PowerBI.tips

Certified vs. Promoted Dataset?

February 10, 2022 By Seth Bauer
Certified vs. Promoted Dataset?

Power BI continues to grow and strengthen its position in the enterprise space. A feature that you may not be aware of, but can be extremely valuable, is the ability to certify datasets. This capability offers organizations a way to help end users identify that certain datasets are more concrete than others. In this episode we discuss different criteria by which we think a dataset should reach a promoted or certified level. Do you use this feature? Do you know the difference between a Certified vs. Promoted Dataset?

Sample of Promoted Dataset Setting

This endorsement doesn’t have any guard rails. Any user with edit permissions on a workspace can add a promoted dataset/report. Business users should have a clear idea of what a promoted dataset means. However, this certification setting does not have any gates for sign off from admins or user bodies. The end user should have confidence in the accuracy of data, but there is no direct governance that requires it.

Certified Datasets

Sample of Certified Dataset Setting

We spend a lot of time discussing and getting some great feedback in the live chat around this area. The Certified endorsement can be tightly controlled. It is a setting that is allowed for admins or a governing user to implement. This endorsement can carry a significant amount more weight. It should imply that there are a series of steps, processes, and reviews that ensure the data is as trusted as possible. Join us as we explore what should or shouldn’t be a requirement using these endorsements. The best ways to implement these features and the value they provide to your overall implementation.

Previous

Business Ops 3.0.2: Updated External Tools

More Posts

Aug 13, 2026

Fabric as a Backend – Ep.554

Mike has been building apps on Fabric as a backend since January, and he's coining it FAB. The case isn't that you already own Fabric — it's that the workspace identity, git integration, and SQL database remove the wiring you'd otherwise do by hand in Azure.

Aug 11, 2026

Crawl, Walk, Run with AI in PBI – Ep.553

Meagan Longoria's five-stage maturity model for agentic Power BI development gives Mike and Tommy a framework to argue with. They mostly agree — except on the crawl stage, where Mike thinks starting with an MCP server beats starting with a chatbot.

Aug 6, 2026

Power BI Desktop Bridge – Ep.552

Desktop Bridge gives agents a local server to drive Power BI Desktop — reload files, check report state, and take screenshots so the agent can verify its own work. Mike and Tommy agree on the prerequisite: don't use it without skills.