Transitioning to Microsoft Power Platform An Excel User Guide to Building Integrated Cloud Applications in Power BI, Power… (David Ding)（Z-Library）
Big Data
Welcome to this step-by-step guide for Excel users, data analysts, and finance specialists. It is designed to take you through practical report and development scenarios, including both the approach and the technical challenges. This book will equip you with an understanding of the overall Power Platform use case for addressing common business challenges. While Power BI continues to be an excellent tool of choice in the BI space, Power Platform is the real game changer. Using an integrated architecture, a small team of citizen developers can build solutions for all kinds of business problems. For small businesses, Power Platform can be used to build bespoke CRM, Finance, and Warehouse management tools. For large businesses, it can be used to build an integration point for existing systems to simplify reporting, operation, and approval processes. The author has drawn on his 15 years of hands-on analytics experience to help you pivot from the traditional Excel-based reporting environment. By using different business scenarios, this book provides you with clear reasons why a skill is important before you start to dive into the scenarios. You will use a fast prototyping approach to continue to build exciting reporting, automation, and application solutions and improve them while you acquire new skill sets. The book helps you get started quickly with Power BI. It covers data visualization, collaboration, and governance practices. You will learn about the most practical SQL challenges. And you will learn how to build applications in Power Apps and Power Automate. What You Will Learn • Develop reporting solutions and business applications • Understand the Power Plat. licensing and development environment • Apply Data ETL and modeling in Power BI • Use Data Storytelling and dashboard design to better visualize data • Carry out data operations with SQL and SharePoint lists • Develop useful applications using Power Apps • Develop automated workflows using Power Automa
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Transitioning to Microsof t Power Platform An Excel User Guide to Building Integrated Cloud Applications in Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate — David Ding
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Transitioning to Microsoft Power Platform An Excel User Guide to Building Integrated Cloud Applications in Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate David Ding
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Transitioning to Microsoft Power Platform: An Excel User Guide to Building Integrated Cloud Applications in Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-9238-9 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-9239-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9239-6 Copyright © 2023 by David Ding This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Managing Director, Apress Media LLC: Welmoed Spahr Acquisitions Editor: Joan Murray Development Editor: Laura Berendson Editorial Assistant: Gryffin Winkler Copyeditor: Kim Burton Cover image designed by kjpargeter on Freepik (www.freepik.com) Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer Science+Business Media New York, 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013. Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax (201) 348-4505, e-mail orders-ny@springer-sbm.com, or visit www.springeronline.com. Apress Media, LLC is a California LLC and the sole member (owner) is Springer Science + Business Media Finance Inc (SSBM Finance Inc). SSBM Finance Inc is a Delaware corporation. For information on translations, please e-mail booktranslations@springernature.com; for reprint, paperback, or audio rights, please e-mail bookpermissions@springernature.com. Apress titles may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. eBook versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Print and eBook Bulk Sales web page at http://www.apress.com/bulk-sales. Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the author in this book is available to readers on GitHub. Printed on acid-free paper David Ding Sydney, NSW, Australia
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To my wife, Yuan Yao, for her endless love and support To my boys, Martin and Harry, for making me care more about the future To Dr. Peter Critchley for his friendship, wisdom, and guidance To Dmitry Osipenko for providing excellent feedback on this book To Joan Murray for believing in me on my first book idea
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xv About the Author David Ding is the director and lead consultant of SDInnovation, a consulting company that provides customized decision support and training services to organizations across multiple industries. David is a certified Power BI developer with a master’s degree in data science. Previously, David held multiple senior business and technical positions. This book is part of his mission to help everyone to get better with data.
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xvii About the Technical Reviewer Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati is a senior consultant and analyst/developer using Microsoft technologies. He works for Bluarancio (www.bluarancio. com). He is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer for .NET, a Microsoft Certified Application Developer for .NET, a Microsoft Certified Professional, and a prolific author and technical reviewer. Over the past ten years, he’s written articles for Italian and international magazines and coauthored more than ten books on a variety of computer topics.
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xix Introduction The self-service BI (business intelligence) movement in recent years has vastly improved the capability of analysts in finance and front-line businesses. The level of entry for Power BI is so low that everyone who cares about data can start using it in a few days. Microsoft Power Platform has further empowered everyone to build business applications and automation solutions. What Is This Book About? This book empowers you to build better data solutions, respond faster to stakeholder requests, and contribute to a better data culture in your areas of choice. You learn the basics of building interactive reports using Power BI, building applications using Power Apps, building process automation flows using Power Automate, and finally, integrating all three tools to build a comprehensive data-driven decision solution. Who Is This Book For? This book is for all Excel users with a good business understanding and looking for ways to do things better and faster. This book is for business analysts and reporting specialists who have watched some YouTube videos on Power BI and are humble enough to understand that a 30-minute video plus trial-and-error strategy has certain limitations.
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xx This book is for business and team leaders passionate about improving decisions with available data but may be frustrated with the collaboration process with some technical teams. This book is also for university students willing to learn about one of the most popular data platforms in 2023. How Is This Book Structured? The book is structured to address some of the most common business challenges analysts face in their day-to-day job. It discusses business challenges and the methods for solving them. In key chapters of the book, you are given some mini- hackathon- style challenges as an effective way to solidify the learning. The book covers 11 chapters. Chapter 1 quickly gets you started with building your first Power BI report. Starting from a simple Power BI licensing guide to help you to understand the common license rules and some limitations. You then work on translating an existing Excel report into Power BI. Chapter 2 introduces you to the three core components of Power BI: Power Query, data models, and DAX. You use different components to solve some of this chapter’s most common reporting challenges. Chapter 3 helps you understand the best practices in collaboration and automation. Power BI Service (cloud server) is another key advantage for Power BI over its many competitors. This chapter focuses on how Power BI Service can help you to facilitate collaboration and automation. Chapter 4 provides a guide on visualizing data for self-service BI solutions. This chapter starts with various visualization options and why you should choose some charts over others. It introduces the concept of data explanation vs. exploration and how to achieve both in Power BI. It ends with some very practical report design concepts. InTroduCTIon
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xxi Chapter 5 provides an effective framework for collaboration between multiple developers or teams of developers. This chapter starts with governance. You learn about the utilization-driven approach to improve build efficiency. Chapter 6 provides an entry-level guide for data manipulation in SQL databases for reporting purposes. You start with creating a cloud database for practice purposes. You then learn to construct the most common SQL queries. Chapter 7 is a comprehensive guide on the SharePoint list for Power Platform data storage. You start with creating and editing a SharePoint list. You then focus on access and security considerations of the list. You also learn about the different ways of connecting to Power BI. Chapter 8 introduces creating simple applications with Power Apps. You learn about Power Apps licensing arrangements. You first create an app using the default Apps template. You then create an app from a blank canvas. Chapter 9 helps you to understand the fundamentals of Power Apps. You learn about many important concepts, including variables and delegation. You then improve the basic app using several techniques, including the color palette, user interface features, dynamic calculation, and more on user experience. Chapter 10 helps you to understand the basics of cloud workflows. You start with Power Automate licensing. You then learn about the basic concepts of Cloud Flow. You build three common flows: email notification, creating a backup, and creating approval workflows. Chapter 11 introduces you to the Power Platform integrated solution architecture. You learn how to build reporting, back- end automation, and front-end user applications into a single solution. InTroduCTIon
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1 CHAPTER 1 Power BI First Report Microsoft defines Power BI as follows: “Connect to and visualize any data using the unified, scalable platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence (BI) that’s easy to use and helps you gain deeper data insight.” Whereas this makes sense, no one else would describe Power BI that way. Over the past seven years, I have worked with many new Power BI users, including many from a technology background. Some of them see Power BI as a glorified Excel, while others mainly focus on the visualization aspect of the tool. While these are not wrong, they are just the tip of the iceberg. As you can see in Figure 1-1, most people only see the reporting or dashboard side of Power BI. People don’t see the back-end connections, transformation, modeling, and cloud services. Arguably the power of Power BI has more to do with what people don’t see than what they see. © David Ding 2023 D. Ding, Transitioning to Microsoft Power Platform, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9239-6_1
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2 Figure 1-1. Power BI process view Chapter 1 power BI FIrst report
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AI Reading Assistant
Whole-book reading guide from stratified index samples; jump to passages in the text
AI guide
【One-Line Pitch】
A practical bridge for Excel-based analysts and finance specialists who want to move from spreadsheet reporting into integrated cloud solutions built with Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate. Read it if you already know your way around data but need a scenario-driven path into the Microsoft Power Platform.
【Book Arc】
- **Opening (~0%–5%)**: Sets the premise — Excel-based reporting has limits, and the Power Platform's integrated architecture lets small teams of citizen developers build CRM, finance, and warehouse tools or act as an integration layer over existing systems. Solves the "why change?" question before any tooling.
- **Early (~5%–30%)**: Orients you in the platform itself — licensing and the development environment — so you understand what you are committing to before building anything.
- **Early–Middle (~30%–55%)**: Moves into Power BI as the reporting core: ETL, data modeling, then data storytelling and dashboard design for clearer visualization. This is the direct upgrade path from Excel reporting habits.
- **Middle (~55%–70%)**: Extends data operations beyond the workbook, using SQL and SharePoint lists for the practical data challenges analysts actually hit.
- **Late (~70%–90%)**: Shifts from reporting to application building with Power Apps, turning analysis into tools people can use.
- **Ending (~90%–100%)**: Closes on automation with Power Automate, completing the loop from data to workflow so reports and apps trigger action rather than sitting idle.
【Key Takeaways】
- **The Power Platform is an integration play, not just a BI upgrade** (Opening): its value comes from combining reporting, apps, and automation into one architecture that small teams can deliver. This framing justifies learning several tools rather than mastering one.
- **Know the licensing and environment before you build** (Early): cost and governance shape what solutions are viable, so this groundwork prevents rework later.
- **ETL and modeling come before visualization** (Early–Middle): clean data and a sound model are the precondition for trustworthy dashboards, echoing disciplines Excel users often skip.
- **Data storytelling and dashboard design are separate skills from querying** (Middle): the book treats visualization as a deliberate craft, not a byproduct of having the numbers.
- **SQL and SharePoint lists are the practical data backbone** (Middle): real business data lives outside flat files, and handling it there is what makes solutions scalable.
- **Power Apps turns analysis into usable business applications** (Late): the goal is bespoke tools — CRM, finance, warehouse — not just reports.
- **Power Automate closes the loop from insight to action** (Ending): automated workflows are what make a reporting solution operational rather than passive.
- **Fast prototyping is the recommended method throughout** (Opening): build a rough solution, then improve it as new skills arrive, rather than waiting for full mastery.
【Reading Tips】
- Treat the scenario chapters as the core; the conceptual introductions exist to justify the "why" before the "how," so skim them on a first pass and return when a scenario confuses you.
- If you are a strong Excel user, deep-read the Power BI ETL and modeling sections — that is where spreadsheet habits most often need unlearning.
- Do not skip licensing and environment material even though it feels administrative; it determines which of the book's architectures you can actually deploy.
- Work the scenarios hands-on in order, since later Power Apps and Power Automate chapters assume the data foundations built earlier.
- Keep the fast-prototyping mindset: finish a rough version of each scenario before polishing, matching the author's stated approach.
【Coverage Limits】
The available excerpts cover only the book's introduction and its stated learning objectives; chapter-level detail, specific scenarios, and technical walkthroughs are not represented here, so this guide describes the book's intended arc rather than verified chapter contents.
Passage locations
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书名: Transitioning to Microsoft Power Platform An Excel User Guide to Building Integrated Cloud Applications in Power BI, Power… (David Ding) (z-library.sk, 1...
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pment environment • Apply Data ETL and modeling in Power BI • Use Data Storytelling and dashboard design to better visualize data • Carry out data operations...
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