{"id":21566,"date":"2020-01-28T12:21:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T12:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/tableau"},"modified":"2026-09-28T10:45:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T10:45:03","slug":"tableau","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/tableau","title":{"rendered":"Tableau"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad alignright wp-image-15010 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/tableau-1.png\" alt=\"Tableau\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/tableau-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/tableau-1-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tableau is a visual analytics and business intelligence platform for connecting, exploring, and representing data, creating interactive worksheets, and combining them into dashboards for analysis and monitoring.<\/strong> It can work with files, databases, data warehouses, business applications, and cloud services.<\/p>\n<p>In analytics, the term Tableau identifies the tool and its product family for preparing visualizations, reports, and dashboards. Its purpose is to turn data sources into understandable analyses and make them accessible through dashboards.<\/p>\n\n<h2>From data to dashboard<\/h2>\n<p>The process begins by connecting a source and defining how its data should be interpreted. Tableau can use a single table or models with relationships, joins, and unions across multiple tables. The quality of the result depends on dimensions, measures, dates, levels of detail, and calculations accurately representing the process under analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Worksheets are built on this model. Each worksheet contains a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/data-visualization\">data visualization<\/a>, such as a chart, table, map, or indicator. Several worksheets can be combined in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/dashboard\">dashboard<\/a> to provide a coordinated view and allow an interaction to affect multiple views.<\/p>\n<p>A typical Tableau workflow includes these stages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Connection:<\/strong> Select files, databases, platforms, or published data sources.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Preparation:<\/strong> Review field types, names, relationships, joins, and required transformations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Analysis:<\/strong> Create calculations, hierarchies, groups, sets, and parameters to answer specific questions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Visualization:<\/strong> Design worksheets with charts and tables suited to each comparison, distribution, or trend.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Composition:<\/strong> Bring worksheets into a dashboard with filters, legends, text, and navigation objects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The connection can query the source live or use an extract. <strong>This choice affects refresh, performance, and administration<\/strong>: a live connection depends on the availability and speed of the source system, while an extract must be refreshed at an appropriate frequency.<\/p>\n<h2>Dashboard construction<\/h2>\n<p>A Tableau dashboard combines worksheets and objects on a canvas. Its design should establish a clear hierarchy, leave room for context, and show only the controls required by its audience. Adding charts without a shared question may produce a collection of views, but not a coherent dashboard.<\/p>\n<p>Tableau provides several resources for exploring a dashboard:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Filters:<\/strong> Restrict the period, segment, region, product, or another dimension being examined.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Filter and highlight actions:<\/strong> Use a selection in one view to update or emphasize data in others.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Parameters:<\/strong> Let users change values involved in calculations, references, or presentation alternatives.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Navigation:<\/strong> Connect dashboards, worksheets, and related resources within a workbook.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Contextual information:<\/strong> Add titles, legends, annotations, and tooltips that explain metrics and units.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Canvas size, information density, and object behavior should be tested on the intended devices. <strong>An interactive dashboard also needs readability, contrast, alternative text, and an understandable navigation order<\/strong>; interactivity does not replace accessibility.<\/p>\n<h2>Publishing and collaboration<\/h2>\n<p>The Tableau family separates analysis authoring, data preparation, and distribution. Product names may evolve, but these environments perform different functions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tableau Desktop:<\/strong> An authoring application for connecting data and building visualizations, workbooks, and dashboards.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tableau Prep:<\/strong> An environment for combining, cleaning, and transforming data before analysis.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server:<\/strong> Options for publishing content and managing users, permissions, sources, and refreshes through managed hosting or self-managed infrastructure.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tableau Public:<\/strong> A service for creating and sharing public visualizations, not for confidential information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When content is published, the organization must define who can view, edit, download, or reuse each resource. It must also control credentials, source permissions, and refresh schedules. <strong>Sharing a dashboard does not by itself provide the correct access or ensure that everyone interprets its metrics in the same way.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tableau.com\/products\/desktop\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">official Tableau Desktop download<\/a> can be used to try the authoring environment. Licensing, hosting, administration, and training requirements should be reviewed before a wider deployment.<\/p>\n<h2>Applications in analytics and BI<\/h2>\n<p>Tableau can form part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/business-intelligence\">business intelligence<\/a> architecture, but it does not replace integration, governance, or metric definitions. Its primary role is to support visual exploration and distribute results through reports and dashboards.<\/p>\n<p>Common applications include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Marketing and digital analytics:<\/strong> Monitoring acquisition, campaigns, behavior, conversions, and content performance.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sales and finance:<\/strong> Analyzing revenue, forecasts, margins, pipeline, budgets, and variances.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Operations:<\/strong> Tracking capacity, inventory, time, quality, incidents, and service levels.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Geographic analysis:<\/strong> Representing results by area, route, or location when the data contains a valid spatial dimension.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The tool can help identify changes, relationships, and exceptions, but <strong>a visualization alone does not demonstrate causation<\/strong>. Decisions should consider how the data was collected, which population it represents, and which technical or commercial changes may explain the result.<\/p>\n<h2>Governance and evaluation<\/h2>\n<p>The ease of creating views can multiply versions of the same metric. For Tableau to remain useful, the team needs rules for sources, definitions, permissions, publication, and content retirement.<\/p>\n<p>The most relevant controls are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Certified sources:<\/strong> Identify reviewed datasets and the people responsible for maintaining them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Common definitions:<\/strong> Document formulas, filters, units, periods, and attribution criteria.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Minimum permissions:<\/strong> Restrict access according to roles and the sensitivity of the information.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Performance:<\/strong> Monitor queries, extracts, calculations, view count, and data volume.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lifecycle:<\/strong> Review duplicate, obsolete, or unowned dashboards and retire them in a controlled manner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tableau does not correct incomplete data, poorly defined models, or ambiguous indicators.<\/strong> The platform also requires licenses, administration, maintenance, and learning. Its suitability depends on the volume and complexity of the analysis, the number of users, available infrastructure, and collaboration needs.<\/p>\n<p>Compared with a spreadsheet, Tableau is designed for visual exploration and for publishing and reusing interactive dashboards. A spreadsheet is more direct for editing cells, applying ad hoc formulas, or maintaining small tabular models. Many workflows use both tools together.<\/p>\n<h2>Origins and evolution<\/h2>\n<p>Tableau emerged from a Stanford University research project and was founded in 2003 by Chris Stolte, Pat Hanrahan, and Christian Chabot. Its VizQL technology translates visual drag-and-drop actions into queries, bringing data exploration and representation together in the same interface.<\/p>\n<p>Salesforce acquired Tableau in 2019. <strong>The company and platform have since formed part of the Salesforce ecosystem<\/strong>, while Tableau retains its identity as a product for visual analytics, dashboard creation, and information distribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tableau is a visual analytics platform for connecting data and building interactive dashboards. Learn how it works, its uses, and limitations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":80899,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[991,408],"class_list":["post-21566","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-dashboards-bi","encyclopedia-tag-web-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/21566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=21566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}