New Certification: Microsoft Certified Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate
Microsoft has created a new certification, the Microsoft Certified Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate (link here). There is a single exam with a pass rate of 70%: Exam DP-500: Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI (beta) (link here). The exam is due to be released into beta min-April.
“Candidates for the Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate certification should have subject matter expertise in designing, creating, and deploying enterprise-scale data analytics solutions.” Microsoft
It’s an interesting certification as it spans multiple Azure data services including Power BI, Synapse Analytics, Purview, DevOps, Data Lake Gen2, and external Power BI tools.
The certification overview is here. Below is a breakdown of the exam requirements and links to learning resources. There is a role relationship diagram to show who works with the Azure Enterprise Data Analyst. I’ve also created a basic architecture diagram to show how the services are linked together after reading through the skills measured.
Who is this certification aimed at? What role does the person who takes this certification play in an organisation? What does an Azure Enterprise Data Analyst do, according to Microsoft? Let’s break the certification down.
There is a video on YouTube in which I give my thoughts on the new certification here.
Responsibilities include…
- Performing advanced data analytics at scale
- Cleaning and transforming data
- Designing and building enterprise data models
- Incorporating advanced analytics capabilities
- Integrating with IT infrastructure
- Applying development lifecycle practices
These professionals help…
- Collect enterprise-level requirements for data analytics solutions that include Azure and Power BI
- They also advise on data governance and configuration settings for Power BI administration
- Monitor data usage
- Optimize performance of the data analytics solutions
Candidates should have…
- Advanced Power BI skills
- Managing data repositories & data processing in the cloud and on-premises
- Power Query and Data Analysis Expressions (DAX).
- Proficient in consuming data from Azure Synapse Analytics
- Experience querying relational databases
- Analyzing data by using Transact-SQL (T-SQL)
- Visualizing data
Collaboration
Who does the Azure Enterprise Data Analyst work/collaborate with? Below is a list of the roles that Microsoft has identified as being relevant to this role.
Data Platform Services
From looking at the skills measured, we can build up a picture of how the services work together.
Skills Measured
There are 4 main categories of skills being measured with 49 discrete skills. Below is a list of skills within each category. There are links to Microsoft documentation and Learn material relevant to each skill.
- Implement and manage a data analytics environment (25–30%)
- Query and transform data (20–25%)
- Implement and manage data models (25–30%)
- Explore and visualize data (20–25%)
Microsoft have put together some relevant Learn collections which you can find links to below. Please reach out on Twitter with any amendments you feel represent the skills measured.
Collections – 23110622 | Microsoft Docs
Collections – 23110622 | Microsoft Docs
Collections – 23110622 | Microsoft Docs
I have started to add links to relevant learning resources for each of the skills measured.
Implement and manage a data analytics environment (25–30%)
Govern and administer a data analytics environment
| Skill | Learning |
| Manage Power BI assets by using Azure Purview | Docs | Wolfgang Strasser |
| Identify data sources in Azure by using Azure Purview | Docs | Learn |
| Recommend settings in the Power BI admin portal | Docs | Learn | Learn |
| Recommend a monitoring and auditing solution for a data analytics environment, including Power BI REST API and PowerShell cmdlets | Docs | Docs |
Integrate an analytics platform into an existing IT infrastructure
| Skill | Learning |
| Identify requirements for a solution, including features, performance, and licensing strategy | Docs | Docs |
| Configure and manage Power BI capacity | Docs | Learn |
| Recommend and configure an on-premises gateway in Power BI | Docs | Docs | Learn |
| Recommend and configure a Power BI tenant or workspace to integrate with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 | Docs |
| Integrate an existing Power BI workspace into Azure Synapse Analytics | Docs | Learn |
Manage the analytics development lifecycle
| Skill | Learning |
| Commit code and artefacts to a source control repository in Azure Synapse Analytics | Docs |
| Recommend a deployment strategy for Power BI assets | Docs | Docs |
| Recommend a source control strategy for Power BI assets | Havens Consulting with Steve Campbell |
| Implement and manage deployment pipelines in Power BI | Docs |
| Perform impact analysis of downstream dependencies from dataflows and datasets | Docs |
| Recommend automation solutions for the analytics development lifecycle, including Power BI REST API and PowerShell cmdlets | Docs |
| Deploy and manage datasets by using the XMLA endpoint | Docs |
| Create reusable assets, including Power BI templates, Power BI data source (.pbids) files, and shared datasets | Templates, PBIDS, Shared Dataset |
Query and transform data (20–25%)
Query data by using Azure Synapse Analytics
| Skill | Learning |
| Identify an appropriate Azure Synapse pool when analyzing data | Docs | Docs |
| Recommend appropriate file types for querying serverless SQL pools | Docs | Learn |
| Query relational data sources in dedicated or serverless SQL pools, including querying partitioned data sources | Docs | Docs |
| Use a machine learning PREDICT function in a query | Docs | Docs |
Ingest and transform data by using Power BI
| Skill | Learning |
| Identify data loading performance bottlenecks in Power Query or data sources | Docs |
| Implement performance improvements in Power Query and data sources | Docs |
| Create and manage scalable Power BI dataflows | Docs |
| Identify and manage privacy settings on data sources | Docs, Docs |
| Create queries, functions, and parameters by using the Power Query Advanced Editor | Docs, Functions, Parameters |
| Query advanced data sources, including JSON, Parquet, APIs, and Azure Machine Learning models | JSON, Machine Learning |
Implement and manage data models (25–30%)
Design and build tabular models
| Skill | Learning |
| Choose when to use DirectQuery for Power BI datasets | Docs |
| Choose when to use external tools, including DAX Studio and Tabular Editor 2 | Docs |
| Create calculation groups | Docs, SQLBI |
| Write calculations that use DAX variables and functions, for example handling blanks or errors, creating virtual relationships, and working with iterators | Variables, Functions, IFERROR, USERELATIONSHIP |
| Design and build a large format dataset | Docs |
| Design and build composite models, including aggregations | Composite Models, Aggregations |
| Design and implement enterprise-scale row-level security and object-level security | RLS, OLS |
Optimize enterprise-scale data models
| Skill | Learning |
| Identify and implement performance improvements in queries and report visuals | |
| Troubleshoot DAX performance by using DAX Studio | SQLBI, SQLBI |
| Optimize a data model by using Tabular Editor 2 | Tabular Editor |
| Analyze data model efficiency by using VertiPaq Analyzer | FourMoo, SQLBI |
| Implement incremental refresh | Docs |
| Optimize a data model by using denormalization | Docs |
Explore and visualize data (20–25%)
Explore data by using Azure Synapse Analytics
| Skill | Learning |
| Explore data by using native visuals in Spark notebooks | Docs, Docs |
| Explore and visualize data by using the Azure Synapse SQL results pane | MS YouTube |
Visualize data by using Power BI
| Skill | Learning |
| Create and import a custom report theme | Docs |
| Create R or Python visuals in Power BI | Python, R |
| Connect to and query datasets by using the XMLA endpoint | Docs |
| Design and configure Power BI reports for accessibility | Docs |
| Enable personalized visuals in a report | Docs |
| Configure automatic page refresh | Docs |
| Create and distribute paginated reports in Power BI Report Builder | Docs |
Just in time. Was looking for some info on this certification and found your article. Looks interesting and relevant to me.
I saw that Microsoft is yet to update with the “Learn” resources specific to this certification
May be they will do it post April 19th?
I hope MS will have some specific learning paths set up for the DP-500 exam. Here’s hoping that by the time the exam is out of beta, there are structured learning paths available.