Power BI Dashboards for Monitoring and Evaluation Training Course

Course overview

Monitoring and evaluation teams must turn dispersed programme data into timely evidence for donor reports, management reviews, field decisions and adaptive programming. Yet indicator data often sits across Excel workbooks, Kobo exports, DHIS2 extracts and partner submissions, with inconsistent definitions, missing disaggregation and manual reporting cycles. This course addresses the practical challenge of designing Power BI dashboards that show whether activities are being delivered, outputs are being achieved, outcomes are changing and data quality concerns require action.

Participants learn to build decision-ready M&E dashboards in Power BI Desktop and publish governed reports through Power BI Service. The course covers indicator frameworks, results chains, baseline-to-target tracking, disaggregation by sex, age, disability, location and population group, trend analysis, geographic reporting, data-quality checks and donor-facing performance views. Participants use Power Query to clean and combine programme data, create DAX measures for achievement rates and variance analysis, and design drill-through pages that let users move from portfolio-level results to project, location and indicator detail.

Delivery combines instructor demonstrations, guided dashboard builds, humanitarian and development case data, peer design reviews and structured troubleshooting clinics. Each participant develops a working M&E dashboard solution using a realistic programme dataset, including a data model, indicator calculation logic, report pages, audience-specific navigation and a publication plan. They leave with reusable dashboard patterns and a documented approach for applying Power BI to their organisation's M&E reporting cycle.

The course is designed for M&E professionals, programme managers, data analysts and reporting staff who already work with programme indicators and need to produce trusted, interactive evidence products rather than static reporting packs.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design a Power BI data model that links activities, outputs, outcomes, targets, locations and disaggregation dimensions
• Transform programme monitoring data using Power Query cleaning, standardisation, unpivoting and append operations
• Build DAX measures for cumulative achievement, target attainment, variance, reporting completeness and period-to-period change
• Create indicator dashboards that distinguish output delivery, outcome progress, reach and data-quality exceptions
• Configure drill-through, slicers, bookmarks and tooltips for portfolio, project, geographic and indicator-level investigation
• Visualise sex, age, disability and location disaggregation without misleading totals or suppressed-data breaches
• Publish and manage Power BI Service workspaces, refresh schedules, access permissions and stakeholder report distribution
• Produce a documented M&E dashboard prototype with indicator definitions, calculation rules and an implementation roadmap

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Monitoring and Evaluation Officers — who need to convert indicator datasets into routine management dashboards
• M&E Managers — who oversee results frameworks and need consistent performance views across projects
• Programme Managers — who need to identify delivery bottlenecks, underperforming locations and target gaps
• Data Analysts — who prepare programme data and need advanced Power BI modelling and DAX methods
• Reporting and Grants Officers — who compile donor performance reports and need traceable indicator calculations
• Humanitarian Information Management Officers — who need interactive situation, response and coverage reporting

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable working with Excel tables and understand core M&E concepts including logframes or results frameworks, indicators, baselines, targets, actuals, disaggregation and reporting periods. Prior experience preparing monitoring datasets, checking indicator values or producing narrative reports is strongly recommended. Participants should have basic familiarity with Power BI Desktop, including importing a file and creating a simple visual; this is not a first-time Power BI course. They need access to a Windows laptop able to run Power BI Desktop. Advanced statistics, coding, database administration and previous DAX expertise are not required.

Training methodology

The instructor uses a running development and humanitarian programme case, from raw partner monitoring files through to a published management dashboard. Short demonstrations introduce each Power BI feature, followed by individual builds in Power BI Desktop and instructor-supported troubleshooting. Participants clean indicator extracts, model results-framework data, write DAX measures and test visuals against realistic management questions. Small groups critique dashboard layouts for programme managers and donors, then refine their own prototype. The final session includes an application-planning workshop covering source systems, refresh ownership, indicator governance and rollout priorities.

Course outline

Day 1: M&E dashboard foundations and data architecture

• Decision questions for programme, portfolio and donor dashboard audiences
• Results chains, logframes and the structure of indicator reporting data
• Fact and dimension tables for projects, indicators, periods, locations and population groups
• Star schema design for monitoring data in Power BI
• Target, baseline, actual and cumulative-value data structures
• Indicator reference tables and metadata fields for calculation governance
• Power BI Desktop workspace, report canvas and data model workflow

Workshop: Participants map a programme results framework into a Power BI star schema and produce a draft data-model diagram.

Day 2: Preparing programme data with Power Query

• Importing Excel monitoring files, CSV extracts and folder-based partner submissions
• Power Query data profiling for nulls, duplicates, invalid dates and inconsistent categories
• Standardising indicator codes, project names, locations and reporting periods
• Unpivoting wide indicator trackers into analysis-ready transaction tables
• Appending monthly submissions and merging lookup tables
• Creating data-quality flags for missing disaggregation and out-of-range values
• Query parameters and refresh-ready transformation design

Workshop: Participants transform fragmented partner indicator files into a single validated monitoring table with documented data-quality flags.

Day 3: DAX measures for results monitoring

• DAX evaluation context for M&E indicator calculations
• Measures for actuals, targets, baselines and cumulative progress
• Achievement-rate and target-variance calculations
• Time-intelligence measures for monthly, quarterly and year-to-date reporting
• Safe aggregation methods for percentages, ratios and non-additive indicators
• Measures for reporting completeness and overdue submissions
• Calculation validation against source reports and indicator definitions

Workshop: Participants build and validate a measure library for target attainment, cumulative reach, variance and reporting completeness.

Day 4: Designing decision-ready M&E dashboards

• Executive dashboard layouts for delivery status, results and management exceptions
• Visual selection for outputs, outcomes, targets, trends and geographic coverage
• Disaggregation analysis by sex, age, disability, location and population group
• Conditional formatting and exception thresholds for underperformance
• Drill-through pages for project, indicator and location investigation
• Bookmarks, buttons and audience-specific report navigation
• Maps, privacy considerations and suppression rules for sensitive data

Workshop: Participants create a multi-page M&E dashboard with an executive summary, disaggregation page and indicator drill-through view.

Day 5: Publishing, governance and implementation

• Power BI Service workspaces, apps and report-sharing options
• Dataset refresh planning for programme reporting cycles
• Row-level security concepts for country, partner and project access
• Dashboard quality assurance and user acceptance testing
• Indicator governance, change control and version documentation
• Performance tuning for larger monitoring datasets
• Dashboard adoption planning for review meetings and donor reporting

Workshop: Participants present their completed M&E dashboard prototype and produce a 90-day implementation plan covering data sources, ownership, refresh and user rollout.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Power BI Desktop, Microsoft Power BI Service, Microsoft Power Query, DAX

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions