Nikola Ilic

I'm making music from the data🎶 #PowerBI addict, Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Pluralsight Author, O'Reilly Instructor...Father of 2, Barça and Messi fan⚽

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

A moment of disbelief!

A little more than a year ago, when I started writing a book about #MicrosoftFabric, I couldn't have imagined that the day would come when I would have a physical copy in my hands...

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

My 27th @pluralsight course has just been released
Enterprise data breaks down when teams manage it in isolation. This course will teach you how to coordinate ownership, standards, metadata, and decisions across domains.

https://t.co/jW3vRIeEJW

[Towards Data Science @TDataScience]

If you're a Power BI fan who's been wary of using its functionality now that it's been incorporated into Microsoft Fabric, read @DataMozart's pragmatic guide to making the transition smooth and painless. https://t.co/t8Y5nxbXLA

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

Thank God I waited, since there were many cool new #MicrosoftFabric features in the meantime to support the article's plot (who said: IDENTITY columns☺️)

As a bonus point, it also includes my thoughts about where SCD Type 2 should sit in the medallion design pattern.

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

NEW BLOG POST!

I started writing this one months ago! And it was sitting in my drafts until I found time and energy to give it the treatment it deserves.

So, there you go, here is your ultimate guide for handling SCD Type 2 in Microsoft Fabric.

https://t.co/cBbe4TnZXS

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

2️⃣ Sunday, October 11th, Fabric Fast Track: From Data Foundation to AI Innovation
https://t.co/EzgQLNQMII

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

October is getting closer and another edition of #SummitNA!
I'll be delivering two full-day workshops in Nashville:
1️⃣ Saturday, Oct 10th, Power BI to AI: Building Agentic and Conversational Analytics with Fabric IQ

Seats are limited, book your place now: https://t.co/EzgQLNQMII

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

I've recently celebrated 6 years being a @pluralsight author! In the meantime, I've created 26 courses (with 27th on its way😎), mostly around #MicrosoftFabric, #PowerBI, #SQLServer.
Hence, it always makes me smile when I see learner feedback like this👇
https://t.co/2Fbu4lKP43

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

Almost there!

More than a year after @ShbWatson and I started writing our "Analytics Engineering with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI" book for @OReillyMedia, we are a few weeks away from finally seeing the book released!
You can already order it on Amazon:
https://t.co/J9MYlirwLL

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

NEW SUBSTACK ARTICLE!

Hardcoded values are the “cockroaches” of a data platform. Variable libraries in #MicrosoftFabric is THE feature to get rid of these annoying issues.

https://t.co/qmx6XAlZGR

[Claude @claudeai]

Claude Academy is now live.

Whether you're figuring out what AI is or already using Claude every day, there's a path that meets you where you are. The courses and tutorials are free and open to anyone at https://t.co/WRiSRAvK6l

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

If you wanted to learn how to build a production-ready lakehouse in #MicrosoftFabric in my full-day workshop at #FabCon...Well, I have bad news:(

Although more than 5 weeks until the event,the tutorial is already sold out!

Book tickets for a conference: https://t.co/rkje1cveeS

[Reza Rad #PowerBI #MicrosoftFabric #AI @Rad_Reza]

📣 Call for Speakers is OPEN! Power BI & Fabric Summit 2027 (7th year) — the biggest online gathering of the Power BI & Fabric community. MVPs, Microsoft team, experts — we want you on stage.

🗓️ 22–26 Feb 2027 | 🌍 100% virtual
⏰ Closes 11 Sep 2026
Submit 👇
https://t.co/pZ0oSmkDRj

#PowerBI #MicrosoftFabric #PowerBISummit #DataAnalytics #BusinessIntelligence #DAX #PowerQuery #DataEngineering #DataScience #MicrosoftMVP #CallForSpeakers #PublicSpeaking #DataCommunity #OneLake #DataWarehousing

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

Ready and set for the #eclipse...In the best possible place #Valencia

[Thariq @trq212]

We removed ~80% of the Claude Code system prompt for our newest models, this is what we've learned about writing system prompts, skills and Claude.MDs for them. https://t.co/6DZwSrZjE9

[Matt Pocock @mattpocockuk]

mattpocock/skills v1.2 is out!

We're now the 19th most-starred repo of all time. 13.5m downloads on skills​.sh. Thanks for your support!

Here's what's new:

- Docs: the community's biggest ask. Every skill documented, with explanations of the main flows + troubleshooting
- Claude Plugin: install via Claude's official marketplace
- Codex Support: full Codex support via agents/openai.yaml files

Updated Skills:

- /grilling now asks you questions in rounds, not one-by-one
- /prototype now uses HTML instead of a TUI for building logic prototypes - easier to share and far richer
- /writing-for-agents renamed from /writing-great-skills, use it for ANYTHING your agents read (AGENTS.md, system prompts, docs)

New Skills:

- /wizard: tired of provisioning infra? Get your agent to build you a TUI to walk you through it
- /to-questionnaire: hit a grilling question you can't answer? Turn the session into a doc you can walk through on a call with a colleague
- /wait-what: no idea what the model said? Refocus it in your domain language and simplify with ASD-STE100

Full changelog + docs below. Video soon!

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

AI-Native Data Engineering with Microsoft Fabric

On September 7th, I'll be running a live, 4-hour virtual workshop for all data engineers who want to level up their game in the era of AI.

https://t.co/LG6t9v3gwe

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

NEW BLOG POST!

Recently, I went down this rabbit hole twice within a week:)

If you’ve tried to check how much storage your #MicrosoftFabric warehouse tables consume, you’ve probably discovered that the usual SQL Server approaches don’t work.

https://t.co/AeZK7u1JpZ

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

NEW ARTICLE!

The medallion design pattern is probably the most widely adopted pattern of the lakehouse era, and in almost every implementation I've seen, all three layers are physically materialized.

But why exactly is the silver layer a set of tables?

https://t.co/0sO81zP3Qv

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

Are you considering becoming a certified #MicrosoftFabric Data Engineer?

I'll be running one of my most popular live bootcamps at @OReillyMedia on August 26th/27th. We cover every single skill measured in the DP-700 exam.

https://t.co/9ttJ3MkSvB

[Nikola Ilic @DataMozart]

The most expensive code your data team ships this year won't be written by a human.

It'll be generated by AI assistant. It'll look correct, but it'll quitely drop 14% of your rows because the join type was wrong. AI-assisted data engineering is here.

https://t.co/LG6t9v3gwe