Welcome to the Pattern Catalog

This catalog contains 93 proven patterns for building workforce analytics solutions on Microsoft Fabric. Use these tools to explore, build, and implement analytics patterns.

How to Use This Catalog

  1. Technology Stack Tab: Select the technologies available in your environment. This filters patterns across all tabs.
  2. Browse Catalog Tab: Explore patterns by domain or search. Click any pattern to see full details and add it to your stack.
  3. Pattern Builder Tab: Compose a custom solution by adding multiple patterns. Check compatibility, review prerequisites, and export as JSON or Markdown.
  4. Use Case Blueprints Tab: Browse pre-built solutions designed for specific HR use cases. Load any blueprint into the builder to customize.

Key Concepts

Patterns: Reusable architectural solutions for specific analytics challenges (e.g., medallion architecture, DirectLake optimization).

Fabric Components: Technologies used in patterns (Lakehouse, Spark, Power BI, etc.). Your selections in the Technology Stack tab determine which patterns are available.

Prerequisites: Patterns may depend on other patterns. The builder shows compatibility warnings when prerequisites are missing.

Blueprints: Pre-designed combinations of patterns for complete use cases (e.g., Workforce Dashboard Foundation). Use blueprints as templates for your implementation.

Design Principles

  • Modular: Patterns are designed to work independently or in combination.
  • Scalable: Solutions support growth from pilot to enterprise scale.
  • Governance-First: Security, compliance, and data governance are built in.
  • People-Focused: Every pattern addresses real workforce analytics needs.

Support & Resources

For questions or to suggest new patterns, contact the WARLab team.

Technology Stack Configuration

Select the technologies available in your environment. Patterns requiring deselected technologies will be dimmed across Browse, Builder, and Blueprints tabs.

Core Storage
Lakehouse
Unified analytics store combining data lake flexibility with data warehouse structure. Supports Delta Lake format for ACID transactions.
Warehouse
SQL-based analytical data warehouse with T-SQL support for structured queries and reporting.
OneLake
Fabric's unified data lake — a single logical data lake for your entire organization with automatic indexing.
Delta Lake
Open-source storage layer providing ACID transactions, schema enforcement, and time travel on data lake files.
Compute & Processing
Spark Notebooks
Interactive PySpark/Scala notebooks for data engineering, transformation, and exploratory analysis.
Data Factory
Cloud-scale data integration service for building ETL/ELT pipelines with 100+ connectors.
Dataflow Gen2
Low-code/no-code data transformation using Power Query Online with 300+ data connectors.
BI & Reporting
Power BI
Business intelligence platform for creating interactive dashboards, reports, and data visualizations.
Semantic Model
Curated, business-friendly data layer with measures, relationships, and hierarchies for self-service analytics.
Direct Lake
High-performance query mode that reads directly from Delta Lake files without data import, combining DirectQuery speed with import-mode performance.
Paginated Reports
Pixel-perfect, print-ready reports designed for precise formatting and large dataset pagination.
AI & ML
MLflow
Open-source platform for ML experiment tracking, model versioning, and deployment management.
Azure OpenAI
Enterprise-grade access to GPT models for text generation, summarization, and reasoning tasks.
Azure AI Foundry
Unified platform for building, evaluating, and deploying AI models with responsible AI tooling.
Copilot Studio
Low-code platform for building AI-powered conversational agents with enterprise connectors.
Fabric Data Agent
Native Fabric item that converts natural language questions to SQL/DAX/KQL queries against your data.
Dataiku DSS
Visual data science and ML platform for collaborative model development, AutoML, and governed deployment.
Governance
Purview
Microsoft's unified data governance service for data cataloging, classification, lineage, and compliance.
Entra ID
Microsoft's identity and access management service (formerly Azure AD) for authentication and authorization.
Sensitivity Labels
Microsoft Information Protection labels that classify and protect data based on organizational policies.
Azure Key Vault
Cloud service for securely storing and managing encryption keys, secrets, and certificates.
Informatica EDC
Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog — automated metadata harvesting, data lineage, and sensitive data discovery across platforms.
Informatica Axon
Business-led data governance platform for data ownership, policy management, and stewardship workflows.
Informatica DQ
Informatica Data Quality — profiling, cleansing, standardization, and enrichment rules engine for data quality management.
Informatica DPM
Informatica Data Privacy Management — automated PII discovery, consent management, and privacy impact assessments.
Integration & Orchestration
Git
Version control for Fabric notebooks, pipelines, and semantic models via Azure DevOps or GitHub integration.
Deployment Pipelines
Fabric's built-in CI/CD for promoting content across dev, test, and production workspaces.
Power Automate
Low-code workflow automation for triggering actions, notifications, and approvals across Microsoft 365.
Data Activator
Real-time event processing that triggers actions when data conditions are met (alerts, emails, Power Automate flows).
Shortcuts
OneLake shortcuts that create virtual references to data in other locations without copying.
FileX
Managed file transfer (MFT) platform for secure, automated file movement between systems via SFTP/FTPS.
Apache Airflow
Open-source DAG-based workflow orchestration for scheduling and monitoring complex data pipelines.

Pattern Builder

Stack

Use Case Blueprints