Data Modeling with Microsoft Power BI

Chapter 4. Performance Tuning

You are very blessed if performance tuning has never been a topic in a report you built. Usually it’s not a question of if, but when the performance of a business solution becomes a priority.

Generally, if you’ve taken the previous chapters seriously and transformed all data into a star schema data model, you’ve made an important step toward well-performing reports. The shape of the data model plays an important role when it comes to performant reports. But, of course, many more pieces help determine how quickly reports return data or react to filters. Because this book is about data modeling, I limit myself to discussing performance-tuning topics only as they relate data modeling.

My first computer had a Turbo button on the front of its case, next to the power button. I used it rarely in the first weeks, but sooner or later, I asked myself, why I should run everything at a lower speed? The same applies to the data model you build. Why build a model that doesn’t run as quickly as possible? You should always keep performance in mind when building your data models.

Unfortunately, there’s no Turbo button in Power BI to hit after powering on. But there are concepts you can apply.

If you’re about my age, you may have had a paper list of phone numbers for your family, friends, and neighbors in your youth. Mine had the most important people first, and I added more and more people to it later. When the list got to a decent length, scanning it every time I ...