Best Practices for Delivering

and Sharing Content in

Power BI July 14, 2020

Melissa
Coates
Data Architect |
Consultant |
Best Practices for Delivering & Sharing Content
in Power BI: Agenda

Options for Power BI Strategies

Power BI Service for
Content Delivery Content
My Workspace
Delivery
Power BI Service Workspaces
Power BI Report Server Sharing
Embedding Apps
Level of Today’s Session

This session is
intermediate level.

It assumes familiarity with

the Power BI Service and
basic Power BI concepts.
Where to Download Materials

Slides:
CoatesDataStrategies.com/Presentations

Diagram:
CoatesDataStrategies.com/Diagrams
Options for Power BI
Content Delivery
Three Main Ways to Deliver Content in Power BI

Power BI Power BI
Embedding
Service Report Server

Trying to use Power BI Desktop and the file system for

delivery of content is highly limiting, and not recommended.
Power BI Service
Power BI Service
Power BI
Service
Power BI publish
.pbix file My Workspace
Desktop view
publish
Workspace App content
Excel .xlsx file
A A

Paginated publish Workspace App

.rdl file B B
Report Builder
Collaborate on content
creation & validation
Power BI Report Server
Power BI Report Server

Power BI Power BI collaborate

Desktop for Report on
publish content
Report .pbix file Server
creation &
Server validation
publish
Excel .xlsx file view
content
Web Server
Paginated publish
Report Server
Report Builder .rdl file
Report Server TempDB
Embedding Solutions
Embedding Content in a Custom Application
Power BI
collaborate
Service on
Power BI publish Workspace content
.pbix file creation &
Report validation
Desktop
JavaScript +
REST APIs
Custom App view
content
iFrame
Report
No-Code Embedding
Power BI
collaborate
Service on
Power BI publish Workspace content
.pbix file creation &
Report validation
Desktop
Generate Secure
Embed Code

SharePoint view
content
iFrame
Report
Options for Embedding Content
Internal Embedding External Embedding
Embed for Embed for
Embed for productivity
(no-code embed)
organization customers Public
(user owns data) (app owns data)

URL Embedding Embedding Embedding REST APIs: REST APIs: Publish to web:
for internal websites in in Custom portals ISV apps and public portals, open
and portals Teams SharePoint and custom apps services data initiatives

Secured by organizational Azure AD Secured by No user

application authentication
authenticatio
Image adapted from: Planning a Power BI Deployment Whitepaper n
 Content Delivery
in the Power BI
Service
The remainder of this presentation focuses
on the Power BI Service
Storing & Viewing Content in Power BI Service
My Workspace
Store personal content & data Sharing
Content View individual
& Data Workspace
pieces of content

Dashboards, Store organizational

reports, content & data
workbooks, Workspace
datasets, View all contents
dataflows App of a workspace
View a collection of content
Terminology in the Power BI Service
An actual feature in the Power BI Service
Sharing in which one report or one dashboard may
be viewed by another user or group

A general term for the delivery of content

Distribution in the Power BI Service

Multiple people working together in the

Collaboration Power BI Service + Power BI Desktop
(ex: data modeler, report designer, and
QA)
Sharing, Collaboration, and Distribution of
Content in the Power BI Service
Topics we’ll cover in this regard:

My
Workspace Sharing App
Workspac
e
 My Workspace

A private area in the Power BI Service

dedicated to each user
Using My Workspace for Personal BI
Power BI
Service
Power BI publish view
.pbix file My Workspace content
Desktop

Options available after publishing to the service:

• Scheduled data refresh
• Alerts
• Dashboards
• Mobile application
Where to Locate Mission-Critical Content
Do not store content which is critical to
the organization in My Workspace.

Only one owner can manage content in

My Workspace. This represents risk.
Where to Locate Mission-Critical Content
Best Uses for My Workspace

Personal BI
Proof of concept
Temporary analysis
Work in progress
Learning
 Workspac
e
An area for publishing content
which facilitates team collaboration
Using Workspaces for Organizational BI
collaborate
Power BI on
Service content
Power BI publish creation &
.pbix file Workspace A validation

Desktop view
Workspace B content

Options available:
• Scheduled data refresh
• Subscriptions
• Alerts
• Dashboards
• Mobile application
• Report & dashboard comments
• Row-level security
• Centralized datasets & live connections
• Dataflows
• Certified & promoted data
Workspace
Purpose

User 1
Publishes data
& manages
refresh
User 2 User 3
Designs visuals Tests content for QA

Primary purpose: Collaboration on content creation

Secondary purpose: Distribution of content for small teams
Workspace Scope

Workspace scope is based on:

1. Logical grouping of related content
2. Security boundary

Workspaces based on organizational structure (ex: dept)

might work, but often that’s too broad. There are no
folders inside of a workspace. When in doubt: more
narrow than broad, within reason.
Workspace Naming
Use a short descriptive name
which represents the:
• Purpose
• Subject Area
• Project
• Environment if applicable
(dev/test/prod)
Workspace Roles

Minimize the number of

people who can edit
content in a workspace.

This reduces risk of

unapproved changes or
modifications.
Workspace
Roles

User 1
Publishes data
& manages
refresh
User 2 User 3
Designs visuals Tests content for QA

Collaboration on content creation [Roles: Admin/Member/Contributor]

Distribution of content for small teams [Role: Viewer]
Workspace Roles
Admin Member Contributor
Edit/delete workspace
Viewer
Add members & admins
Add members
Publish/update apps
Share reports & dashboards
Allow re-sharing
Publish/add/edit/delete content
Use datasets across workspaces (build)
Save a copy of report
View content
 Sharing

A feature which grants read-only access

to individual reports & dashboards
Sharing User 2
Read-only permissions for
one dashboard or one report

User 1
Shares
one
dashboard or
one report
with User 2
Sharing in the Power BI Service
Sharing is displayed prominently so it is discovered
quickly and easily by users. It’s frequently overused.
When to Use Sharing?

Sharing is best suited to informal scenarios where

content is shared with just a few people who work
closely together.

Why?
Sharing is per-report, per-dashboard.
This can be tedious to maintain and error-prone.
Sharing from a Workspace

Usually we want to look at using workspace permissions

or app permissions before using sharing.

When is sharing useful from a workspace?

1. Allow read-only access to one piece of content
2. Do not want recipient to see everything in a workspace
(and you don’t want to duplicate content elsewhere)
3. Do not want recipient to see everything in an app
Re-Sharing Permissions
The ability to re-share
is enabled by
default.
The content owner
will want to consider
de-selecting this.
Build Permission

The ‘Build’ permission

for shared datasets is
granted by default.

This allows users to create

new reports & dashboards
from the underlying dataset
for the content that’s being
shared.
Licensing

There’s no licensing
validation done at
the time of sharing.

The recipient will be

prompted to start a trial
if:
• They don’t have a Pro
license or
• The content isn’t in
 App

A more formal method of ‘packaging up’

a set of content for distributing to users
Power BI Service
collaborate on
Power BI content creation
Service & validation
Power BI publish in workspace
.pbix file Workspace
Desktop
App
view
content
from the app

One workspace = one app

Separate permissions for app allows more flexibility
Packaging Up Related Content
Apps User Experience
App Publishing
App Publishing

Spending time building good navigation, including

documentation, really helps usability.
App Permissions

Read-only app
permissions are
handled separately
from workspace
permissions: this is
easier than
sharing every
App Permissions

The ‘Build’ permission

for datasets is granted
by default, as is allowing
users to copy reports to
another workspace
 Strategie
s for
Power BI Content
Delivery
Separating Datasets and Reports
Shared Sales Sales
dataset: Analysis Trends

Live
connection:

MoM Regional
YTD Sales Daily Sales Sales by
Report: Sales Sales
Revenue Targets Product
Trends Trends
Separate PBIX Files
Benefits of separating the dataset from reports:

Different people handle data modeling and reports

Have as many or few report pages as needed
Results in fewer datasets
Fewer Datasets
Benefits of having fewer datasets:

Less work to maintain (especially measures and row-

level security)

Easier for report creators to know which data to use

Reduce number of dataset refreshes that run
Lessen security & compliance concerns
Reduce risk of inconsistencies & inaccurate data
Separate Workspaces
Benefits of separate workspaces:

Distinct workspace permissions

Clear ownership & responsibilities
Row-level security still works
Separation of Workspaces
Workspace:
Sales Sales
Sales Data
Analysis Trends

Workspace:
Sales
Analytics MoM Regional
YTD Sales Daily Sales Sales by
Sales Sales
Revenue Targets Product
Trends Trends
Separation of Workspaces
Workspace:
Sales Sales
Sales Data
Analysis Trends

Permissions: centralized BI team and/or data analysts for the subject area

Workspace:
Sales
Analytics MoM Regional
YTD Sales Daily Sales Sales by
Sales Sales
Revenue Targets Product
Trends Trends
Permissions: report creators for the subject area
Managing the ‘Build’ Permission
Allows users to create their own
reports and dashboards based on an
existing dataset. It can cross
workspace boundaries.
How to set explicitly:
• In dataset permissions

Ways to set implicitly:

• When sharing a report or dashboard
• When publishing an app
Managing Permissions for a Dataset

Build is implicitly granted to all Admins, Members, and Contributors

Dataset & Dataflow Endorsements
Certification should:
• Convey trust in the data
• Use sanctioned data
• Be based on a process
• Be done by a subject
matter expert

The precise meaning of

promoted vs certified
is open to
interpretation
Dataset Endorsements
Authors see endorsed datasets first in Power BI Desktop:

It’s very important to teach authors to use ‘Live Connection’

for dataset reuse.
Allowing Users to Make a Copy of Reports
Allowing Users to Make a Copy of Reports
Be very careful if
reports are
branded/formatte
d a particular way.
Ex: Corporate BI reports
are often branded as such
for trustworthiness, but it
gets problematic when
users do save>as.
Deciding How to Distribute Content
Collaboration + distribution works pretty
well in a workspace for small teams.
Workspace Simplifies things for small teams when
an
App isn’t needed.

At some point, using an App makes more

App sense for broad distribution of content to
larger teams, especially if there are
consumers you don’t work closely with.
Handling Permissions in Large Environments

Workspace App
Limit access to the Provide access to the
workspace to those app for:
who are handling:  Read-only
 Authoring consumers
 Development
 Testing
Managing Content Changes
Workspace App

Dashboard Requires app Dashboard

republishing to
take effect
Report Report

Dataset Changes effective Dataset

immediately
• Data refresh
• Calculation changes
• Relationship changes
• Data model edits
 Wrap-Up,
Q&A,
Links to More
Information
Storing & Viewing Content in Power BI Service
My Workspace
Store personal content & data Sharing
Content View individual
& Data Workspace
pieces of content

Dashboards, Store organizational

reports, content & data
workbooks, Workspace
datasets, View all contents
dataflows App of a workspace
View a collection of content
Using the Different Areas of the Power BI Service

My Workspace Sharing
Personal BI
Content Individual
content
& Data distribution
Workspace
Dashboards, Team & organizational BI
reports,
workbooks, Workspace
datasets, Collaboration &
dataflows App content
distribution
Broad content distribution
Q&A
Where to Find More Info
Presentation Slides: Attribute to me
as original author
CoatesDataStrategies.com/Presentations if you share
these materials

Diagrams: No derivatives or
changes to
CoatesDataStrategies.com/Diagrams these materials

Blog: No usage of
these materials
CoatesDataStrategies.com/Blog-Posts for
commercial
purposes
Videos:
Link.CoatesDataStrategies.com/YouTube
Power BI Whitepapers

Planning a Power BI Enterprise Deployment – published May 2020

by Melissa Coates and Chris Webb
Power BI whitepapers
Power BI Release Plan (Roadmap)
Follow the release plan closely:
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/roadmap/

Note the URLs change 2x/year. Examples:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-
2019wave2
plan//business-intelligence/planned-features
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-
2020wave1
plan//business-intelligence/planned-features
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-
2020wave2
plan//business-intelligence/planned-features
Power BI Service Health
Issues broadly affecting
many customers are
reported here:
https://powerbi.microsoft.

com/en-us/support/
Power BI Blog
Follow the blog closely:
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/

The main Power BI blog has all major announcements

about features & functionality.

There is an abundance of information: the Power BI

community is very active with blogs, videos, and
webinars. Be cautious with info found online - it gets
out of date quickly as Power BI evolves and
matures.