Question

What are the differences between My Workspace and shared workspaces in Power BI?

I’m trying to understand the differences between My Workspace and shared workspaces in Power BI, particularly in terms of sharing, collaboration, and access control.

Answer 1

Here’s a comparison of My Workspace and shared workspaces in Power BI, focusing on sharing, collaboration, and access control:

My Workspace

• Personal Use: My Workspace is a personal space for individual users to create, test, and refine reports and dashboards before sharing them.

• Access Control: Only the user who owns the workspace has full control. No one else can access the content unless shared explicitly.

• Sharing: You can share reports and dashboards from My Workspace with specific individuals, but it is not intended for collaborative work with teams.

• Collaboration: Not designed for collaboration, as it is primarily a personal workspace.

• Content Publishing: Reports and dashboards can be shared with other users (view-only), but the full creation or editing permissions are restricted to the owner.

Shared Workspaces

• Team Collaboration: Shared workspaces are designed for collaborative work, allowing multiple users to create, edit, and manage reports, dashboards, and datasets.

• Access Control: Shared workspaces allow you to assign different roles such as Admin, Member, Contributor, and Viewer, providing granular control over who can edit, view, and manage content.

• Sharing: Content within shared workspaces can be shared with others or published to the Power BI service for wider access. Permissions are based on workspace roles.

• Collaboration: Multiple users can collaborate in real-time, editing, viewing, and managing the same content, making it suitable for team-based report development.

• Content Publishing: In shared workspaces, Admins and Members can publish content, while Viewers can only consume the published reports and dashboards.

Key Differences:

• Purpose: My Workspace is for personal use, while shared workspaces are for team-based collaboration.

• Access: My Workspace restricts access to only the owner, whereas shared workspaces allow various roles with different permissions.

• Collaboration: My Workspace is not intended for collaboration, while shared workspaces are built for team collaboration and content management.