FREE POWER BI REPORTING LEARNING PATH

WikiFree original practice workbook

The metric gallery

CASE STATUS: fictional/synthetic teaching material. Do not present the example as real research, employment experience or measured business performance.

OUTCOME
Build a local Power BI report with a clean ticket model, explicit measures, working filters and reconciled totals.

BEFORE YOU START
Basic spreadsheet skills and access to a Windows computer that meets Power BI Desktop requirements.

CASE
The fictional Beacon Support team tracks accepted resolutions. A ticket has one row, with its team, status and elapsed hours. Closed means resolved and accepted in this exercise; open rows are excluded from closure measures.

INPUTS
Ticket,Team,Status,Hours
B1,North,closed,2
B2,North,closed,4
B3,North,open,8
B4,South,closed,3
B5,South,closed,7
B6,South,open,6


ENTRY CHECK

Question: What is the grain?

Self-check: One ticket per row.

Question: Should open tickets enter the closed-time average?

Self-check: No.

Question: Does a beautiful chart establish correctness?

Self-check: No. Reconcile its measures to the underlying rows.

STAGE 1: Import and inspect the source

Prerequisite: Basic spreadsheet skills and access to a Windows computer that meets Power BI Desktop requirements.

Instruction: Use a stable table with one header row and explicit types. In Power Query, inspect IDs, categories and numeric hours before building charts. Keep an unmodified source CSV and record every transformation. The teaching dataset is small enough for an independent hand calculation, which provides an anchor when report filters later change the displayed values.

Practice task: Import the provided six-row ticket CSV. Set text and numeric types, check unique ticket IDs and record row count.

Deliverable: A clean query and import log.

Acceptance check: Six unique tickets load; hours are numeric and no row is silently removed.

If stuck: Fix a parsing or type issue at the query step instead of hiding the row in a visual.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



STAGE 2: Build a simple model

Prerequisite: Bring your previous output: A clean query and import log.

Instruction: A model describes relationships and the meaning of rows. For this single-table exercise, a separate relationship is unnecessary; do not manufacture complexity merely to draw a star. Document Ticket as the grain and Team and Status as dimensions. A future team lookup must have one unique row per team and a relationship that does not multiply ticket records.

Practice task: Write a model note and validate the category values. Sketch an optional team lookup and explain why its key must be unique.

Deliverable: A model diagram and data dictionary.

Acceptance check: The note distinguishes row identifiers, dimensions and numeric values without an unnecessary many-to-many relationship.

If stuck: If totals change after adding a lookup, inspect duplicate keys and filter direction.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



STAGE 3: Define explicit measures

Prerequisite: Bring your previous output: A model diagram and data dictionary.

Instruction: Write measures for total tickets, closed tickets, closure rate and mean hours for closed tickets. Use DIVIDE for the rate and give measures understandable labels. The baseline is 6 tickets, 4 closed, 66.7% closure and 4 hours across closed tickets. This average is not the mean age of all tickets and should not be labeled as such.

Practice task: Create the four measures from the provided formulas. Compare each with a manual calculation before adding charts.

Deliverable: Four checked measures and a reconciliation table.

Acceptance check: The grand totals are 6, 4, 66.7% and 4 hours, with the denominator documented.

If stuck: If the mean is 5, your calculation likely includes open-ticket hours.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



STAGE 4: Design a focused report page

Prerequisite: Bring your previous output: Four checked measures and a reconciliation table.

Instruction: Give a viewer one useful question: how does closure performance differ by team? Place definitions and the period note near the relevant measures. A team comparison and a detail table can explain the headline without decorative visual clutter. Use labels in addition to color and verify that each slicer changes only the intended context.

Practice task: Build a one-page report with metric cards, a team comparison, a detail table and a Team slicer. Test North and South separately.

Deliverable: A report page and filter test log.

Acceptance check: North closed mean is 3 hours; South is 5; both closure rates are 2/3.

If stuck: A slicer that changes one visual but not its supporting table needs interaction review.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



STAGE 5: Hand over the local report

Prerequisite: Bring your previous output: A report page and filter test log.

Instruction: A local PBIX file can be reviewed without promising cloud sharing permissions. Document the source file location, refresh steps, software version and metric definitions. Keep the synthetic data in the handover folder. Report export and service sharing depend on the installed version and account; neither is needed to assess the local modeling and calculation outcome.

Practice task: Save the PBIX and source CSV. Add a seventh closed North ticket with 3 hours in a copy and describe the expected refresh changes.

Deliverable: A local report handover with refresh instructions.

Acceptance check: The refreshed totals are 7 tickets, 5 closed and mean closed hours 19/5=3.8.

If stuck: If refresh cannot locate the CSV, fix and document its path before handing over the file.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



WORKED CASE
The original closed-ticket hours sum to 16 across four tickets, so the mean is 4. North averages 3 and South 5. Closure rate is 4/6; it must not be confused with the proportion of all elapsed hours spent on closed tickets.

FINAL PROJECT
Deliver the PBIX, CSV, measure definitions, model note and filter/refresh evidence. A reviewer should reproduce both the six-row baseline and seventh-ticket scenario without paid cloud publishing.

REQUIRED CRITICAL CHECK
Closed-ticket measures exclude open rows and all cards reconcile under team filters.

SCORING
Score each of the five stage acceptance checks from 0–16 (0 missing/incorrect; 8 partially supported; 16 complete and evidenced). Score the final integrated project from 0–20 (0 missing; 10 incomplete handover; 20 complete, reproducible and consistent with the case). Target: at least 80/100 AND the critical check must pass. A total score never overrides a failed critical check.

SCOPE LIMIT
This covers a local introductory report. It does not claim a Microsoft credential or include enterprise deployment, advanced DAX or paid service sharing.

SOURCES AND ACCESS
The videos and Power BI Desktop are free. Desktop requires a compatible Windows computer. Cloud collaboration may require a separate account or license and is not required by this path.

Power BI Basics: Free Course
WikiFree: https://wikifree.com/courses/free-learn-skills-daily-power-bi-basics/
Official source: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoyECfvEFOjYJT74Lc8znNjMJ9udjzrjj
Why selected: The three existing public lessons provide the Power BI interface and reporting progression; the ticket data, DAX measures and verification exercises are original WikiFree material.

Stage 1 selected lessons:

1. Power BI Basics Beginner Tutorial (1:06:43)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8B0qs2Dev4&list=PLoyECfvEFOjYJT74Lc8znNjMJ9udjzrjj&index=1

Stage 2 selected lessons:

2. Power BI Basics Intermediate Tutorial (33:56)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd8-3oa0WFY&list=PLoyECfvEFOjYJT74Lc8znNjMJ9udjzrjj&index=2

Stage 4 selected lessons:

3. Power BI Basics Advanced Tutorial (59:52)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwVJdA383Ig&list=PLoyECfvEFOjYJT74Lc8znNjMJ9udjzrjj&index=3

Power BI Desktop download and requirements
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/desktop-get-the-desktop

REUSE
Original WikiFree teaching text and synthetic fixtures are supplied for personal learning and adaptation with attribution. Provider lessons remain on their original sites and retain their own terms. No provider certificate is included.