Intermediate Power BI (session 5)

This is part of our intermediate-level Power BI desktop course. The course structure is as follows:

• session 1 (this session): a simple build-a-dashboard session as a warmup, reminder about core Power BI techniques, and sharing some suggestions for good workflow practices
• session 2: DAX language foundations, including FILTER and CALCULATE
• session 3: core PowerQuery functions to manage sources, join data sets, pivot, and tidy values
• session 4 (this session): PowerQuery M language foundations, including a basic overview of syntax, a core function toolkit, advanced mode, and reproducibility
• session 5: a second, more ambitious, build-a-dashboard session to put all that PowerQuery and DAX knowledge into practice

Previous attendees have said…

• 22 previous attendees have left feedback
• 95% would recommend this session to a colleague
• 100% said that this session was pitched correctly

NoteThree random comments from previous attendees

• Thought the session was very informative and useful. It will really now give me the confidence to understand current PQM in my PBI, and also to edit and make it more meaningful. Thanks as ever Brendan, great course.

• Again, managed to follow along but was all new to me, but well explained. It was reaching territory starting to stretch to my limits at the end. Stretched but not broken. Thanks very much, it is just incredibly valuable to have the KIND network and these sessions available. An incredible resource.

• I’d never used Power Query M before, by the end of the session I feel like I understand the basics. When Brendan showed the last example showing bringing in data, loading a table and then doing some cleaning - I could see how that worked!

TipForthcoming session(s)

Booking link	Date
Intermediate Power BI (session 5)	13:00-15:00 Thu 26th February 2026
Intermediate Power BI (session 5)	10:00-12:00 Tue 26th May 2026

Session aim

• we’ve had four content-heavy training sessions so far
• session five = about putting your new skills into practice

Session outline

• an entirely practical build-a-dashboard session
• we’ll use The Care Inspectorate’s public datastore, which contains a lot of rich data about Scotland’s care sector
• you’ll be putting your Power BI skills to the test on this data: what can you show us?
• you’ll be working in small groups, doing team programming

Setup

• Select Get data from web and supply the link: https://github.com/NES-DEW/KIND-training/raw/refs/heads/main/bi_training/data/MDSF_data_30%20November%202024.xlsx
• load the data table and the Field Definitions List worksheet

Setup

• then use Transform data to fix the Field Definitions List
  • remove the top 4 rows
  • promote the headers
  • Fill down the category column

Schedule

• 15 minutes: initial exploration of the data, and idea generation
• 5-10 minutes: re-join for troubleshoot and chat
• 15 minutes: data wrangling
• 10 minutes: break
• 20 minutes: report draft
• 10 minutes: re-join for chat
• 10 minute: polish and refine
• until session end: showing off and suggestions

Ideas

• national, regional, local?
• snapshot, or showing change over time?
• self-contained, or linking to other open data?
• about care in general, or something more specific?
• about inspections, service organisers, service users?

Conduct

• be kind: we’re all here to learn
• I’m here throughout: message me in case of any difficulties
• nominate one person to share their screen, and work on the report
• other people navigate, direct, suggest, and look up
• start small and iterate