So, you have successfully created a visually attractive Power BI report, but it does not render as quickly as you anticipated while trying to open it. Don’t worry! People using the Power BI report complained about its slow speed as their primary concern. However, this is mainly because we ignore or overlook some small things that can bring a significant boost in the speed of Power BI reports. Therefore, to make you excel in the art of optimizing the performance of your Power BI reports, we have got you covered with 5 easy and quick tips in this blog post.
The tips discussed in the blog are proven to be very efficient in instantly fixing the speed issues of your Power BI dashboards, while elevating its performance, without making any alterations to the report outlook.
Power BI
Power BI is commonly perceived as one of the quick tools, which facilitate data to be displayed through attractive graphics and visuals. Although Power BI is capable of managing huge databases, however, it may cause you to wait for a couple of minutes to get those visual completely loaded.
Although, it is not a very big problem, and many good techniques can be effectively used to off-load the burden from the tool while enabling it to perform the tasks in a better way. We have chosen these 4 tips because they not only improve the speed of your Power BI tool but will also accelerate the process of graphics and visual loading. But before getting into it, let’s have a quick recall of Power BI reporting and dashboard to better understand those tips.
Power BI Reporting & Dashboard
Undoubtedly, Power BI is one of the most renowned tools for conducting business analytics efficiently by creating reports and dashboards from your data. One of the most important features which makes the entire process of dashboard creation very quick and easy is it’s ‘Drag & Drop’ interface. However, things start to get a little complex as soon as you start adding the widgets and tiles to the dashboards; as the overall speed of your dashboard starts to get reduced. But, this is something not to worry about, because there are various ways that can be adopted to boost the speed of your dashboard. So, here are the 5 tips that you may use to enhance the performance of your Power BI dashboard.
TIP # 1 – Remove Everything That is Unused or Unnecessary
The easiest way is to reduce the burden of your dashboard. Whether tables, charts, rows, columns, visuals, or any other things, that are unnecessarily placed over the dashboard, or not used by you frequently; are advised to remove it from your dashboard. So, the trick is to stick only to the things that are required frequently; because the overburdening dashboard with a lot of unnecessary stuff can reduce the overall performance, speed, and productivity of your Power BI tool.
Tip # 2 – Use as Much Integers as Possible
Using integers wherever possible, is another great tip for optimizing the performance of your Power BI dashboard. Searching through the rows of numbers is relatively easier for your Power BI dashboards as compared to searching through rows of strings. Hence, you must attempt to use integers as much as possible. For example, using ‘Yes/No’, try to use ‘0’ for ‘Yes’ and ‘1’ for ‘No’; or using 1/2/3 for low/medium/high. Paying extra attention while choosing values is always important; because every number is also not an integer. Hence, it is always better to check the format of the data using a query editor.
Tip # 3 – Use Tabs
Another great tip is to use tabs in your Power BI dashboards wherever possible. This will help to decongest your dashboard while improving its overall performance. Hence, if you ever feel that your dashboard is having an overwhelming amount of charts, cards, or slicers, then it is advised to categorize them into themes/subtopics, etc. while using different tabs. Using tabs to synchronize your files will also allow you to keep your slicers active, by making ‘Tab A’ filter ‘Tab B’ or vice versa. By using this technique, you can make your filter look sorted, organized, and speedy in terms of performance.
Tips # 4 – Cling to Default/Built-In Power BI Widgets
Power BI is undoubtedly an excellent resource to find out amazing widgets that accurately present your data insights. Although, it does not offer you any choices; and even if it does, we would recommend you stick with the widgets that are default. No doubt, the third-party widgets would look good than the default ones, however, their impact over the performance and speed of the dashboard is really bad. Hence, before implementing any third-party widget, you must ask yourself if they are worthy enough to compromise the performance and speed of your dashboard. Though not all the third-party widgets impact the performance or speed of the dashboard significantly, still you will feel a difference as soon as you switch to the default ones.
Tip # 5 – Use Top-N Rows Within the Tables
Using bigger tables can also result in the crawling performance of your dashboard. The ability of your tables to display and generate your data into defined datasets come into play, as soon as you use slicers. To serve the purpose, Microsoft has added a very convenient feature within your dashboard by the name of “Top-N-Rows”.
So, whenever the function is activated, the tables constraint itself to the defined number of rows i.e. ‘n’; instead of displaying or opening the entire dataset. Hence, this is another essential and minimal intervention that can incredibly help you increase your Power BI dashboard’s performance.
Learn to Assess the Speed of Your Power BI Dashboard
Microsoft introduced another latest feature by the name of ‘Performance Analyzer’ along with the 2019 update of the Power BI tool. This feature is designed to help you assessing and analyzing the speed and performance of your dashboard, while also highlighting all the bottlenecks that are resulting in poor performance. This amazing feature works by recording all your actions that you perform while using the dashboard against the time/duration that is taken by load the required widget.
In Sum
In this blog post, we only discussed 5 methods, that are proven to be easiest, quickest, and the most effective. But there are many other ways that can be used to improve the speed of your Power BI dashboard.
Author Bio
Kylie Jenner is a Professional content writer at Codes Creators Inc. Which is providing mobile app development, software development, Power BI Consulting, and SharePoint Services. Code Creators Inc. is well-reputed in the industry for providing high-quality and affordable services to its clients all over the world. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.