Microsoft Excel – Business Intelligence — Lesson 4: Refresh, Performance, Governance and BI Delivery

Learning Objectives

• Configure refresh, connections, privacy, credentials, load behavior, protection, ownership, and distribution
• Optimize queries and models, validate totals, troubleshoot failures, monitor performance, and plan improvements
• Validate refresh, performance, governance and bi delivery decisions with documented requirements, evidence, risk controls, and measurable acceptance criteria

Detailed Topics

• Configure refresh: Configure refresh, connections, privacy, credentials, load behavior, protection, ownership, and distribution
• Optimize queries and models: Optimize queries and models, validate totals, troubleshoot failures, monitor performance, and plan improvements
• Validate refresh: Validate refresh, performance, governance and bi delivery decisions with documented requirements, evidence, risk controls, and measurable acceptance criteria

Guided Demonstration

1. Review the requirement, users, data, dependencies, permissions, risks, and expected result.
2. Demonstrate the relevant configuration, development, analysis, administration, testing, or operational workflow step by step.
3. Capture settings, outputs, logs, screenshots, calculations, test results, and other useful evidence.
4. Compare the observed result with acceptance criteria and explain any corrective action.

Hands-On Activity

Complete an end-to-end review, troubleshoot defects, document handoff controls, and prioritize improvements.

• Document assumptions, prerequisites, and the planned sequence before starting.
• Complete the activity and preserve evidence of normal, boundary, and failure behavior.
• Record issues, corrective actions, reusable notes, and the next improvement priority.

Scenario Analysis

• Identify the business or technical decision that must be made.
• Compare valid implementation approaches and their trade-offs.
• Consider security, privacy, accessibility, performance, support, and operational impact.

Troubleshooting Focus

• Separate symptoms from causes and collect evidence before applying a fix.
• Check configuration, data, permissions, dependencies, capacity, connectivity, and recent changes.
• Validate rollback, recovery, ownership, user impact, and business continuity.

Validation Checklist

• The requirement, scope, inputs, and expected outcome are clear.
• The selected design or configuration is documented and follows approved standards.
• Normal, boundary, failure, security, accessibility, and operational conditions are reviewed.
• The result is supported by evidence and the next improvement is prioritized.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can explain and apply Refresh, Performance, Governance and BI Delivery in a realistic scenario and validate the result with documented evidence.