Power BI — Explained like you are 5!

4 min readJun 3, 2022

From working on Power BI for 4 years and providing training to freshers in my current organization. Here is what I have understood what one needs to learn Power BI. Download Power BI from this link. We will learn here right now.

Hack: Imagine you have some data(Preferably 2–3 Tables). It will come in handy what we will go through each and every step.
Now, We have some data. Our goal is to do something (what we can do will come later) with the data. That is where Power BI comes in. Let’s Start.

1. Power Query -

This contains the back end side of things in Power BI(Making changes in the data itslef). It is what we call ETL(Extract, Transform and Load) part of the data.
Major things include :
. Connect to different data sources.
. Learn how to merge and join different tables(Learn Sql. It is a must for a data Analyst)
.Replace, Group By, Changing Data Types Etc. (You will learn more on ETL once you start using it.)
.There is also M query.(But it for more advanced users.(Just Letting you know. You can do amazing things with M query)

2. Power BI Desktop:

We have made changes into the data.Data is now cleaned.Now the question arises what needs to be done with this data.Ultimately It boils down to finding insights by doing analytics by using different visualizations.
We tell a story using visualzations. That’s where Power BI Desktop comes in.
Major things Include:
. Data Modelling(How different tables interact with each other)
. DAX(Do no worry. There is a separate section for this)
. Data Visualization - using different charts and graphs to show data.

3. Power BI Service:

When we have developed the visualizations. We need to it show it to end users. That’s where this comes in.(Remember the whole process from data gathering to data visualization, It ends here. Now we just have to share the report.)
Disclaimer : Power BI has come up with DataMarts. You can basically do all above things in Power BI Service only.I know so much learned and now this.)
Major things Include :
. Sharing the report with users.
. Refreshing the data automatically.
. Dashboard Creation
. Implementing Row level Security.(It is nothing but restricting data for certain users.)

4. DAX(DATA ANALYSIS EXPRESSIONS):

This is the holy grail of Power BI. You want to extract some insights from the data.You want to provide instructions as to what do you want from the data.That where DAX comes in.
The best way to understand DAX is from certain Youtube channels.Some of them are Curbal , Enterprise DNA , SQLBI. It is little bit tricky. But once you understand it. You can truly unlock Power BI Features.

Conclusion :

In this tutorial, we learned about Power BI, a powerful tool and comfortable environment for data visualization and analytics tasks. The best place to learn and start learning Power BI is documentation from Microsoft(Here is the link). Learn the basics and start preparing your dashboards.