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How do you avoid depending on one Power BI builder?

By insisting everything lives in your environment and nothing lives in the builder's head. The workspace in your tenant, the code in your repository, the definitions in a catalogue outside the report file. Get that right and you can change supplier without starting over. Ask it up front, because afterwards you have no position left.

Where dependence creeps in

Where it goes wrongHow you noticeWhat it should be
Workspace at the supplierYou cannot get to it yourselfIn your own tenant
No version controlA file with v3 final in the nameA repository with history
Logic in the reportEvery report calculates slightly differentlyDefinitions in the data layer
Knowledge in one personEverything stops when they leaveRecorded and handed over

What a handover really means

A folder of files is not a handover. What should be there: the source file or the code, a description of the model and the measures, the definitions of the figures with an owner attached, and the agreements on refresh and permissions.

And then a conversation in which someone explains it to whoever takes over. Without that conversation, the rest is an archive nobody opens.

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Frequently asked questions

How do you avoid depending on one Power BI builder?

By insisting everything lives in your environment and nothing lives in the builder’s head. The workspace in your tenant, the code in your repository, the definitions in a catalogue outside the report file. Get that right and you can change supplier without starting over.

What do you ask a supplier before you start?

Where will this live, who owns the code, what do I get if we stop, and how do you record definitions. A party without a clear answer builds something that only works at their place. Put those answers on paper, not only in conversation.

What belongs in a proper handover?

The source file or the code, a description of the model and the measures, the definitions of the figures with an owner attached, and the agreements on refresh and permissions. Plus an hour in which someone explains it to their successor. Without that last part the rest is an archive.

Why is logic in the report a problem?

Because that logic only exists in that file. A second report gets a slightly different definition of the same term, and then the argument about which number is right starts again. Definitions belong outside the report, somewhere the organisation can read them.

Do you work that way?

Yes. What we build sits in your Microsoft environment and your GitHub. Every phase has its own fixed price and ends with a go or no-go. If it stops there, you keep what has been built and can continue with another party.

What this is based on