Dashboarding with PowerBI

My work involves a lot of data analysis and making that data accessible to a wider audience.
Through the years, I have used a lot of tools for data analysis and dashboarding like Excel, Tableau, BIRT etc. The new Microsoft product, PowerBI seems to combine the ease of Tableau and the power of BIRT to give very good looking, user friendly and low development effort dashboards.

The positives

1. Connects to all kinds of databases - excel, sql, web services etc
2. Good support for prototyping
3. Intuitive developer interface and quite a bit can be achieved by functional folks without the help of core technical expertise
4. Large variety of inbuilt visualizations/ graphical representations considering the business use cases
5. GUI is available for most business use cases
6. Drill downs are easy. Some visualizations give you on the spot drill downs
7. Exports to a powerpoint presentation
8. DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) can be used to customize and apply data processing. Low learning curve

The not-so-positive

1. It is still maturing so there are still some obvious reporting features which are getting added everyday. Like drill downs are there on limited visualizations
2. Linking of one report to another as a drill down is still not available
3. Formatting of charts like you are used to in Excel is limited, especially data label formatting
4. The more number of records, the more time it takes currently. I understand from their blogs that they are constantly optimizing so lot to look forward to on that front

You can download the PowerBI developer desktop tool for free and get started with your dashboards. Happy dashboarding!

The Art of taking Notes

Or should I say the "dying" art of taking notes. At the risk of sounding a little cynical, I see lesser people taking down notes on pen and paper or even using pen and paper to scribble, think, ideate...

I agree that it is very convenient to quickly type out the minutes of a meeting or a few keywords in meetings on the laptop so that you can quickly shoot of a MoM after the meeting, but it is imperative that you segregate between the routine writing and the ideating.

Many studies have proven that writing reinforces the concepts that you learn, it helps you in thinking better and more creatively.

As per medical research, writing is the function of the frontal lobe of your brain which is also the part of the brain which is responsible for movement, reasoning, judgement and problem solving.

To start with, try writing down the important words you hear in discussions, terminologies that you want to read up on, any ideas that strike you when you are participating in a discussion. Refer to these ideas later when you want to read in detail about them or expand on them. Soon you will realize that you and your notebook are inseparable. I am in the habit of carrying around a small piece of paper or a small notebook wherever I go. It helps in ensuring that I don't forget those flashes of brilliance that you get when you are in your favorite coffee shop or hashing out ideas with friends.

So pick up a nice notebook and pen of your choice and happy scribbling!

For those of you who are more digitally inclined, try out a tool called XMind for mind mapping. I have found it very to be hassle-free and intuitive so that you don't end up figuring out the right clicks and left clicks when you are in the middle of a thought. And it is free! :)