Power BI Desktop Intermediate

This two-day instructor-led course provides data professionals with the knowledge and practical skills required to create secure, high-performing and highly interactive business intelligence solutions using Microsoft Power BI Desktop. Learners explore security models, performance optimisation techniques, refresh strategies, dynamic reporting, advanced interactivity, natural language analytics and KPI reporting to deliver meaningful business insights.

Through a combination of instructor-led learning and hands-on labs, participants gain practical experience implementing row-level security, monitoring and optimising report performance, configuring automated refresh processes, building dynamic report experiences, applying advanced analytical visuals, and enabling natural language data exploration. By the end of the course, learners will be able to confidently create enterprise-ready Power BI reporting solutions that support effective analysis and decision-making.

Prerequisites

Participants should have:

• Experience creating reports using Microsoft Power BI Desktop.
• A working knowledge of Power BI data modelling concepts.
• Familiarity with business reporting and data analysis.
• An understanding of Power BI visualisations, filters and slicers.
• Experience publishing or sharing Power BI reports is beneficial.

Target audience

This course is designed for:

• Data analysts.
• Business intelligence developers.
• Power BI developers.
• Report and dashboard developers.
• IT professionals responsible for developing and supporting Power BI reporting solutions.
• Power BI users looking to enhance report performance, security and interactivity.

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Configure workspace permissions and implement Row-Level Security (RLS) within Power BI.
• Analyse and optimise report performance using Performance Analyzer and aggregation techniques.
• Configure data refresh strategies and manage Power BI refresh options.
• Create dynamic reporting solutions using value and field parameters.
• Build highly interactive reports using slicers, drill-through pages, bookmarks, buttons and tooltips.
• Use Key Influencers and Decomposition Trees to support data exploration and root-cause analysis.
• Configure Q&A functionality, synonyms and natural language experiences within Power BI.
• Design scorecards, metrics and KPI reporting solutions to support business performance monitoring.

Module 1: Security and Access Management

• Understand Power BI workspace roles and permissions.
• Configure Admin, Member, Contributor and Viewer access.
• Implement Row-Level Security (RLS).
• Apply dynamic security using USERPRINCIPALNAME().
• Manage service-led, data-led and DirectQuery security scenarios.

Module 2: Performance Analysis and Optimisation

• Analyse report performance using Performance Analyzer.
• Identify performance bottlenecks in reports and visuals.
• Implement aggregations to improve query performance.
• Understand Import, DirectQuery and aggregation strategies.
• Optimise report responsiveness and data model performance.

Module 3: Refresh Strategies and Data Connectivity

• Configure automatic refresh in Power BI Desktop.
• Understand time-based and change-detection refresh options.
• Work with DirectQuery refresh scenarios.
• Configure refresh schedules within the Power BI Service.
• Apply incremental and on-demand refresh techniques.

Module 4: Visual Parameters and Dynamic Reporting

• Create and use value parameters.
• Implement field parameters for dynamic reporting.
• Build parameter-driven calculations and report behaviour.
• Enable dynamic field selection within reports.
• Enhance user-driven data exploration and analysis.

Module 5: Advanced Interactivity and Analytical Visuals

• Create and synchronise slicers across report pages.
• Configure drill-through pages, bookmarks and report navigation.
• Build interactive experiences using buttons, tooltips and the selection pane.
• Analyse business drivers using Key Influencers visuals.
• Perform root-cause analysis using Decomposition Trees.

Module 6: Q&A and Natural Language Analytics

• Configure Q&A functionality within Power BI.
• Create and manage synonyms for tables, columns and measures.
• Build linguistic schemas and manage business terminology.
• Configure multilingual Q&A experiences.
• Use Smart Narrative and Suggest Questions to improve insight discovery.

Module 7: Scorecards and KPI Management

• Create scorecards to monitor business performance.
• Define and manage metrics and KPIs.
• Configure targets, benchmarks and performance thresholds.
• Apply conditional formatting to highlight performance.
• Build interactive KPI reporting and monitoring solutions.

Exams and assessments

There are no formal examinations included in this course. Learners reinforce their understanding through practical hands-on labs, instructor-led demonstrations, and real-world reporting scenarios designed to build confidence creating secure, high-performing and interactive Power BI reporting solutions.

Hands-on learning

This course includes:

• Practical Microsoft Power BI Desktop labs.
• Hands-on exercises implementing Row-Level Security and workspace permissions.
• Guided activities using Performance Analyzer, aggregations and refresh strategies.
• Practical exercises using parameters, interactivity and analytical visuals.
• Hands-on configuration of Q&A, scorecards and KPI reporting.
• Real-world business intelligence reporting scenarios.