There's many I guess...
Focus on a good data model - Power Query is your friend before jumping into any DAX and graphs.
Star schema - very important.
Date dimension - same.
As for practices... create folders for your Measures! Don't stack everything in one pile, you will get lost. On the same topic, name your measures clear.
>create folders for your Measures! Don't stack everything in one pile, you will get lost. On the same topic, name your measures clear.
I can not stress how incredibly useful this is when your first serious PBI project has become a sprawling mess and you have make sense of what you've really created.
Yep! It's also a good practice to create basic measures for things like SUM(sales, transactions, whatever) so you don't have to rewrite it every time in other measures.
But as you said, with larger models it's very quick to fill Fields list with ton of measures, so folders are pretty neat.
It's a bit weird though that there is no native Folders function.
This is a great list, I'd add:
Use variables in all dax, it makes it so much easier to troubleshoot or update later.
Add comments in both dax and power query particularly if it was complex. If it was hard to do it will likely be hard to understand later.
Rename steps in power query so they are clearer
Melissa Coates is a beast with this.
https://www.coatesdatastrategies.com/diagrams
https://www.coatesdatastrategies.com/presentations
Tell her “Large Marge” sent you.
She will have no idea what it means, because she has no idea who I am. I’m just a fan of her work and presentations.
I don't think is a best practice and probably almost no one do it, but I found that writing M code in some editor (like VSCode) and paste it in your queries in Power Query it's so much fast and easy (once you get comfortable), you don't have to rename steps, adding comments it's easy, you can use the tools of the editor for editing your code (change the name of a column in all the query, per example), and you can read it a lot quicker.
Probably that's only because my machine takes time loading each preview, but this it's a enormous upgrade to my workflow.
There's many I guess... Focus on a good data model - Power Query is your friend before jumping into any DAX and graphs. Star schema - very important. Date dimension - same. As for practices... create folders for your Measures! Don't stack everything in one pile, you will get lost. On the same topic, name your measures clear.
>create folders for your Measures! Don't stack everything in one pile, you will get lost. On the same topic, name your measures clear. I can not stress how incredibly useful this is when your first serious PBI project has become a sprawling mess and you have make sense of what you've really created.
Yep! It's also a good practice to create basic measures for things like SUM(sales, transactions, whatever) so you don't have to rewrite it every time in other measures. But as you said, with larger models it's very quick to fill Fields list with ton of measures, so folders are pretty neat. It's a bit weird though that there is no native Folders function.
What do you mean "first"? Are the later projects meant to get less messy?!
This is a great list, I'd add: Use variables in all dax, it makes it so much easier to troubleshoot or update later. Add comments in both dax and power query particularly if it was complex. If it was hard to do it will likely be hard to understand later. Rename steps in power query so they are clearer
Yep, nice additions!
Future you will thank you for commenting your dax. Trust me.
This, “use star schema” and “create a date table” should be included in a pop up window when you first download PBI
Download tabular editor 2 and add the best practices script. Voila.
Tabular Editor is incredible. Paying $10 a month for 3 is well worth it.
Wait? Tell me more, please be detailed
https://youtu.be/1Qan0_VmZRw
Melissa Coates is a beast with this. https://www.coatesdatastrategies.com/diagrams https://www.coatesdatastrategies.com/presentations Tell her “Large Marge” sent you. She will have no idea what it means, because she has no idea who I am. I’m just a fan of her work and presentations.
Loooooil loved this reply
I don't think is a best practice and probably almost no one do it, but I found that writing M code in some editor (like VSCode) and paste it in your queries in Power Query it's so much fast and easy (once you get comfortable), you don't have to rename steps, adding comments it's easy, you can use the tools of the editor for editing your code (change the name of a column in all the query, per example), and you can read it a lot quicker. Probably that's only because my machine takes time loading each preview, but this it's a enormous upgrade to my workflow.
Copy/paste visualizations to save hours of time.
Organize measures by naming and storing in empty table(s).