Power BI Developer Jobs

Hi All,

Interested to know other people views on the below and if you agree / disagree. (if i have not posted in the right place please let me know)

The majority of the Power BI jobs have the same spec and want a MS stack developer with SSIS, SSRS SSAS and Azure. I consistently see builds by straight MS Stack developers that are very poor or do not address the business requirements. In my mind building an effective report and how to represent data is a skillset which takes years to develop and having a financial / statistical background is a massive bonus. Also with Power BI being an ever changing environment quite often your MS stack developer does not have an interest in consistently developing their skills to keep up with the changes.

The roles which are just reporting / design are often low paid / junior roles.

Throughout my career I have found myself in the role of ā€œtranslatorā€ between Finance and IT and I think Power BI is an example where this is a requirement currently ignored / not understood. I feel what companies require should be more of a Power BI / BA although this is not currently a recognised role that i am aware ofā€¦

Power BI models often fail because:

  1. The business does not understand the functionality or best way to implement Power BI as they are not IT professionals.
  2. IT developers are not able to translate the business requirements into a model as they are not SMEā€™s / reporting experts.

The model then fails to meet expectations resulting in users losing confidence in the model, no longer using it, and adopting multiple data silos across the business.

Interested to know if other users are of the same opinion or if i have just isolated myself from the entire Enterprise DNA community :wink:

1 Like

Hi @Hitman. I agree. My two cents, someone in the report chain has to define the specific questions a report is intended to answer, and someone must define the minimum data necessary to answer this/these question(s). It does take years of experience to be able to ask the right questions/get the right data, and ā€œyou get what you pay forā€ in reporting. I understand your frustration, as one of the main marketing levers Microsoft pulls is that Power BI allows self-service BI, while in reality, a majority of any reporting project is developing the questions/interpreting the business requirements, properly accessing the required data, applying the business rules for any calculations according to corporate standards (not personal understandings), and then, and only then, developing the report to answer the question(s). Corporate IT resources skilled in data prep are an essential part of the solution, and, ideally, should be charged with developing and maintaining endorsed and certified datasets and dataset measure calculations that can then be used by others to develop thin reports.
Greg

2 Likes

@Hitman ,

I think your post (and @Greg 's response) is 100% spot on. Every successful Power BI project Iā€™ve worked on has had a project team composed of at least the following two roles:

  1. Project Manager - this is always someone with extensive subject matter expertise, living and breathing the data on a daily basis. In some cases this has been a financial expert, an economist, biologist, emergency manager, etc. Ideally someone with Power BI experience, but not an absolute requirement. The important thing is understanding the critical questions to be asked, the business rules at play, the audience for the report, etc.

  2. IT Lead - this is always someone with a strong knowledge of the cloud environment, data storage, the infrastructure needed to support a successful Power BI engagement. This person may not actually do any Power BI development on the project, but needs a strong understanding of how the different configurations/license models will work within the organizationā€™s IT environment.

With at least these two people in place on the team, and communicating regularly, my experience is that the right questions get asked, the requirements get defined properly and the end product ends up meeting the organizationā€™s needs well. But remove either element from the equation, and youā€™re headed for bad times.

The role you describe for yourself is what we often think of as the overall platform ā€œChampionā€ - this is someone who can speak the languages of both the IT lead and the Project Manager, and more broadly can eloquently and convincingly ā€œsellā€ the benefits of the Power Platform to the senior decision-makers. Typically, requires fairly extensive knowledge of Power BI/Power Platform in order to be credible to all players. I think you can be successful on limited projects without this role if you have good people in the other two, but to develop a really robust enterprise-wide strategy and implementation, having this type of Champion is essential IMO.

ā€“ Brian

2 Likes

Great answer Brian.

Iā€™m wondering if the Project manager and ā€œchampionā€ / BI BA (i am going to keep using this definition until it catches on :wink: ) could / should be the same person. Which poses the question of is it a PM with PBI skills or a BI/BA with project experience. I would argue its easier for a BI BA to do planning than it is for a PM to be a Power BI expert which we have all been on the journey now for years and still have to keep up to date with the monthly changes / ask questions. I am regularly required to scope and plan the stages of an implementation but yet have not come across a project team yet with Power BI experts.

Would also emphasise that PBI reporting by IT teams is regularly below standard from a construction perspective and avoided

Worth noting that all these points we are raising are different from the majority of Power BI jobs out thereā€¦

3 Likes

I have found having the PowerBI skill is an absolute requirement. I look for the ability for the BI developer to have a conversation with a business owner about business requirements. The scale and speed of the implementation is a key factor in considering a role for a PM.

I am finding success with an approach I have not tried before:

  1. BI Lead defines priority with the business
  2. Collaborates with business leader/ business analyst to get access to repeatable datasets
  3. BI Lead develops a proof of concept quickly (does all necessary data transformations with power query) for review and comment by business owners
  4. After several iterations the BI Report Architecture is approved
  5. Data Analyst then sets up process for data staging and dataflows all with an eye on absolute minimum rework by BI developerā€¦

I use the analogy of having your home or a building designedā€¦ The Architect listens and draws multiple versions and after many iterations of change, the final agreement is made and the project moves to engineering to design the building. Engineering does not start work until the architecture is agreed.
Iā€™m on a mission to eliminate rework in this development process :slight_smile:

4 Likes

@Hitman ,

Based on my own experience, the Champion and the PM can be the same person and often are but IMO ideally should be separate. The Champion should have involvement in all Power Platform initiatives across the organization, and unless the organization is quite small or the implementation is in its early stages, that is a big lift for someone to fill both roles. I suspect in many organizations (true for mine as well) someone just naturally fills the role of Champion initially and only later as the use of the platform expands do they get tapped for that role officially. Iā€™m going to try to loop in EDNA Expert @Heather into this conversation, because I think her path as the organizational Champion is an interesting one and probably characteristic of many businesses.

My answer to your question of whether the Champion is a PM with PBI skills or a BI/BA with project experience is ā€œtake whatever you can getā€. I think that role is the hardest to fill, since it needs to be someone who is a ā€œtrue believerā€ and really has the vision for how platform can transform the organization, and can communicate that convincingly to people at all levels and in all disciplines. In coming from the government, we typically didnā€™t have people hired into BI/BA roles, so for us the Champions came from the PM route. But I think itā€™s probably more likely in most organizations that they come from the BI/BA side.

Beyond just promoting the platform and gaining resources, I think the Champion also has an overarching role in working with IT and the business users to develop a sound governance structure, standards for report development, etc. I really like what @DMercier said above about the Architect/Engineer sequential process, and I think thatā€™s exactly the type of process that gets established through the Champion to get implemented consistently across all projects.

I suspect that Enterprise DNA is chockablock with people who have found themselves in that Champion role, whether intentionally or not, and it would be interesting to hear those stories.

  • Brian
3 Likes

@DMercier @BrianJ . Really love the feedback and the ability to bounce ideas against expert viewpoints. I must say i am a little disappointed no one is using the BI/BA job title though, but still time for it to catch on :wink:

I appreciate the power platform inclusion from @BrianJ. This reinforces our point as it will make the PP BI BA even more specialisedā€¦ The way i have used the terminology ā€œchampionā€ in the past is when handing over to the client, to identify a power user in each team, as a means to encourage ownership, engagement and a data culture within the company. These users are often by no means experts though. It sounds like we might be on the same page thoughā€¦

@DMercier Interested to know how successful you have been in recruiting PBI developers who are also able to interact with the business? I am hoping its tricky. Also isnā€™t the role of data analyst potentially a little light / not their skillset. I thought this would be more an IT initiative but i have probably not understood criteria correctly.

90% of the reports that i come across are no where near the standard of the average EDNA user.

Based on conversations with recruiters / clients, I have potentially seen an increase in opinion that straight IT developers, whilst very strong on the IT side, are not producing meaningful reports or able to interact with the business to answer the required questions.

However repeating the first point, 99% of power BI jobs want a data warehouse / DB expert (no business interaction / reporting skills) with additional PBI skills rather than a PP BI / BA.

1 Like

@Hitman
Thanks for the feedback. I recruited a contract developer and a data lead. In the interview process I made it clear EDNA is our standard and you have to learn it. They both bought a subscription to EDNA at their cost, and now at all our reviews I am coaching what I know so far, data modeling, measure creation and organization, organization of Queries in Power Query, and using EDNA Samples at least to start how a visualization of particular data might look. My data lead works great with the business to validate accuracy of data and train them how to pull data themselves. I have a ton to still learn, but have also used Samā€™s guidance to add notes to each Measure (as needed). I add 2 notes to measures \DAX (PUT DAX FUNCTIONS HERE) and NOTES (put expert guidance or learning here). I do this also for all of EDNA Training I am taking. Now I have a PowerBI Measure Reference Workbook that we can search by DAX Function, Key Words, and PowerBI book Name (a lot of them have Samā€™s key learnings he talks about during the training). We are really just getting started and having started my career as a Structural Engineer, I am driven to put in a foundation that will last a very long time. I am also confident that in 2-5 years as I need developers there will be more and more EDNA experts to pull from!

3 Likes

@DMercier
Really interesting - Thank you!

1 Like

@Hitman ,

Fascinating discussion ā€“ thanks for broaching the topic and getting this ball rolling.

Iā€™m definitely in agreement that Power BI Developer is not inherently an IT position. Just one look at the Enterprise DNA Data Challenge winners to date is evidence of that. If you look at the backgrounds of those winners, itā€™s finance, accounting, economics, engineering, logistics, etc. I think @Melissa is the only one currently in an IT role (though @Greg also has a strong IT background).

ā€“ Brian

1 Like

Thanks @BrianJ . It is a passionate topic of mine at the moment

It does sound like we are all on similar wavelengths with maybe a few small variations in approach. As an expert user, search the local job platform and see how many of the job specs are requesting datawarehouse/IT developers for PBI roles. I am London based and it would be good to know if this is a global issue or if the ā€œPommesā€ / ā€œlimeysā€, of which i am one, are the odd one outā€¦

1 Like

@Hitman ,

No, I agree with you completely and hopefully without sounding too condescending, I think itā€™s a result of the fact that many people contracting for/recruiting Power BI developers donā€™t understand what theyā€™re actually looking for. I fell into this same trap the first time I contracted for development services and ended up with exactly the type of IT position you mention. I was so unhappy with the results that I basically threw out the deliverables and spent many nights and weekends redoing the project myself. Since then, Iā€™ve learned how to work with the team much more effectively to write requirements that get us the services we actually want and need to produce the right product.

ā€“ Brian

2 Likes

@BrianJ

I completely agree with your point too and it is really good to have someone else confirm it and that I am not alone in my thinking.

Just think how much more important this will be when power Platform starts to get recognised (except for the virtual agent which i see as the annoying sibling that no one really likes). I regularly find myself explaining power platform to people. Saying that i still bang the power pivot drum and that is over 10 years old now

2 Likes

I think the key is to show, not tell. EDNA Expert @Paul says all his PowerPoint presentations now are one slide, which is just his background and contact information. Everything else is done as a live demo, which is incredibly effective.

Iā€™ve had the same experience ā€“ when you try to explain Power BI or Power Platform to people unfamiliar with it, they immediately reach for their phones and start checking email. However, when you show them what it can do (particularly using their own data) the reaction is akin to what I imagine it was like when the cavemen first saw fire. Every time Iā€™ve done that type of demo, the immediate reaction is ā€œhow do we get that!?ā€.

At Enterprise DNA, I feel we are in much the same situation, and thus are currently working to build some end-to-end Power Platform applications that we can use to demo to show users how powerful integrating Power BI with these other components can be, and what it actually looks like in practical terms.

ā€“ Brian

2 Likes

Sorry it has taken me so long to chime in here - Iā€™ve been a little busy today.
As @BrianJ mentioned, I am considered the BI Champion for my company. To provide some context here, we are a small (under 250 full-time employees), family-owned business-to-business sales company that thinks on a bigger scale (we just donā€™t have the larger budget :slight_smile: ).

I started working here a decade ago as an admin, quickly moved to position of personal assistant to the company president, and generally wore a LOT of different hats simultaneously (including IT, reporting, secretarial, event planningā€¦ ). Over time, my role evolved to analyst as I demonstrated skill in reporting and analytics - something the company hadnā€™t realized they needed.

Recently, I found myself as the only PowerBi developer in the company, tasked with taking over and understanding the PowerBi projects of a former employee, to ensure they continued to work. As I worked with that personā€™s manager, we realized that the company needed to have a team (even if that team consisted of only a few people) that were ā€˜in chargeā€™ of PowerBi and reporting solutions. That is now my role - partially by default (last one standing), but partially by design (I have been campaigning for a larger more structured data role in the company for the past 5 years). I will be ensuring a smooth transfer of projects as people join and leave the company, and determining our reporting standards for the future.

Thank goodness I have the team here at eDNA to lean on, and learn from - because I am literally writing the book on how this job will be done in the future, and my crystal ball is a bit fuzzy right now :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Thanks for starting this discussion @Hitman and to all contributors on this post. We appreciate users sharing varied updates and infos relevant to Power BI.

We are tagging this post as ā€œSolvedā€ due to the inactivity if the thread. For further questions related to this post, please make a new thread.