Moving to Fabric doesn't mean migrating everything over a weekend. The right approach is to build new workloads on Fabric without breaking existing reports.
01. The Reason First
Write in one sentence why you're moving to Fabric: have refresh times grown, has data volume increased, are you combining multiple sources? Without a clear reason, migration only adds cost.
02. Take Inventory
List existing workspaces, datasets, refresh frequencies and owners. Cleaning up unused reports at this stage usually reduces the load to be migrated significantly.
03. A Pilot Area
Start with a single subject area; sales reporting is a good candidate. Move the data into the lake, build the star schema, connect the report with Direct Lake and compare performance with the old one.
04. Run in Parallel
Run the old and new report side by side during the pilot. When the numbers agree, the old one is retired. Skip this step and business units never trust the new report.
05. Permissions and Governance
Data moved into the lake can mean data previously hidden inside a report is now open to wider access. Row-level security rules should be reviewed as part of the migration.
06. Team Capability
Fabric asks for more data engineering knowledge than Power BI. Put training or external support into the plan from the start; skip that step and the platform gets bought but not used.