Development Desktop

One of the great things about the Microsoft development tools is that you can keep your desktop up-to-date, yet still develop for older SQL Server platforms. Unlike some earlier releases, Visual Studio 2017 is extremely stable, so we highly recommend upgrading your desktop tools to this version.

Minimum Toolset

As a minimum, you will need to have the following installed on your desktop machine:

• Visual Studio 2017
• SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for Visual Studio adds support for Analysis Services, Integration Services and Reporting Services to Visual Studio
• SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
• BI Developer Extensions for Visual Studio (formally BIDS Helper)

T-SQL Development Tools

Apart from SSDT and SSMS outlined above, you may consider extending your toolset with the following:

• RedGate SQL Search a free tool to search your SQL code on your deployed databases

• RedGate SQL Toolbelt Essentials a paid for toolset which encompasses 10 tools including:

  • SQL Prompt which helps you write, format, analyze and refactor your SQL effortlessly
  • SQL Schema Compare
  • SQL Data Compare
  • SQL Data Generator
  • NOTE: Do not make the mistake of using SQL Source Control product as this works counter to how SSDT operates.

SSIS Development Tools

We strongly recommend developing all your new SSIS packages using BIML. Cathrine Wilhelmsen has published many blogs and useful guides to BIML development on her web site.

• Varigence BIML Express extension for Visual Studio

SSAS Tabular Cube Development Tools

• BISM Normalizer for
• DAX Studio for DAX query development
• Tabular Editor alternative editor to Visual Studio

Test Development Tools

• SSDT Unit Tests simple test framework built into Visual Studio but often overlooked
• tSQLt open source database unit testing framework for SQL Server
• NBi open-source framework for testing your Business Intelligence solutions
• SpecFlow is an extensible test framework which supports natual language test development

BI Visualization Tools

• Microsoft Power BI
• Develop R visualization in Power BI

Other Tools

• Microsoft Power Platform combines Power BI, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, and Common Data Service for Apps into an integrated toolset you can use to extend, customize, and integrate Office 365 and Dynamics 365 into your environment.
• Beyond Compare 4 is great for comparing auto-generated files with each other