Blog
Practical guides on documenting, untangling, and maintaining inherited Power BI reports.
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Power BI Data Dictionary Generator: Options Compared
Four ways to generate a data dictionary from a Power BI model — manual spreadsheets, DMV/INFO queries, Tabular Editor scripting, and dedicated tools — honestly compared.
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Best Way to Auto-Generate Power BI Documentation
What can (and can't) be auto-generated from a Power BI model, the three approaches compared, and the workflow that keeps generated docs alive.
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What's Inside a .pbit File?
A .pbit is a zip archive you can open right now. A guided tour of what's inside; the model schema, the report layout, metadata, and embedded resources.
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What Is DAX Tech Debt?
A plain definition of tech debt in Power BI models including the five forms it takes, how it charges interest, and how to make it visible enough to manage.
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DAX Dependency Depth as a Maintainability Smell
Why measure-chain depth is the most useful early-warning signal of Power BI model health, what it correlates with, when it's a false alarm, and what to do when it smells.
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Reducing DAX Complexity in Large Power BI Models
Four incremental tactics for reducing DAX complexity — VAR/RETURN for private intermediates, deliberate base-measure tiers, killing sprawl, and naming for the reader.
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Measure-on-Measure Dependency Chains Explained
How Power BI models grow deep measure-on-measure chains, what those chains buy you, what they cost, and how to live with them deliberately.
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What Is a Measure Dependency Tree?
A plain-language explanation of measure dependency trees in Power BI — what they show, how to read them, and why the standard interface can't render one.
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.pbit vs .pbix: What's the Difference?
What .pbix and .pbit files actually contain, when to use each, how to convert between them — and where the newer .pbip project format fits in.
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How to Safely Delete Measures Without Breaking Visuals
A safe, repeatable process for removing unused Power BI measures — verifying dependencies and visual usage first so nothing breaks when you delete.
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How to Version-Control Power BI Documentation
Two practical ways to version-control Power BI work and its documentation — simple date-suffix archiving, and .pbip project files with GitHub — and how to pick between them.
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Why Measures Look Unused But Aren't
A measure can be missing from every report page and still be load-bearing. Here are the three places Power BI measures hide, and how to check before you delete.
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How to Find Unused Measures in Power BI
A practical guide to identifying measures nothing uses in a Power BI report; and how to tell genuinely unused measures apart from ones that only look unused.
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Auditing an Inherited Power BI Report: A Practical Guide
A step-by-step process for auditing a Power BI report you've inherited — assessing the model, measures, dependencies, and tech debt before you touch anything.
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How to Trace Measure Dependencies in DAX
A practical guide to mapping which measures, columns, and tables a DAX measure depends on — and why it matters before you change anything.
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How to Document a Power BI Data Model (Step-by-Step)
A practical walkthrough for documenting tables, measures, and relationships in Power BI — manually and with automated tools.