Power BI Book (Preview) Available Soon

Update 7/27/2017:

• Good News:
  • Page Count Increase Approved to 500+
  • Original Count was 320; Additional 50 pages pending approval
  • Two Chapters Left (12 & 13),  Due Date of 8/14 for Ch. 13
    • I collaborated with a Data Platform MVP on Chapter 10 (PBI for System Monitoring  – examples leveraging performance counters, DMVs, traces, log files, and more as inputs to monitoring solutions)
    • Ch. 11 has practical tuning and enhancement examples (e.g. revising M queries to fold to sources, faster DAX measures via storage engine, error handling in M, DAX and M coding styles for readability, increased compression in data models, etc)
• Not the Best News:
  • The content itself is ready and approved for Preview Access BUT an operational issue is holding this up. It’s being worked on, hopefully resolved soon.
  • Even if 550 pages are approved CUTS may have to be made
    • If so, I’ll likely just blog about the material that didn’t make it to the end

**7/14/2017 Update: Power BI Book preview almost ready, sorry for delay. 
Chapter 10 (System Admin & Monitoring) is wrapping up next week.
I'll likely start blogging again in August.

Power BI Book

The Power BI book I’ve been working on the past three months will be available for purchase soon, even though only the first six of thirteen chapters have been completed. If you buy the book, you’ll immediately have access (PDF Download, Online View) to all completed chapters and will be notified as additional chapters are delivered through completion in mid August.

I’ll post a link once it’s ready – the expectation is about two weeks and all six chapters included. A few notes:

• Code. There are many examples of using M, DAX, and other languages and features of Power BI to get more value out of the tools and to resolve common and complex BI and analytics problems. This is not an introduction to the tools or concepts (e.g. graphical interfaces, context transition) though essentials are included in the first few chapters to support examples.
• Comprehensive: Queries and parameters, models, reports, dashboards, the service, alerts, apps, the gateway, custom visuals, mobile, Cortana, Q & A, R, administration, SSRS and Excel integration, Publisher for Excel, MS Flow and PowerApps, performance tuning, SSAS migration and…more code. Synergies and design options (e.g. DirectQuery or Import?) are two of the main themes.
• Fresh. The content will continue to be updated through publication date to reflect the latest features, announcements, and feedback received. Several of the examples and techniques described represent new approaches or patterns with an emphasis on advanced modeling, math and statistics.

Anyway, I was very surprised to get this news yesterday and I greatly appreciate the support and confidence expressed by the publisher. With Insight Summit and Ch. 7 I probably won’t be able to blog for a couple weeks.