Companies demand fast deliveries and increasingly sophisticated dashboards, so documentation is often overlooked. But neglecting this step can compromise scalability, maintenance and even the reliability of analyses.

With regard to Power BI models – which structure data and define business rules through reports – documenting is just as strategic as developing. In this article, we show why documentation should be an integral part of any Power BI project and how it makes a difference to long-term success.

Documentation in technological projects is therefore essential to guarantee efficiency, quality and project continuity. In the case of Power BI semantic models, this is no exception.

Why should we document our models?

Documenting models in Power BI is not only good practice, it’s also an operational necessity.

We can list several reasons, but we identify the following as the most crucial:

• Easier to understand:

Detailed documentation helps users understand how the model works, including the transformations made, calculations and relationships between the data.

• Promotes consistency: 

With clear documentation, the whole team can follow the same rules when creating templates and reports, ensuring that the results are consistent.

• Supports maintenance:

Well-documented models are easier to maintain, modify or update, as the documentation serves as a guide to how the data is interconnected.

• Favours collaboration:

Documentation allows different teams or users to collaborate effectively, sharing and reusing models, so that less time is wasted trying to understand the logic of the models themselves.

• Improves data quality:

Documenting how models are built and what calculations are applied helps to ensure that the data presented in reports is accurate, reliable and transparent.

Increasingly, documentation is a vital component for the success of any model or report. How many times have your users questioned the metrics in your reports? Or how many times have you felt that your users simply don’t know your models, making it difficult to adopt self-service BI practices? And how many times have you inherited a model without any documentation associated with what was developed, not explaining what was done and why?

In October 2024, Microsoft launched a set of new features in its monthly update: the INFO.VIEW functions. These functions allow you to obtain metadata directly from your model, opening the door to a dynamic self-documentation approach.

Using these functions to create calculated tables in the model itself ensures that the documentation keeps track of all the changes made: adding new tables, changing relationships, creating measures, calculated columns, and so on. Everything is automatically reflected after each refresh.

How have the INFO.VIEW functions been applied?

With this recurring challenge in mind, BI4ALL’s Power BI team has exploited these functions to create a simple and effective process for implementing an automatic documentation solution, allowing the main information on the following elements to be visualised clearly and immediately:

• Tables
• Columns
• Metrics
• Relationships
• Calculated objects

This way we can take any Power BI semantic model and quickly present a 2-page output with the main details of the model.

Key benefits

Adopting this approach brings immediate and long-term gains:

• Fast implementation:

Easy to apply the solution to any Power BI model

• Detail in the information presented:

The details that the model provides are relevant for users to understand the model

• Personalisation:

The layout can be easily adapted to each client’s visual identity

• Continuous updating:

Any changes to the template will be automatically documented in the next refresh.

• Transparency and trust:

All users can see the details of the models and thus understand them better. By making the details of the models visible to all users, they can have a better understanding and greater confidence in the data, while also promoting more autonomous use of the tool.

Conclusion

To summarise, documentation in IT projects, especially in Power BI semantic models, is not just an optional step: it is an essential component for guaranteeing the efficiency, quality and continuity of projects. It is through documentation that we can promote understanding, consistency, maintenance, collaboration and the quality of data and models.

With INFO.VIEW’s functionalities, it is possible to have continuous, up-to-date self-documentation of the main elements of a model. This makes it possible to implement a fast, detailed, customised and transparent solution, benefiting all users and creating a more efficient and collaborative working environment.

By implementing this solution, we are taking an important step towards a more robust, accessible and reliable data ecosystem.

References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/info-functions-dax

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-october-2024-feature-summary/#post-28196-_Toc179458536