Crafting PBI Workspace Policies – Ep. 358

In this episode, Mike and Tommy dig into how to design practical Power BI workspace policies that keep your tenant organized without crushing productivity. You’ll learn how to think about personas, guardrails, and enforcement so your governance model actually sticks.

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Main Discussion

This episode focuses on a part of governance that’s easy to hand-wave and hard to execute: defining workspace policies that help people move fast while still keeping the environment secure, understandable, and supportable.

A core idea Mike and Tommy reinforce is that “policy” shouldn’t just be a PDF. It needs to translate into:

• clear rules people can follow without reading a manual
• defaults that nudge creators into the right behavior
• lightweight enforcement (where possible) so the standards don’t decay

Start with personas (not rules)

Rather than writing one giant policy for everyone, they talk through why you should identify the key types of users in your organization (for example: self-service creators, certified developers, and central IT/admins) and then define what each group should be allowed to do.

This helps you avoid two common failure modes:

• being too strict (people route around governance)
• being too loose (everything becomes a dumping ground)

Define workspace intent and lifecycle

Workspaces tend to multiply because the “why” isn’t captured. They discuss using naming conventions, descriptions, and ownership expectations to make it obvious whether a workspace is:

• personal experimentation
• team collaboration
• departmental production
• enterprise/centralized production

Once you have that, you can attach lifecycle expectations: who owns it, who maintains it, how you decide it’s still active, and what happens when it’s not.

Guardrails that scale

They cover the kinds of guardrails that make policies enforceable and scalable, such as:

• ownership requirements (no orphaned workspaces)
• limits/expectations for who can create workspaces
• conventions for where datasets/models belong vs. reports
• patterns for separating dev/test/prod (when needed)

The overarching message: pick a policy set you can actually maintain. A “perfect” governance model that no one follows is worse than a simple one that’s consistently applied.

Looking Forward

As organizations continue adopting Fabric and expanding Power BI usage, workspace sprawl is only going to accelerate. Investing in pragmatic workspace policies now makes everything downstream easier: support, security reviews, lineage, and building a culture where teams can collaborate without stepping on each other.

Episode Transcript

0:35 good morning and welcome back to the explicit measures podcast with Tommy Seth and Seth and Mike good morning Deuces gentlemen hello Deuces I like that cheers that is that a peace peace statement say peace peace peace all right I gotta ask a little just just candid question here all right talk oh about your your morning routine but before I do that at question I do want to talk about our main topic today today’s our main topic is a mailbag these are questions that are coming from the audience so thank you very much audience for bringing in your questions we’ll address some of

1:05 your questions we’ll address some of those today and go through crafting powerbi workspace policies thinking through that or unpacking how people can create workspaces what happens if you have a lot of them how do you manage them what happens at the proliferation of workspaces okay that being said Okay I want to come back to that that main topic but I was thinking I I was wondering are you guys becoming coffee snobs I work from home home a lot now and I have a machine that does the coffee for me at home and I know Tommy I

1:35 coffee for me at home and I know Tommy I think you’ve show me Tommy your coffee machine it’s this little like pot what’s the thing called it’s the pot that’s so I I go back and forth between it’s called a beti which is the one you put like I call it the Immigrant coffee because it’s on a range but I do have an don’t think you can say that anymore but okay what are you talking about I just say talk to my grandfather or right well you can’t but but if you could but I I swear by an espresso now okay so your your espresso is is your choice

2:06 so your your espresso is is your choice of thing okay and SE you’ve got a pretty nice machine too at your house as well I believe you you’re pretty coffee Centric as well well so one of my yeah I used to do the espressos all the time but I moved into like por overs if you go to a good coffee shop a pourover takes like a good 10 minutes to make so I always feel bad ordering them but the coffee out of there just just very mellow and it typically you can go with a lighter

2:37 it typically you can go with a lighter bean and yeah it’s anyway went down that path lot of great flavor yeah so yeah we ended up getting we got a brevel a long time ago yep and it’s one of these that so it’s the it’s still drip but it you can set it to drip in many different ways and then I think the big game changer is I drink coffee all the way up until about noon it’s not it’s not glass like the Craft’s not glass it’s a thermos so

3:07 Craft’s not glass it’s a thermos so just well it’s not on a burner oh yes right so when it’s made it just stays hot until you pour your other cup okay and we’ve gotten so that in combination with a local Coffee Bean roaster sure and we’ve I’ve found a happy place with coffee I found a happy the reason I bring this up is anytime I travel now I’ve been traveling a bit more and and now that you now that we have spoiled our you’re at home you’ve

3:38 have spoiled our you’re at home you’ve got your routine you’ve gotten the machine I know what flavors I like I know how many pumps of the whatever flavor I want like I got it down to a science and when I travel it’s not as good because I’m traveling and it doesn’t just seem to have the right it’s not what I enjoy it’s not the whole I can’t do regular travel coffee anymore I I this just happened to me was traveling because I I’ve been doing espresso for so long we were at a verbo Airbnb and they had a nice like coffee

4:08 they had a nice like coffee machine like it was just coffee it’s like a filter so coffee not even that it’s not it’s diluted coffee it tastes more like something someone put something in my water yeah that’s what American coffee tastes like to me now it was like why is my water hot and tastes slightly weird I’m honestly at the point now where I’m going to bring my nepresso with me anywhere I I can’t I have I I need Express I this so that’s amazing yeah so that was that was one of my points there was around I traveling is becoming more difficult

4:38 traveling is becoming more difficult because I like my little morning routine I’ve got my coffee my coffee routine that I like to use now but along with that coffee experience is I’m finding that if I don’t have my at least some coffee in the morning I’m wrecked for the rest of the day I’ve gotten so dependent on coffee these days I can’t I get like headaches in the afternoon I I don’t I don’t drink a lot of coffee I have like my one coffee in the morning and that is it with 500 shots or no it’s just it’s just a normal double shot

5:08 just it’s just a normal double shot espresso with milk and it’s just but if I don’t have caffeine like in the morning with that I I don’t feel good later on in the day just I can tell like around two or three o’clock I’m like yeah I think I should have had some coffee this morning so I You’re Gonna Go a different direction with that I thought location matters in terms of like if if I have people staying and I can’t go like out on the deck and have food no techn by 4M or the next day I’m twitching kind by 4M or the next day I’m twitching thing just like with people like I’m of thing just like with people like I’m so know yeah what I was going to say

5:39 so know yeah what I was going to say though is we use flavors at our house so we have like flavors that we buy online and Amazon they show up and we use the pumps yeah Seth I know you’re you’re like you’re straight up we have tried or have recently heard around in order to add some more healthier options to your coffee trying maple syrup straight from a tree so we’ve been adding maple syrup a little drip of again I like sweeter coffee my wife likes it just a tid bit more coffee tasting and a lot less sweet I like mine

6:09 tasting and a lot less sweet I like mine sweet but I have found that using maple syrup as a sweetener is actually really really good and it’s like man it makes a difference yeah I so traveling I I’ve I’m okay and I survive just ordering an Americano yeah which it used to be my go-to drink but the one change I’ve made over the years is I used to do sugar and now and now it’s just straight black but in large part because like a lot of

6:39 part because like a lot of the intermittent fasting or not I don’t they let you drink black coffee but they won’t let you right you incorporate sugar or anything like that you’re breaking your fast until right so that that was one of the reasons but I actually enjoy just straight black coffee now regardless of where I am like I’m I used used to like the sweeter Maybe once in a while but or it was like the ritual of a couple packs in and now yeah I’m just amazed by the volume of like my wife loves a French

7:10 like my wife loves a French press yep I have one of those still it’s a lot of volume of coffee and mine is condensing into this same amount of caffeine I’m amazed at how large as coffees can get and m a little all my coffee mugs have to have something powerbi on it too oh yeah same all sequel bits one all right good and then I have like 14 powerbi ones from you good shout out for squl bits on this one Tommy’s drinking out of the squl bits coffee mug today which is great excellent I got to be honest though I can’t do any cups on my desk without a lid I will not do it heck no way no way

7:42 lid I will not do it heck no way no way I that’s once all takes this once took one tip over and boom gone so all over the keyboard all over the whatevers so I have intentionally make sure that everything around my desk has a lid on it as much as I can that’s so smart you it as much as I can that’s so smart the Tommy Knows what I heard a know the Tommy Knows what I heard a while ago since this is coffee roasting talk yeah sure I what I I I think I’m under the impression that lighter roasts actually have way more caffeine than espresso really yes it’s

8:13 caffeine than espresso really yes it’s true or lighter roast The Roasting doesn’t like break down the caffeine I guess would be what it would be right I’ve heard that that what’s that did you say more than espresso or more than dark more than dark so if you had like a lighter espresso versus a darker espresso there’s more caffeine than lighter because I think the The Roasting doesn’t break down the caffeine no I know are you saying like like if I had American light roast that’s gonna have more than my espresso or we’re just talking coffee

8:43 my espresso or we’re just talking coffee no no just just general like lighter roast beans is going to have more caffeine than darker roasted beans counterintuitive seems counterintuitive yes yeah I don’t really like the bitterness of more Darkly roasted beans like like a medium to lighter roast of things it seems to my palette anyways all right sorry so concentrations but a cup of light roast would probably have more than an espresso because of the quantity right you’re only taking a

9:13 quantity right you’re only taking a little shot whereas if you have a full cup of light roast equivalent wise you may be right I think espresso made

9:21 you may be right I think espresso made like ounce for ounce probably have more yeah but but if you drink a cup of light roast coffee it probably has more man that stuff is so diluted there’s no way you should you should fact you should fact check me next episode for next episode all right our that’s our end all right with that thank you for our indulgent here on coffee talk and hopefully you enjoy some maple syrup with your coffee as well well all right let’s Jump Right In

9:52 all right let’s Jump Right In questions for today so our main topic now is just opening a mail bag up and we’re going to ask some questions around crafting the powerbi workspace policies Seth if you do us the pleasure of reading through our mailbag today it would be great it’s a bit of a long one do you guys want me to pause after the like good question question questions in order or just go for the whole thing I’ll go around all six spaces okay I’ll say go for

10:24 it mailbag what should be the organizational policy for creating powerbi workspaces in order to to support self-service powerbi within the organization the factors that affect this are one to prevent the explosion of number of workspaces 1. 1 is it a problem if number of workspaces increase exponentially why is it a problem we don’t worry about the explosion of number of child folders in an organizational shared drive so why is

10:54 an organizational shared drive so why is this a problem in powerbi workspaces two only one app can be published in a workspace therefore even a single team will need multiple workspaces contributing to the explosion of number of of workspaces there’s a cave out there depending on when this question was asked true three who should be allowed to create to create workspaces 3. 1 does it create workspaces when requested by enduser teams should there be a naming standard

11:24 teams should there be a naming standard pattern for workspaces why if so can you please suggest some naming strategies thank you for your podcast I enjoy listening to it well thank you for your question and we’ll get at it I guess all right where we we should tackle us we should probably maybe first questions number three which is weird Ive is it is it okay well for Tommy let’s talk about the let’s talk about

11:54 let’s talk about the let’s talk about the explosion of workspaces right because ultimately if we create policies right where we’re trying to manage something in the organization right the process of building things trying to keep order to the chaos instead of just having chaos do you want to start with explosion I I I want to well I yes I do start with the big bang of the workspaces just bang and then there’s a whole bunch of workspaces but I back up with manage self-service okay that’s

12:24 with manage self-service okay that’s where I was going the the buzzword that I heard here was we we want to do self-service and I think I need to understand at least I need to Define what you mean by self-service I think it’s a very loaded word and can mean many different things and I think a level setting your organization on what does that self when you say self-service give me a couple bullet points as to what that means so Tommy to you what does self-service mean how does how does that roll out to you manage self-service which to me is a very large distinction

12:55 which to me is a very large distinction and I believe he did say manage self-service h so when we’re talking manage self server there’s a few factors that you could see an organization working in that system it is not just a Federated team who’s building content and I think I’m going to stay vague here to say content starting off but it is other teams in the world realm of managed self-service though is it’s highly poliz or there’s process around who can create what and what content

13:26 who can create what and what content available for those we’ll say out on The Hub and spoke of the the spokes of the self-service side they can usually going to be departments or teams but the type of content and what content is actually getting distributed is highly monitored and that’s a large part of manag self-service self-service has a little more call it freedom but when we’re dealing in the Realms of managed self-service it starts and ends with the semantic models it starts and ends with our numbers and metrics and who’s

13:57 our numbers and metrics and who’s creating that it’s usually centralized team and then how does that get distributed it’s very I’ll say protected it’s not anyone can start and run with this at any given moment no one wakes up on Monday and by lunch has access to be able to build and start creating reports in un in un normal structured managed self-service realm if we’re talking just numberal self-service yeah there’s a little more freedom of what’s available I can just dabble but on the realm with manage a self-service

14:29 manage a self-service there’s a process to get there don’t think the user is saying manage Self Service though just says the question purely says to support self-service so I understand your point around the distinction between manage self-service and self service but I don’t think that’s what they’re asking about they’re just saying we’re going to roll out powerbi there’s going to be self-service happening what does that look like Seth what does your in your mind what does self-service unpack like you unpack that phrase to you

14:59 you unpack that phrase to you well it’s it’s either you you just let it roll right s self-service could be a lot of different things hey we have powerbi now you guys can go play you all have Pro licenses right correct create value create value for the business and and you get you some of it’s going to work really well some of it’s not like there’s value that’s created if there wasn’t the tool wouldn’t be as popular as it is the the issue with that for the organization and it in general is like it’s

15:30 and it in general is like it’s chaos right like you you don’t know what you’re going to get it’s going to be harder to triage any issues because everything’s going to be custom built for whatever the business unit or team or whatever wants and needs and I think while the question doesn’t say manage self-service it’s certainly asking questions around what do you manage what should you potentially do in an organization when you want to roll out self-service

16:01 when you want to roll out self-service so that it’s much more so the I think the organization benefits from it more okay so the way I think about this in terms of just like an analogy that I’ve talked through with friends but that I think appli it wasn’t me it was not I’m not your friend apparently no well I have other oh okay is is it’s kind and it applies here I think is it’s the difference between hey let’s get a whole bunch of people together and let’s like as as

16:34 people together and let’s like as as all these people live together there you you you just there there’s no plan to the city that they create right versus versus a city planner or keeping it simpler like just how do you move around the city and that’s where like somebody sits down and goes okay well here’s the two-lane roads and here’s the on Lane roads and here’s traffic’s going to go and here’s the stop light lights and stop signs and does that mean you’re restricting

17:04 does that mean you’re restricting movement of all these people no you’re just making it easier for them to navigate and get around the city as opposed to like and you can look at this in the world as opposed to without that what happens at intersections right like there’s there’s chaos like where what direction are the people supposed to go it’s much slower so so that that theory of like you’re not trying to get in the way of people or stop them from doing something you’re just trying to make it easier for them to navigate and

17:34 make it easier for them to navigate and then thereby also also when things go wrong right the services that are are deployed to fix it know exactly where to go and you can fix it easy okay I like that I think it’s a good definition I I feel like you’re you’re making the analogy of like okay here’s all the coastal coastal cities versus the Midwest cities that are all squared and grid ated out and has straight lines everywhere it’s very easy where we’re going and all the coast all the cities on the coast are all squiggly lines and Roads that don’t go in straight lines

18:05 Roads that don’t go in straight lines anymore so I’ll add a little bit of I love both your definitions on self-service and I think you both attacked self-service from a a lens I think I want to include a little bit more I really liked your com comment around Seth around licensing matters basically if you’re a pro and premium per user you’re really not penalized to creating a lot of stuff you can create hundreds thousands of reports and data sets as long as they meet a certain threshold so in in that regard you’re

18:35 threshold so in in that regard you’re encouraged to do self-service however if we transition over to premium capacity where I’m paying for a specific amount

18:42 where I’m paying for a specific amount of compute or usage I still want to enable self-service but I want to do it with a bit more like what Tommy was saying was managed self-service I want to be able to understand what people are creating are we not adding any Bad actors or abusers to the system and there’s probably a mix here of you there’s probably a mix here of if we’re talking premium capacity know if we’re talking premium capacity what things should be on that premium capacity versus what things should just be in a pro workspace so there’s going to be some tradeoffs I think here as well my mind as I think about self-surface is the organization needs

19:12 self-surface is the organization needs to Define what layer of self-service and what does that mean a self-service I think I’ve heard self-service defined as I’m going to give you an app and here’s a bunch of reports you may self-service that report and download things that you need that’s a version of self-service there’s ‘s another version of self-service where I’m going to give you access to a data set you can build your own reports in your own workspace that’s another version I think of self-service more control allows people to build more things and now I think with fabric we’re

19:42 things and now I think with fabric we’re introducing hey by the way I’m going to make these tables in a Lakehouse I’m going to let you shortcut to them this is data we’re going to give you so I think as we walk our way backwards from app to semantic model to tables there’s like you need to Define what how comfortable and what is the skills of the consumers can they handle that is that something we’re going to be able to give them are we willing to let that happen in our organization so I like your thoughts there I just think it’s you need to Define what that looks like first so it sounds like based on this

20:13 first so it sounds like based on this user sitting our definitions together this user is asking questions around that second layer right we have content we’re going to give everyone Pro or premium pre user license it does not penalize us to have a lot of workspaces what does it look like to then just open the floodgates of bit more and say organization build what you need to build yeah there’s some really great points there Mike and one of the things that you touched on too is that planning stage of how you’re going to roll it out I wanted to do a hot take here which is interesting to say that this mailbag was

20:43 interesting to say that this mailbag was a cry for manage self-service for much more structure however however it’s missing one critical factor in the questions a critical juncture okay what’s that and maybe this is a hot take in itself but really it’s the flow of data is going to dictate the workspace management and how self service is going to be deployed say that again to me one more time I think I got it flow of data is going to okay and you’re talking you’re thinking like potentially fabric items to semantic models semantic models

21:14 items to semantic models semantic models to apps or reports right right exactly who’s creating semantic models okay how how is the semantic model being created is in the first place is this already from a Federated bi team is this coming from everyone be able to create this or are we dealing in a situation where again we already have certified super awesome semantic models is that already the condition that we’re working in so that’s really going to structure in the policy on what we’re

21:45 to structure in the policy on what we’re doing in terms of workspace management and who’s gonna be creating what so to me I start there and I I almost starts and ends there in in terms of yes licensing is important when we’re talking about Pro premium obviously that’s a part of the factor me the critical factor is the semantic model flow or the the flow of data throughout fabric yeah but that like it’s interesting you said that but that that would elude to the fact that all people

22:16 would elude to the fact that all people could still be creating workspaces either or you are you limiting it right because right out of the right off right off the bat like you have to decide are you limiting who can create workspaces or are you managing who can create workspaces it’s not the content yeah well it’s who has the ability to do it so yeah I like this and I think I think this I think Licensing in this first part so I like what you’re so I think now we’re transitioning the topic to more like the explosion part of the

22:47 to more like the explosion part of the workspaces who can create them how much should we allow to create I I’m more comfortable I my my opinion here you guys can weigh in on this I’m more comfortable letting users create their own workspaces as needed if we’ve deployed something like domains if we’ve deployed something that we have control around certification of content if those two things are in place I’m less worried about all the content create being created in workspaces not as concerned about it so those those two

23:18 as concerned about it so those those two prerequisites I think are important for me to make sure that we lump users into groups those users are then creating workspaces and those workspaces are automatically getting tagged to appropriate departments or domains so we can quickly figure out who owns what content in the organization the certification part I think is incredibly important because certifying content I don’t really care how many workspaces you make I don’t really care how many reports you make there needs to be a threshold you need to meet in order to

23:48 threshold you need to meet in order to say something is certified and we can trust that data I don’t think you want to erode confidence in your organization by building a bunch of junk reports that don’t really mean anything or a lot of reports that are doing the same thing over and over again so I think the ability for you to certify things or go through a process of certification really weeds out a lot of the noise that potentially can be created in the company and you can strategically highlight important data sets or important semantic models that users should be using just kind

24:18 should be using just kind should be using just so just to reiterate what you said of so just to reiterate what you said yeah if the first question is is it a problem is increase increasing workspace exponentially right like everybody everybody can create workspaces there isn’t explosion whatever you’re saying that’s not a problem I don’t think it is you would say rely more on the certification process and and and government yes and the organization understanding that

24:48 the organization understanding that certain data is going to come out of certain workspaces cuz I don’t I don’t really want to stifle Innovation and I’ve see a lot of teams building really good things inside their environments they may not be perfect and also there’s a licensing story here right I don’t want everyone abusing a fabric capacity and overrunning the capacity and having us to pay a lot more money as an organization but we also don’t want to like restrain the organization to find what makes value to them and how they can answer their data stories in their departments and their team so I want to I’m I air on the side of more

25:19 want to I’m I air on the side of more openness but doing some clear controls around important things finding the content that is most popular most used most leverage in the organization and putting guard rails around that very premium or high quality content I I differ slightly but I think it’s more not so much on philosophy but I think we’re thinking in terms of size of volume and I’m thinking in terms of the size of the organization itself how much data they already have and who how what their

25:50 already have and who how what their resources are available myself I so because I would ER on the side of especially if we have a flow of semantic models and how important they are we already have that certified I’m I’m going to be a little more I don’t want 18 marketing workspaces or if anyone can create them I want to roll this out I don’t say slowly because but I also agree to no it does matter because then from a consumer point of hold on so from a consumer point of view that

26:21 from a consumer point of view that experience it’s subar and there’s another s word there that we we’ll PA we’ll use for after hour but is subpar if I have seven workspaces that are all slightly similar or I have content all similar but not the same and the report doesn’t have a purpose because anyone’s creating that from a report Innovation great awesome you created a new panel that switches out but consumer especially if we’re starting but you’re speaking you’re speaking to just wide open creation without any regard to what

26:51 open creation without any regard to what is in those seven or eight workspaces that you have that are marketing what’s certified who’s the domain owner have you identified owners of those contents in the workspaces and so if there’s a question to me this is all a delegation of responsibility if you’re creating that stuff and it’s trash there’s there’s policies the policies of the organization should be there’s only one or two owners of a workspace or admins those admins are the people that are responsible for the content coming out of that workspace and it’s so easy for things to get out of hand though quickly

27:21 things to get out of hand though quickly especially in a larger or so if I have a lot more liberal starting then it’s very hard to backtrack it’s very hard the hardest thing to get back from people’s trust or to backtrack data and access not disagreeing that’s why but that’s what my point that that’s my point exactly my point is certification and domains help you administer what content is being created that is the most valuable and it should bubble to the top powerbi is making data a commodity anyone can create it it’s going to be easier for everyone to use it I don’t know if I understand there’s no one

27:53 know if I understand there’s no one there’s no capability as one user or even the central bi team to know exactly what every reporting need is for every person in your organization it’s going to be impossible for one person to be

28:02 to be impossible for one person to be that knowledgeable about all the needs of your business so you’re going to have to let stuff happen sometimes yeah I I think I find myself in the middle here because if there’s there’s intentionality behind what you even said Mike right like I’m creating domains and then these people have to work within that domain sure they’re not going to know that right like inherently or people coming in so it’s like where does this structure of domain or

28:32 does this structure of domain or certified data or like you don’t know what you don’t know thing come in and I think that to me the middle ground here is allowing a group to create workspaces but it’s easy for people to get added to that group like we just you just it’s a request and along with that request you get the information about the context you need in in terms of hey you’re about to create objects within this domain

29:03 objects within this domain right here’s what you’re part of here’s the structure here’s certification here’s how the organization works so as you’re engaged in this fabric ecosystem you’re going to see a lot of things when you see certification this is what this means if you need to build something here’s the process you need to follow here are some standards that we’ve created that make workpace creation successful in different business units and areas you can follow this right and here’s why like we think that’s a good idea but here’s all the information you would need and now now you’re part of

29:33 would need and now now you’re part of that group now you can create workspaces right because that that at least pushes into the people that have the ability have at least the bare minimum of what we’re trying to do but it doesn’t put handcuffs on them and that’s what I would do and and I think I you guys know I’m coming from a point too where I’ve seen the rise and fall of powerbi Empires because this says leads and this says leads but they’re different and there’s no trust and I’ve seen that burn down people’s trust in in

30:03 seen that burn down people’s trust in in data itself and obviously the least path resistance but I’ve also been on the other end shouting from the rooftop there needs to be a better way of fluidity of data in an organization this goes to people then because we’re talking about the process the policy the number of workspaces this goes into the next question for me personally because the I’ve seen the hardest way to distribute content is when it’s very the the management of it is it and they’ve maybe dealt in the engineering side or

30:34 maybe dealt in the engineering side or they’ve dealt on it and they don’t have a grasp of the potential of powerbi it becomes very hard to get anything moving and I think so and I think that’s the next place to start where the people the resources here on who is driving the creation of workspaces and who’s creating models who’s creating these gold models is this people that are very far away from the business all it what’s the ideal approach I guess I I think there’s I

31:05 approach I guess I I think there’s I agree with you and we’re talking mean I agree with you and we’re talking about policies on things right as you guys are speaking about these things I I feel like there’s some policy pieces that are coming to mind here right one policy I think you’re hearing I’m hearing you say Seth and I would I would agree with this too right if you’re a new organization and you haven’t used parbi and we don’t have a data culture that’s robust it probably makes sense to lock down workspaces and not let anyone create them and only let a select few users or key users create workspaces so this can be roll out in a number of ways it could be managed solely by a central bi team

31:37 be managed solely by a central bi team or you can identify key Department leads in every Department you’re going to work with and work with the Department lead to identify okay Department lead you’re the one who’s in Creative you’re the one in charge of creating the workspaces for your team Department whatever area of business you’re the only one we’re going to allow to actually create things with that comes this responsibilities and list out we expect that all workspaces come with one or two admins we expect that you have a contact person on every single workspace when someone leaves your organization or moves on to a

32:07 your organization or moves on to a different department and you have abandoned or orphaned content someone will be reviewing that quarterly set some of those policies around that team member and I think those are pretty fair opened policies to say this is how we are going to manage the content or the workspace creation experience giving them still what they need create as many spaces as they want but yet still keeping some control not letting a wild proliferation of just hundreds of workspace just appearing quickly would you guys agree with that I would 1, 0%

32:41 you guys agree with that I would 1, 0% and I I I’ll touch on that because I love that so much that I think it deserves a bit of a re-emphasis here the roll out methodology or the approach here especially when you’re dealing with the lar ore works so well I’m not saying it’s the only way but I want to because the roll out stage allows you to Pilot allows you to understand the most critical needs in the org where hey we tried something but what we realized postmortem with this one team not the whole organization but this one department where we need to focus time

33:13 department where we need to focus time because we did not give more proper training to people or enough training enough time for them to build the right things we’re realizing nobody’s using it yet and the early stage approaches to powerbi and a manage selfservice roll out going team by team and also you out going team by team and also identifying a good candidate you know identifying a good candidate you know identifying a good candidate because not every Department’s know because not every Department’s equal in regards to the resources they have available rather than trying to do a much more Global launch at once so

33:43 a much more Global launch at once so if anyone’s in that stage look and I would focus on pilot and roll out because it really really can help in terms of identifying resources and identifying critical gaps that you make have before you launch this to the the greater greater organization in this question is there an is there a point around I wrote some more thoughts as you were talking there Tommy right one thing I think has not been talked about yet is the importance of monitoring the usage

34:14 the importance of monitoring the usage of said workspace if you don’t have a solid monitoring app that’s looking at a number of activities occurring per workspace how do which workspaces are going to be need to be maintained and how do which workspaces are the ones that need to be deprecated and turned off or notices need to be made look to your point Tommy sales and marketing you have eight workspaces that is higher than your average Department in your organization can you justify six people you you only

34:45 can you justify six people you you only have one person why do you have eight workspaces what’s going on and what can we do to turn that down and and turn that off so there’s there’s something there right so monitoring usage what I will also add here now is I’m been unpacking the whole git experience so GitHub and and integration that with Azure Azure devops in git every time you build a feature Branch for your workspace it creates it can create by default a new feature bran work workspace so just by the nature of doing development with

35:15 the nature of doing development with developers on a workspace particularly with using devops Integrations you could be spitting up just hundreds of workspaces that are purely copies of the main branch of code but each of these branches you could have let’s call for example here you have sales Dev you could have seven eight nine different branches on sales Dev of different developers building things for the sales team of different features not all of them will live on some of them you may kill some of them may get rid of some of them you may merge back into Main and then delete them so what I see from

35:46 then delete them so what I see from Microsoft right now the pattern of using devops to build on top of workspaces with Git is actually going to increase the usage of workspaces and they’re encouraging it and and I don’t think that’s wrong I just also think it’s important that we think about it and govern it appropriately I think I’m okay with it I’m okay with lots of workspaces being created especially in a development experience I’m gonna have to stop you because you mentioned the golden word and that’s get and we’re talking about self-service and I don’t know if that

36:17 self-service and I don’t know if that goes in the same dish not saying I’m not I’m talking about explosion of workspaces this is just another area of your development platform that you’re going to see a large proliferation I’m not going to want to make I do not want to submit a request for me every time I want to build a feature branch on top of something else now that’s just me the developer right I’m I’m on the upper echelon of self-service stuff I’m building my own things I’m making my own content like I’m on the I’m on the higher end of a very technical architect level stuff here not saying that’s wrong

36:47 level stuff here not saying that’s wrong but as that level there’s got to be some levels of permissions that are going to let the more educated or more not educated more skilled people do what they got to do they you don’t want to I don’t think I I certainly don’t think that workspace by workspace permissions should be granted like I think either you have the permission to create workspaces or you don’t right and that’s where I’m like should it be should you have the information regardless of where

37:18 have the information regardless of where you sit in your organization of how and why we create workspace yeah but it’s a trivial thing to go hey support I I

37:25 trivial thing to go hey support I I need I need to be added to this group group for workspaces workspace creation great here’s all the material and information you need go have fun right because then there’s a Gateway at least a checkpoint that says anybody who is creating workspaces has seen this material that’s important for them to understand and that’s all that you’re trying to do is like convey information not be a not be a blocker but but with that comes governance though right so I get it it doesn’t but that choice of a checkpoint

37:56 doesn’t but that choice of a checkpoint means you’re also you as an organization should absolutely be monitoring what these people are doing like you can’t have I wouldn’t think you would Implement any self-service without plans for how you monitor it because otherwi how are you going to help triage or support we just talked about that in a recent episode yeah and I I think this Dives very nicely into the next question in the mailbag and I’ll do it in the form of my father’s favorite band who are you who

38:26 father’s favorite band who are you who who who is it who’s creating this I was just that I just that point right now I really want to know does it anyone anyone yes it’s literally in the song song so no so but so who can create workspaces who should be allowed I think this is going to depend on your organizational whoa clamp down I think there’s going to be I think there’s going to be I I can’t give you a single answer on this one because it’s

38:56 single answer on this one because it’s going to depend on how organization handles us if you are a top- down centrally managed Organization no one can and it will have to be a ticket to open up a workspace that’s one option each each workspace each workspace becomes a ticket or or something along those lines right or there’s a form you fill out and say I’m going to submit my request and you can get back to you can get back to it within 24 hours of response time that those are things you can do I see organizations that used to be kind see organizations that used to be the way you wanted to handle it but of the way you wanted to handle it but now with all the proliferation of all these other experiences that are

39:26 these other experiences that are workspace driven any ways there’s also the opinion of looking at Key individuals across the organization and to your point Seth I don’t think having everything laning on Central Le managed teams is the way to go for most organizations some will do that I think there’s another pattern here where you delegate that to key leaders across different departments they are the ones that are responsible for the area again it’s delegation of responsibility I don’t want to manage everything they need the ability to create what they need to create in their areas and they’re the owner of them

39:58 areas and they’re the owner of them that’s okay the policies of our company say you are the admin of this workspace and if there’s any issues with these workspaces or how you’re not behaving again this is the point certification domains and monitoring are key things you need to have in place before you start doing these things because then you can say are you abusing the system or are you behaving within the system and then the last end here is letting larger amounts of area go into the organization meaning large group groups of people anyone can

40:28 large group groups of people anyone can start creating workspaces however I would put a very minimal barrier on that experience whereas there needs to be at least some training or here’s how we perspect how we perceive organizations with lots of creators of workspaces here’s what it means here’s what it means by responsibility of what you’re creating in those work workspaces here’s what you’re allowed to share what you’re not allowed to share oh and by the way if you don’t behave and you start sharing reports directly through the workspace by giving people direct links at as opposed to using apps and other

40:58 at as opposed to using apps and other things that’s not our policy we want to clamp down on those behaviors and we’re going to start pulling back your permissions and we we will remove your permissions if you don’t behave according to our policy so I think there’s at a minimum there’s a little training piece here around what you think is appropriate in your organization before you give full open access to everyone to create workspaces yeah there’s a few holes I I’m going to push back here and this is potentially where fireworks may fly you’re you’re to me you’re going into

41:29 you’re you’re to me you’re going into rational policy where people behave rationally and if and especially if I’m initially starting with even if I do training even if I do hey we’re gonna have a meeting about workspace policies and what a workspace is and the reason it should exist in the first place people especially on departments and teams and if I’m that far away from workspace creation especially if I have certified data and people can connect to it man you it’s going to be so hard to pull back when people start going off the the rails and that’s going to happen

42:01 the the rails and that’s going to happen even if you have hey you got to follow these procedures and this is an ideal State because you’re there’s an assumption here that with those people they are one spending enough time with some centralized team to do the proper training reoccurring meetings or on either monthly scale just to check in and their monitoring of that content even if you have a full scale solution of monitoring which we’ve talked about before does not come out of the box is

42:32 before does not come out of the box is really hard then to take away and workspaces are so critical and I don’t want to go back to the first one how many workspaces but man the people who can create this and understanding what workspaces are already out there matters so much here and I I will push back there because people especially in departments or teams unless again one of their roles and one of their responsibilities and the or not an extra extracurricular apologize for my pork you pig outside activities is

43:02 pork you pig outside activities is powerbi if this unless this is part of what they do I’m I’m not giving people access to workspace creation unless this is part of their role it’s an interesting point a couple one is I want to lean in I think I think I I resonate with what Mike was saying like you stress ownership and what ownership of the workspace means because there are responsibilities there and I think that curve CBS some of what you’re fearing Tommy because yeah fine somebody could

43:33 Tommy because yeah fine somebody could go through a process not read any of the material and just start creating workspaces and then a whole bunch of bad stuff starts happening right because they’re allowing people into the workspace they’re giving him full permissions blah blah blah blah whatever the fact of the matter is when they requested that that gets logged they’re the owner they’re responsible right and that’s why policies are in place in Oran you assume responsibilities for what is happening in this environment one of the things we

44:03 in this environment one of the things we haven’t talked about though that like makes me go is how how if if I’m a user and I I need a workspace created because I want to go do a bunch of stuff well obviously you don’t have permissions to see which workspaces are already created maybe you just need access to one that’s already there discoverability right how do you do how do you create I think there there needs to be some

44:36 discoverability which at the same time would probably remove a lot of the explosion Factor where somebody just needs access instead of actually creating a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy and the only people that know that are the are the admins right so I don’t know even Seth I really like your point there because there’s a huge blind spot to there is no discovery of we talk about like the data catalog and where does your data live and what things that are out there right you can share data sets into the data Hub and the data Hub

45:07 sets into the data Hub and the data Hub can span all data sets across all workspaces and you can even do really cool things like using again this is where domains I think plays really good role you can filter by domain here’s all my content that’s coming from the sales domain or the HR domain or the operations domain those are good places to tag workspaces to have them be in a similar fashion however to your point Seth which I think I really agree with here is discoverability of workspaces and what people created in there yes I can’t I can’t get access to the

45:38 can’t I can’t get access to the information but I don’t even know it exists so you we may have eight sales workspaces because each person is doing their own thing and what Tommy built in the sales team isn’t working for Rob and he’s not building something that Sally’s building and we have different people trying to build competing products instead of instead of having them all talk together they’re just going to build separate stuff and I don’t know if that’s a wrong I don’t know if that’s bad I don’t think there’s a there’s a problem with that other than the fact that you’re now not able to like there’s

46:09 that you’re now not able to like there’s nothing in the tool that lets you easily discover stuff like this it just doesn’t happen well I I think it stresses the importance of the team that is building certified things right or teams is very there is a clear path of vocalization of communicating that across the organization saying hey you out of here right because there’s always going to be there should be the team right follow those same processes and standards but it’s the team that I think we’re familiar with building creating managing right like so but that that is

46:42 managing right like so but that that is there has to be a lot of Education

46:43 there has to be a lot of Education around like you don’t care what you do in this ecosystem but the best stuff comes out of here Andor if you want to be in a state where you’re sharing things in a certified way out of your areas this is these are the requirements you absolutely must follow in order for something to be certified and that’s where I think that that comes into play the the other the other last part you can’t go go ahead and start talking I Tommy come on I I think I think just to

47:14 Tommy come on I I think I think just to address some of the other questions like the one app published in a workspace that’s no longer a thing right like so from have audien now yeah yeah for workspaces that are designed for sharing reports audiences work phenomenally in app I can have as many different apps technically right audiences in an app as I want to and control the flow of external sharing through that it’s still a single app it’s just what you see in the app is now different per users that are in that bucket of users yes I like that one I that one’s

47:45 yes I like that one I that one’s a mute point to me anymore I don’t really think that’s an issue and I don’t really hear people clamoring about oh man if I could only have one work space where I could just distribute this to different people I don’t think that’s a problem anymore and I know we’re getting your own time and I think Mike the really the only fundamental thing I disagree with you or differ with you today is the amount of workspaces and overlap is not necessarily a bad thing I think that’s a very poor thing for the consumer it’s it’s funny because we just had a conversation last week about support monitor content and one of the

48:17 support monitor content and one of the decisions you need to make is where do you start support consumer or content creator which goes into this a tad but to me if I have overlapping data or relevant data in different areas this that’s an incredibly poor experience the idea with the apps and the app audience goes in that favor too in terms of if you have the relevant content this should be in the same location rather than Marketing sales report sales and marketing report two different workspaces and that’s you’re just

48:47 workspaces and that’s you’re just it’s it’s being asked to occur if you have overlapping workspaces that don’t have a distinct purpose compared to one another and so that’s I think the out of everything we’ve talked about I really agree with I love everything we’ve talked about that’s the only place I think that I would divert from the but at the same time like I’m torn to I’m a guy who loves structure right but at the same time especially from a consumer perspective like everything is searched now right like hey go go look at this report it doesn’t matter what

49:18 at this report it doesn’t matter what app it’s in it doesn’t matter where it’s coming from I I don’t know horse a piece right like if you’re going to a different commercial app every I have three of them where’s my report yeah it’s it’s a little messy I would agree right can we consolidate that should probably be the conversation of like you should just have access to this workspace instead of creating your own set but I don’t I don’t know how you control that I and I don’t know if it’s worth trying to it’s harder to migrate

49:50 worth trying to it’s harder to migrate than than create well move content let me yeah I’m not going to disagree with mean I’m not going to disagree with these these points I I think there’s some ability to them again I I don’t one thing I do want to point out that you you mentioned Tommy that I thought was really useful here is another metric that we should be looking for here in especially monitoring behavior is we should be looking at any place any workspaces that have a high number of usage for viewing or exporting content those workspaces should be caring about and we should look at our organization and we should also say

50:21 organization and we should also say let’s have a par chart of the most used pieces of content in a in a in a bar chart and then do the top five 10% of those are those things certified and so if I’m if again if I’m if I’m really putting my money where my mouth is it’s we have a a wealth of information it’s like a pyramid there’s going to be a lot of trash at the bottom there’s going to be departmental reporting there’s going to be like Team level reporting there’s going to be departmental reporting

50:51 going to be departmental reporting there’s going to be Enterprise reporting using that pyramid that Matthew roach gave out is just immensely important the larger the audience of the content the more the content being used the more the content is being exported the more important it is to the organization and so in this workspace experience I’m very willing to allow Innovation to occur in the workspaces but I really need tight monitoring around what this is and to your point Seth I can’t discover what workspaces are out there this is a this is a job I think that is part of the

51:21 is a job I think that is part of the center of excellence they need to go build the monitoring app make sure that it runs and produce report reps that they share to all key leaders of the organization here’s the list of all workspaces here’s how much content’s being used like this should be organizational wide it should be easy to get this information to these leaders or or Department people because from that you’re able to make better decisions around okay who’s allowed to make the content how much content is being promoted into certified and if you have eight reports in the top five%

51:51 eight reports in the top five% that are not being certified you you better ask yourself a question why is that not being certified and what do we to do to go talk to those people or those teams to certify that content because it looks like it’s becoming a source of knowledge in the organization that fits the policy anyways last last comment here is do you have any versions around naming schemas of things naming for workspaces I use me personally I use a very rough naming schema right now I don’t use it by department at this point because

52:21 department at this point because you can you can do HR and abbreviations I don’t really like long workspace names because long workspace names get cut off in the UI and you can’t expand the UI so I’m an opinion I want short workspace names I also don’t like the word Dev test prod in them if I can help it I it does make sense when you’re doing deployment pipelines so U maybe I would use something like that but I really trying to use if I want to group workspaces together of a similar type I really want to use domains domains are great because domains can be filtered

52:52 great because domains can be filtered inside the workspace list so I really want to I’m finding more and more use cases as I’m diving into domains they’re being underutilized and they’re very helpful for managing organizing content so domains are you’re going to be your friend for a lot of workspaces and shoving those workspaces into domains and maybe a policy is every workspace needs to minimum get tagged with a with a domain minimum like that way I can filter out domain groups by types and start filtering the the the wealth

53:22 and start filtering the the the wealth of workspaces that are being created down to a reasonable level all right any pause there you guys have any thoughts on yeah I agree I think I think it’s something that you can do in that documentation that you’re sharing right like if there’s standardizations around abbreviations for business units because I agree I like shorter the better but the only way you get shorter is by abbreviating and I think with the proliferation of types of workspaces maybe it’s it’s useful to do more of like a a not prod or like shared like

53:55 like a a not prod or like shared like what is the workspace that’s going to be sharing content versus potentially building content right I think that is important so that you have like one like the business unit and then like one or two potential other abbreviations before whatever the name of the workspace is the only thing that naming standards like a they’re quick references to what’s in it I don’t have to go figure it out every single time right and that’s what’s great about them is you’re you’re sharing what you’re

54:25 you’re you’re sharing what you’re building is for the organization not just for yourself or your department right and that’s what naming standards help you do is figure out like hey we see this stuff oh it’s a it’s one of these that were all all of the consumers are ripping through all the things and that’s where the reports live that’s why we see this usage on it or this is our data Pipeline and these are the workspaces that we use with it and that’s why we see this sort with it and that’s why we see this activity okay that’s okay versus of activity okay that’s okay versus having to figure that out having to you having to figure that out having to sort out if there’s a problem or

54:55 know sort out if there’s a problem or not etc etc yeah and I think if we could probably do a whole another episode on naming conventions I’ll pause because I know we’re getting short on time if you want to hear us talk about it let us know but whole episode I think this is a good discussion I think I think we’re unpacking like work spaces are cool but we’re unpacking a little bit more of the mechanics of how do you roll it out the policies I think are important here short naming conventions true and naming conventions probably a whole other Episode by itself that being said thank you very much for your time today we appreciate your ears we know it’s

55:25 appreciate your ears we know it’s your time’s valuable thank you for spending an hour with us and hopefully this gave you some knowledge or at least some things to think about around policies and workspaces and how you want to roll that out in your organization Tommy where else can you find the podcast you can find us on Apple Spotify wherever your podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a rating it helps us out a ton you have a question idea or topic or workspace names that you want us to talk about in a future episode head over to power. tibp podcast leave your name and a great question and finally join us live every Tuesday and Thursday a. m. Central and join the

55:55 Thursday a. m. Central and join the conversation on all power. tips social media channels awesome thank you so much we appreciate your time and we’ll see you next time [Music]

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