In an organization, reporting tools like Power BI will inevitably be managed and used in development, staging, and production environments. The use of best practices will assist in maintaining version control and preventing undesirable outcomes during deployments. The following are some of the best practices to follow in this regard:
- Have an Effective Environment Strategy In Place: It is important to understand the intention and scope of each environment. The development site should be used to design and build the first iterations of the reports. The staging area is used for quality and user acceptance testing. The production side is used when the reports are ready for the end-users, meaning they are finished and free of errors. Define the change management criteria and process using which reports will be promoted from one environment to the other to avoid promoting reports to the production environment that have not been tested for performance and data accuracy first.
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- Consider Using Deployment Pipelines Or Tools For Version Control: Power BI’s Deployment Pipelines, available for Power BI Premium, allow you to control the flow of content in and out of environments.
- For example, the Relocation of deployments can be done essentially in steps, validation of the defined step is done, and it is ensured that the contents, especially the datasets, the reports, and dashboards, are similar across all the environments. In the event that Deployment Pipelines are not accessible, tools such as Git can be used to carry out version control by keeping track of different iterations and versions of the report. This way, one can easily revert changes made in the event issues are faced while, conversely, keeping the order of changes made.
- Parameterization of Data Connections and Further Automation: In order to construct the reports properly in each environment, it is advisable to use parameters for data sources. For example, define some parameters that are relevant to an environment, such that each of the report stages below (e.g., dev, staging, prod) connects to the correct database or data lake. Automate these parameter modifications throughout deployment to make the process more efficient and eliminate mistakes. You can also facilitate the process yet further by the use of the Power BI REST API for deployments, which makes it possible to save them within steps and promotes report changes with minimal errors overhead by the end user.
- Employ Comprehensive Testing and Quality Control: Prior to pushing a report from the staging area to production, ensure that it has gone through end-to-end testing, including data verification, functionality, and performance testing. Keep a record of every step in the process of deploying the system, as well as proper records of problems that were faced and solved. Such documents are very important for debugging and for facilitating other deployments since they help create a reliable and low-error tolerance repeatable deployment.
By embracing these practices, you will establish an orderly procedure for making, managing, and distributing Power BI reports in various settings while maintaining fidelity, uniformity, and reliability within the reporting system.
