Use this guide as a checklist of tasks that must be completed when a report owner leaves their unit, or the university to ensure that reporting and access remains up to date and is not disrupted.
Licensing and Permissions are Crucial
- Both the person transferring and the person receiving the report must have a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User License. All faculty and staff at the university have access to a Power BI Pro license; student employees must purchase a Pro license.
- The new owner must be a member of the same workspace where the report resides.
- Initiating transfer must be done by the administrator or the current owner of the report. To fully transfer ownership, the new user will likely need admin rights to the workspace as well.
Data Source Access is Essential
- The new owner must have access to all data sources used in the report to function correctly.
- If the data source is a SharePoint connection, the new owner must have access to it. A SharePoint connection will break if it is not changed, and the owner leaves the organization.
- If a scheduled refresh is configured for the dataset, the new owner may need to reconfigure it after taking ownership.
- If row-level security or object-level security is implemented, the new owner needs to be configured to properly access the underlying data.
Communication is Key
- Ensure the new owner has the necessary skills and is ready to take on the responsibilities of managing the report.
- Discuss any specific nuances, maintenance tasks, and data sensitivity considerations related to the report.
- A meeting to walk the new owner through the report can clarify questions. If the new owner is not yet identified, create documentation and/or record a video to share.
Transferring Ownership
- Make the new owner the admin of the workspace.
- The new admin can take over ownership by copying the report or by using the ‘Takeover’ button on the dataset settings page in the Power BI service.
Important Considerations
- Sharing the report via a link or direct access allows others to view and interact with it, but they generally cannot edit it unless you grant editing permissions.
- Workspaces are for collaboration. Moving content (or publishing content) to a shared workspace allows others to easily make updates and have access.
- Without the necessary permissions, the transfer process will fail.