Post last updated: April 6, 2021
Certifying content in Power BI should be a very meaningful designation. In this post & video we're going to cover:
The two types of endorsements in the Power BI Service
What types of content can be endorsed
The meaning of certification for data, reports, and apps <— this distinction is really important
Do you prefer a video or reading text? I’ve got you covered with both below.
Two Types of Power BI Endorsements
There are two types of endorsements.
The certified endorsement is used to signify that content is trustworthy. This implies there is a process & some amount of rigor involved to be certain that it is trustworthy, authoritative, content.
The ability to certify content is granted by a tenant setting:
The number of people who are allowed to certify content should be pretty limited, and should only include people who are knowledgeable about both the data and the certification requirements. Ideally, certification should only be done by domain/subject matter experts — and this isn’t usually your Power BI administrator. In larger organizations, you might reference multiple Azure AD security groups in the tenant setting - but it should remain a pretty limited number of people to ensure that the certification designation is truly meaningful. (Note that we currently cannot specify who can endorse content on a per-workspace level.)
Conversely, the promoted endorsement is more of a way to amplify that content is available for use. It doesn't mean it's NOT trustworthy, but it does mean something "less" than certified - because anyone with edit permissions on the object can set it to be promoted.
In large organizations, some departments might have trouble getting content formally certified, so they may rely quite a bit on the promoted endorsement. That's okay - as long as everyone using the content knows *exactly* how you're using the endorsement. Just know that the promoted endorsement is available to anyone with contributor, member, or admin workspace permissions. How the promoted endorsement is used can vary a lot between departments & even between individual creators. Ideally, the use of certified or promoted is consistent, but that’s easier to achieve with certification.
What Type of Power BI Content Can Be Endorsed
There are three types of content that can be endorsed:
First, there's data. This includes a dataset or dataflow.
Second, there are reports. This includes a Power BI report or a paginated report.
Third, there is a Power BI app which represents a collection of reports.
Note that dashboards, Excel workbooks, and workspaces do not currently have an endorsement property.
The Meaning of Certification for Data, Reports, and Apps
Now that we know there are 3 types, we can move on to how those types translate into the following meanings:
Data certification
Data certification is targeted to content creators. If we have a certified dataset - remember that means it signifies trustworthiness - that means self-service report creators can use that as a shared dataset for their reports. Effectively this means they trust the content and are willing to accept a dependency on the data source when they build their own reports.
It's a similar situation for a certified dataflow. Self-service dataset creators use the dataflow as a source and accept that dependency as a data source.
Both of these are highly encouraged. The reuse of data via shared datasets and dataflows indicates maturity as far as Power BI governance is concerned. However, the more this is done — the more it becomes absolutely necessary to have firm change management processes to ensure stability.
Report certification
Report certification indicates that the report is trustworthy, and can be relied upon to make decisions.
Whereas data certification (previously discussed) is targeted primarily towards self-service creators, report certification is targeted more towards consumers of the reports.
This gets tricky because you'll have to decide if your internal process for a certified report will also require the underlying dataset to be certified. (I would generally say yes if build permissions are allowed on that underlying dataset.)
App certification
A Power BI app is a collection of reports. Certifying an entire app is a 1-click convenience. However, it doesn't change the individual item endorsements within the workspace itself. See what I mean in the corresponding video.
I would suggest you keep the individual item endorsements and app endorsements synchronized whenever possible, so that it isn’t confusing for anyone what the status is.
Conclusion
You’ll want to make sure that you have a really good certification process to make sure trustworthiness is a meaningful thing. At a bare minimum, this includes:
The data is accurate & is validated against an authoritative source
A review of the data source(s) and lineage
The data model is sound (especially important if others will be building reports from it, either now or potentially in the future)
A security review (row-level security, object-level security if applicable, target workspace security, target app security, etc.)
Required documentation exists
You also want to think about change management processes and support expectations for certified content.
If you’d like even more details on how to manage certified content, including a customizable template on the certification process, check out my Power BI Deployment & Governance training course.
Where Can You Find More Information?
Endorsement - Promoting and certifying Power BI content
Like this Content?
Check out the webinar I did for the Power BI product team on Increasing Trustworthiness of Power BI content. Video & slides can be found on my Presentations page.
Consider enrolling in our Power BI Deployment & Governance training course.
