Congratulations! You’ve determined that self-service with Tableau is a good fit for your reporting needs. It’s time to consider who will be using Tableau and what role is the best fit.
Every Tableau user is assigned a role based on how your organization will use the self-service capabilities, and the tasks you’ll be performing. Tableau tasks range from simple viewing of a dashboard to more complex tasks such as connecting to databases or data modeling.
Tableau defines three roles, each requires different access and security levels. Want to know if you are a Developer, Interactor or Viewer? Take the quiz and find out!
- Developer
- Interactor
- Viewer
The responsibilities of these user roles and how they use the SSA Tableau platform varies.
Developer Role
A Tableau Developer serves as a technical resource for specific departments or functional areas. Developers work within their respective areas to develop and modify reports and dashboards, provide connections to new and existing data sources, prepare data for use in Tableau, develop extracts, publish data sources and workbooks, develop custom scripts, coordinate releases of data and workbooks, as well as perform complex technical tasks such as integration with R.
The Developer is the department or group’s point of contact for IT for coordination, approvals, migration of data and workbooks between environments, as well as sign-offs prior to migration of objects to the production environment. In some cases, the Developer may also assume Interactor role responsibilities.
The role of a Tableau Developer in the SSA Program is to Design, Develop,Publish,Test and Troubleshoot Dashboards and Data Sources. Developer also acts as the primary point of contact from their department to communicate and co-ordinate with different stakeholders including Functional Users, Tableau Admin Team, Database Administrators, and Data Governance Team etc
Tableau Developer responsibilities include:
1. Preparing data for use by Tableau.
2. Establishing connections to Data Sources.
3. Adding or Creating Dimensions, Measures and Calculations.
4. Performing Data Modeling in Tableau Desktop.
5. Developing Workbooks and Hyper Extracts on Tableau Desktop.
6. Publishing Workbooks and Data Sources to Tableau Development and QA sites.
7. Refreshing Extracts on Development and QA sites.
8. Monitoring the status of extract schedules on QA site.
9. Performing Unit Testing on Development and QA sites.
10. Resolving any data or performance issues related to workbooks and data sources.
11. Cataloging measures and dimensions in Collibra.
12. Requesting access for Interactors and Viewers.
13. Follow up Managers for any required approvals.
14. Follow up with Interactors/Viewers to complete DocuSign attestations.
15. Obtain SVP/Chair/Dean Approvals to request access for P4 dashboards
16. Providing knowledge transfer and support to Interactors and Viewers.
17. Coordinating with Tableau Admin Team for Production Deployment.
18. Providing Tier 1 support for Tableau issues reported by departmental or group personnel.
19. Monitoring Usage Report of their Workbooks and Data Sources.
Interactor Role
Tableau Interactors serve as primary support for reporting needs within their own department or functional area. They are typically familiar with the business requirements associated with requests to create (or modify) new dashboards. Interactors perform their work using Tableau Server on the QA Site, which includes tasks such as developing new dashboards or modifying existing dashboards, adding or removing fields from existing views, as well as developing new calculations or metrics. Interactors can only connect the data sources that are already publsihed by the Developer on the Tableau Server. They cannot connect to new data sources or publish any new data sources to the Tableau Server.
Interactors work with the Developer to test reports and dashboards in the Quality Assurance (QA) environment. They are also responsible for identifying new requirements or changes to existing reports/dashboards and, also helping resolve any issues. Interactors may escalate complex issues to their assigned Developer.
The key responsibilities of the Interactor include:
- Develop new dashboards in the Tableau Server (QA)
- Perform ad-hoc analysis
- Coordinate user acceptance testing (UAT) of dashboards and provide their sign-off prior to requesting migration to the Production environment
- Identify new reporting requirements and changes for existing ones
Viewer Role
Tableau Viewers are the ultimate consumers of reports and dashboards that have been created by either a Developer or an Interactor. Viewers can only access specific dashboards relevant to their job function or department. They cannot develop or publish new dashboards, though they can request them from their assigned Developer.
A Viewer’s typical interaction with Tableau is limited to navigating to and viewing a dashboard. Such a user may also perform subsequent tasks such as making field selections for time periods, performing drilldowns, re-formatting a report display, or sharing reports with other authorized users.
The key responsibilities of the Viewer include:
- View and Test available dashboards
- Provide requirements and feedback to the Developers for creating or enhancing dashboards
- Participate in in User Acceptance Test (UAT) activities for the new dashboards prior to their migration to production
- Report issues to their Developer
The Role of IT in SSA
IT Enterprise Information and Analytics (IT EIA) plays an important role in SSA and provides the necessary infrastructure, process and guidance needed to operate the Tableau SSA environment. The goal of IT EIA is to maintain the appropriate balance of business autonomy and flexibility through self-service while ensuring the implementation of data safeguards and stewardship.
The responsibilities of IT include:
- Provide Tableau training and certification
- Provision Tableau licenses
- Prepare new enterprise data sources
- Administer Tableau application user access & security
- Manage content migrations across Tableau environments
- Provide Tier 2 support for issues
- Ensure overall health and maintenance of the Tableau platform