Introduction

Recently, I started to do trainings on Microsoft Business Intelligence technology and after each training few people come up to me and ask questions like: “How can we further improve our skills and knowledge? What are good sources for further study?” Because I started to get these questions a lot, I decided to write a blog post to summarize my favorite knowledge sources.

Books

Books are a good start to expand your knowledge. They provide a consolidated overview on the topic.

Kimball’s Data Warehouse Toolkit Classics

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kimballs-Data-Warehouse-Toolkit-Classics/dp/1118875184
• Must read set for anybody starting with Data Warehousing. Years of experience applicable at any DWH project.

Expert Cube Development

• https://www.packtpub.com/big-data-and-business-intelligence/expert-cube-development-ssas-multidimensional-models
• https://www.packtpub.com/networking-and-servers/expert-cube-development-microsoft-sql-server-2008-analysis-services
• Great book explaining patterns for SSAS development from the SSAS gurus Alberto Ferrari, Chris Webb and Marco Russo.

The Definitive Guide to DAX

• http://www.sqlbi.com/books/the-definitive-guide-to-dax/
• Great book for learning DAX.

Blogs

Blogs are a great way to stay at the top of latest happening. Here are my favorites, best served hot from RSS oven. 

Microsoft Server & Tools Blogs

• http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverandtools/
• Want to have it all!!! Great set of blogs directly from the Microsoft kitchen. 
• Favorite subsections
  • Business Intelligence Blogs
    • http://blogs.msdn.com/b/business-intelligence/
  • MS – Data Platform Blogs
    • http://blogs.msdn.com/b/data-platform/

Jen Underwood

• http://www.jenunderwood.com/
• Great overview of various BI tools specialized with comparison to MS BI tool stack.

Chris Web

• https://cwebbbi.wordpress.com/
• Must follow blog from iconic Chris Web about SSAS, MDX, DAX and Power BI

Marco Russo

• http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/
• SSAS, Power BI & DAX must follow.

Gilbert Quevauvilliers

• https://gqbi.wordpress.com/
• Great blog on overview of Microsoft BI news (BI-NSIGHT).

PowerPivotPro

• http://www.powerpivotpro.com/
• Great series of blog posts on Power Pivot from former Power Pivot engineers.

Excelguru

• http://www.excelguru.ca/blog/
• Series of blogs on Excel and Get & Transform (Power Query) feature from the author of great Power Query book “M is for data monkey”, Ken Puls.

Sites

Under sites I’ve placed interesting sites which can help you boost your knowledge or aggregate links to various other sources.

DAX Patterns

• http://www.daxpatterns.com/
• Great site to showcase various DAX calculations for various use cases.

Born To Learn

• https://borntolearn.mslearn.net/
• Site full of blogs, forums and study groups for Microsoft certifications.

PASS

• http://www.sqlpass.org/
• World’s largest community for SQL Server. You can find many local and virtual communities with lots of learning and networking possibilities.

CodePlex

• www.codeplex.com
• Contains many useful samples and MSBI community projects like:
  • BIDS Helper
    • http://bidshelper.codeplex.com
  • OLAP Pivot Table Extension
    • http://olappivottableextend.codeplex.com
  • SSRS MSBuild Tasks
    • http://ssrsmsbuildtasks.codeplex.com
  • Microsoft SQL Server Community Samples: Analysis Services
    • http://sqlsrvanalysissrvcs.codeplex.com
  • SSIS Community Tasks and Components
    • http://ssisctc.codeplex.com
  • SSIS Log Analyzer
    • http://ssisloganalyzer.codeplex.com

GitHub

• www.github.com
• Similar site as CodePlex, but hosted on the GitHub versioning repository. Favorite projects:
  • World Wide Importers (Sample Database)
    • https://github.com/Microsoft/sql-server-samples

You Tube Channels

Videos from various channels with hands on labs, samples and presentations.

PASS Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Virtual Chapter

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCCfvrqpqo4krycPTrQT4LA
• Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence topics from many PASS presenters.

PASS Big Data Virtual Chapter

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkOKmMW_LEsACOqE8C1RWdw
• Big Data on Microsoft Data Platform.

PASS DBAFundamentals

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfo-suRFU3sBL5eOOv4XOVg
• DBAs must see section.

PASS Business Analytics Virtual Chapter

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOiRAA4gBxEeVxwmEZ1qy1w
• Great section for analysts.

Power BI

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy–PYvwBwAeuYaR8JLmrfg
• Tons of short videos showing latest features and a lot of educational content.

Conclusion

The above mentioned summary is not a complete list nor the best one. It’s my favorite one from which I learned the most. What are your favorite ones?