How developing Power BI using DAX and Power Query
has been like the NASA space program

Being a business analyst, Power BI developer, and Microsoft Access developer has broadened my view of development. For example, a client may start out a project with a good idea of what they want but often that can be built upon by a good dialogue that reveals their needs and offers them options to improve their business processes.

“Take the NASA space program for example, from the 1^st launch into space until landing on the moon. There were only so many missions and a lot of time for planning and engineering in-between. That scenario is like a large one lump software deployment where the requirements are given to a programmer who works on the project from a distance. With space missions, NASA did a great job but had unavoidable constraints that defined the frequency of missions. With software development however, a basic approach of doing a few large, less frequent missions or many smaller more frequent missions for the same projects can be decided upon.

I work closely with users when that option is available and have shorter and more rapid iterations of tests and releases when possible. If the dynamics of space exploration would have allowed for the rapid iteration of missions, then the time in between missions could have been shortened and the missions could have run back to back to back, with each mission building on the prior mission.”

Power BI development and MS Access software development is like going on a vacation where you find out there are other great things to see in the area once you get there. Programmers that are not involved with the users or the business process are not even in the area. I am a business analyst that develops software to improve business processes and have found that working closely with clients and understanding their needs can lead to great Power BI reports and dashboards and great Microsoft Access applications.