What Is Power BI Development?
Power BI is a popular tool among developers. It offers maximum ease of use with interactive visualization.
It comes with self-service analytical abilities. Power BI makes it easy to create dashboards and reports.
Power BI development is all about creating reports. The reports offer valuable insights for improved decision-making.
Power BI development requires adequate knowledge about business intelligence, data warehousing, modeling, data integration, and more.
What to Look for in a Power BI Developer
You should look for the following while hiring a Power BI developer:
-
Computer science degrees
-
Experience with BI tools like Tableau, SAP, and Power BI
-
Adequate experience in data-specific roles
-
Proficiency with Microsoft BI stack
-
Strong grip over data analytics
-
Skills for software development
Things to Know Before Hiring a Power BI Developer
Before hiring a Power BI developer, you must know about their responsibilities in detail:
-
Understanding requirements related to BI
-
Designing data models to convert raw data into beneficial insights
-
Creating interactive reports and dashboards
-
Identifying KPIs with distinct objectives and monitoring them continuously
-
Data analysis and presenting reports to aid decision-making
-
Converting business needs into technical specifications
-
Deciding the timeline to accomplish business requirements
-
Finding relationships between data to develop tabular data models
-
Creating charts and documenting data to explain algorithms, relations, models, and parameters
-
Designing, evaluating, and deploying Power BI scripts to perform in-depth analytics
-
Performing DAX functions and queries in Power BI
-
Working with teams of different levels to offer suggestions for performance improvement
-
Creating and executing business intelligence solutions as per requirements
Knowing the specific requirements will make it easier for you to find the perfect candidate.
Skills to Look for While Hiring a Power BI Developer
The skills required to become a Power BI developer are as follows:
Data Modeling
Data modeling is the building block of every data analysis system. Irrespective of the BI tool in use, data modeling is mandatory.
A lack of data modeling skills will slow down a Power BI report. It can also make it difficult to maintain Power BI projects.
Data modeling makes the reports more flexible for modifications. As a result, the entire BI project ends up failing.
Power BI Desktop
A Power BI developer must have adequate knowledge regarding the tool. A developer will be working with the Power BI Desktop for a long time.
The Power BI Desktop seems easy to use. But a developer must know a lot about it for easy usage.
Analytical Language
Since Power BI is an analytical tool, knowing an analytical language is a necessity. Several developers focus on learning the Data Analysis eXpression language.
But some knowledge about T-SQL, MDX, and Power Query is beneficial. Some calculations are easier using these layers.
Therefore, the pressure on the runtime engine of the Power BI model is also low.
Visualization
The front end of your BI system is visualization. Users get information from this place.
Knowing the way to convey the right message is necessary. Visualization might seem easy but getting it right is difficult.
Developers must follow several principles and practices for visualization. Knowing how to execute things in Power BI is also important for visualization.
Proper visualization will help users to make informed decisions. But bad visualization will confuse the users.
Steps to Hire a Power BI Developer
The steps to hire a Power BI developer are as follows:
1. Decide the Type of Power BI Developers You Need
You should choose between full-time or freelance Power BI developers. You can hire freelance Power BI developers when you need them.
Full-time Power BI developers can be in-house or remote. Remote Power BI developers must possess top-notch communication skills to stay connected with the team.
2. Check Out Soft Skills
Apart from technical skills, a Power BI developer must also possess some soft skills. Some soft skills necessary for the job are as follows:
-
Communication power
-
Project management abilities
-
Account management capacity
-
Ability to create presentations
-
Ability to work in teams
Without the necessary soft skills, technical skills won’t be too beneficial. Power BI developers should focus on improving both technical and soft skills.
3. Ask Relevant Interview Questions
You need to ask certain questions related to Power BI. Some possible questions include:
-
Describe the concept of Power BI
-
Is there any difference between Power BI and Tableau?
-
What do you understand about Power BI Desktop, Power Query, and Power Pivot?
-
Are you familiar with DAX?
-
What do you know about Filters and Custom Visuals in Power BI?
The technical questions will help you evaluate the industry-specific knowledge of candidates. Apart from that, you should also ask certain questions for personality evaluation.