Beginning Power BI for Business Users

INTRODUCTION

As a data analytics engineer, I've loved using Power BI since it was introduced many years ago. But I'm a tech nerd. And many of the experts in Power BI are also geeks like me. But here's the thing—Power BI is meant to be a tool for business users and data analysts. It's intended to be simple enough to get started and see amazing things quickly but sophisticated enough that the information technology (IT) folks can use it as well.

In my years in consulting, I have worked with many clients who are simply business users wanting to learn Power BI. They typically have been Excel gurus who live and die by their spreadsheets. And they still will need those spreadsheets at times, but they know that Power BI will take them where they couldn't go with Excel. But they were stuck.

Their IT departments would give them access to use Power BI. Some of these clients would start with Power BI quickly but get discouraged because they weren't exactly sure how to use it correctly. Some of these clients didn't know how to begin. And some of them took training or read books on Power BI but got overwhelmed by the technical aspects.

Sadly, all the introductory Power BI books that have been published to date are tailored more toward technical individuals than business users. That's where this book comes in.

This book is intended to get you started on your journey with Power BI in a way that teaches you the methods and principles that the IT professionals know but are simplified so that ...