!

[Idrissshatila]

Hello @LikeItABot ,

so some tips i would give:

use field parameters to give the users the flexibilty to switch between measures in the same graph,

check the concept of field parameters here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/power-bi-field-parameters

- use filters so they could easily maipulate data.

- use cards so they could see an overview

- when you have to show values with more than three attributes, use bar chart instead of pie or donut chart.

- when using data through a time frame use a line or area chart.

- use tables also to show data  woth conditional formatting to make it easy to spot things. also tables have the option to export to excel and most users like to export to excel.

- if you have to show financial data check these videos 

https://youtu.be/PI52ckgezzA?si=A46hp6A_Pv_QDdUK

https://youtu.be/J4317R5BvsA?si=xS_ItSkntLo2h5nH

if you have too much data then you might use incremental refresh, check this out

https://youtu.be/Kui_1G6kQIQ?si=QIgn-PjWAJm37_rW

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