There is the new functionality in the Power BI Service where you can now get your data certified.

In this blog post I am going to explain all the steps involved to getting a dataset certified.

Some of the steps below will require a Power BI Admin to complete certain steps.

As described in the documentation not all datasets will be certified.

My understanding and recommendation for a Certified dataset is the following:

  • It will be reused in multiple areas across the business
  • The dataset will go through a best practice guideline review (To ensure that it is modelled as expected, which leads to great performance)
  • Documentation will already have been completed prior to requesting certification of the dataset
  • And no doubt this will evolve over time with better requirements.

Configuration to Certify a dataset

The first thing that needs to happen is that I need to configure the settings for Dataset configuration in the Power BI Service.

NOTE: As of today 25 June 2019, the Dataset Certification is disabled by Default

  • I log in with a Power BI Admin account.
  • I then go into Settings, then Admin Portal,
  • Then Tenant Settings
  • Then under Export and share settings I can see Dataset certification
  • I then clicked Enabled, which I then configured the following below.
    • Specify URL for documentation page
      • This is if you have a URL where people can better understand how to get their dataset certified.
      • This could be a Power App or an area with documentation.
      • NOTE: If this is left blank it will default to the Certify Dataset documentation from Microsoft Docs
    • Apply to
      • This would be which people would be able to certify the datasets.
      • By default, this is set to Specify security groups
      • NOTE: I would HIGHLY recommend that a limited subset of users can certify datasets.
        • A certified dataset means that users can use and trust the data contained within the certified dataset. And with great trust comes great responsibility!
      • I have already created a new Security Group (of which I was a member) which I added.
    • I then clicked Apply
    • I got the notification that it can take up to 15 minutes for the tenant settings to be applied.

I now have completed the certification of the datasets for specific users to complete the steps.

Promoting a Dataset

Now as a user I would like my dataset to become a Certified dataset.

The first step is that I must promote my dataset by completing the following steps below.

  • I go into the App Workspace where I have got my dataset.
  • I then go into the dataset settings
  • Now I can see the Dataset settings and right at the bottom there is a new option called Endorsement
  • I expand the Endorsement and by default it is set to Default
    • I change this to Promoted
    • And then put in a description to describe my dataset
    • I then clicked Apply
    • NOTE: Unless you have the required permissions, the Certified will be disabled.
  • Now if I go back into my datasets, I can see that the Endorsement has changed to Promoted

Certifying a dataset

The final step is for the dataset to be certified.

I completed it with the following steps below.

NOTE: I did notice that I had to wait about 10 – 20 minutes before I could make the changes below.

  • I went into the dataset where I am a member of the App Workspace
  • I then clicked on Endorsement and clicked on Certified
    • I then clicked Apply.
  • I then went into the datasets on my App Workspace and I can now see that it is certified.

I now have completed the steps of having my dataset certified.

Connecting to the Certified Dataset in Power BI Desktop

The final step is now to connect to this certified dataset using Power BI Desktop.

  • I open Power BI Desktop and select Get Data
  • I then selected Power BI and Power BI datasets
  • I then clicked on Connect
  • I was then presented with all my datasets, where I can search for my dataset
  • I then clicked on the above and selected Create
  • After which I could then create my Power BI Report

Conclusion

In the steps above I have shown how to complete the configuration steps for certifying a dataset.

And then the steps to promote and finally create a certified dataset.

As always if there are any questions or suggestions please leave them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!