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ReneeR
Frequent Visitor

What is best strategy for data set reuse and adding measures???

Hi.  We are in the beginning stages of rolling out PowerBI and are trying to come up with the best strategy for developing dashboards and datasets. I have a dataset published in a workspace and users now want to create dashboards from it.  I don't want unnecessary duplication of data sets yet I ideally want a method that will allow for users to create columns and measures.  I want control over what datasets are created.  Our uses are not very technical.  From what I can tell these are the methods:

 

1.  Create dashboard from dataset in Service.  Using this method you can't create a measure or download a copy for use in Desktop.

2.  Download a copy of a PBIX into Desktop with connection to the dataset you need.  You can create measures and columns, which become part of the dataset.  If this PBIX is published without being renamed it will overwrite the original PBIX and data set, I don't want this obviously.  If renamed It will create a duplicate of the dataset which will become unmanageable and use unnecessary space.

3.  Connect to the live dataset in the using <ONLINE service> <POWERBI service> using powerBI Desktop.  This is a relatively new feature I see.  It looks like you have limited functionality which is understandable.  When a new measure is created it does not become part of the original dataset it looks like, which is good.  However, you cannot create new columns; I assume that is so the original data set is not impacted.

4. Allow users connection to the original data source from Power BI desktop.  We have limited permission to certain data sources so this is not really an option.  Also, I have less control over the datasets this way and can see data duplication being a big issue.

5. It almost seems like the best practice would be to assign a single person to manage datasets; users would develop measures in Desktop (using option 2 or 3 above) and then request that measure be added to the production dataset (that would then be added by one person).

I would like advice on what other organizations are doing.&nbsp; Is a single manager of datasets the best practice method for not duplicating datasets? Or, is <ONLINE service> <POWERBI service> considered the best practice now even though the development environment is limited to measures and not columns?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

2 REPLIES 2
KDoc
Frequent Visitor

Hi, i was wondeing what aproach you took? My org is just adopting PBI and want to have a central model that people can use for high level measures that are used accross the hierarchy but they will need to bring in aditional data relevant to theur different stakeholders. So ideally we want a single source for certain items/measures but they also need to be able to bring in additional tables/datasets into their own pb reports. Do you have any recomendations based on your experience? 

v-yuezhe-msft
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

@ReneeR,

Firstly, it is only possible to add measures or columns in Power BI Desktop. In your scenario, if other users want to edit the PBIX file you published, why not directly send them the PBIX file.

Moreover, based on your description, you don't want the users to replace the existing dataset in Power BI Service, also don't want to have duplicated datasets, then what is your expected result? Actually, the users can publish the PBIX file to their "My workspace", which doesn't impact the workspaces of other users.

In addition, since the users are not very technical, I would recommend you assign the task that modify PBIX file to a single manager, then create dashboard in Power BI Service for the published report and share the dashboard to your users. 

Regards,
Lydia

Community Support Team _ Lydia Zhang
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

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