Information for Tableau Developers

If you are new to LSE or Tableau please see the Introduction to Tableau and the ‘Getting Started’ guide for information before you continue reading the Information for Tableau Developers.

Once you have downloaded Tableau Desktop and received your licence key from DTS you will become a member of LSE’s community of Tableau Developers. You will be added to the Tableau Developer Channel of the Microsoft Teams Tableau site. You can use this to ask questions of other developers across the School and to access useful resources.

Tableau Developer Responsibilites

As a Tableau Developer you have a number of responsibilities:

  • Ensuring you install the correct version of Tableau Desktop and regularly update the version in line with the requirements of Tableau Server.
  • Attending Tableau Creator meetings every two months to keep abreast of the latest Tableau developments in the School.
  • Creating all your dashboards in line with the current School Visualisation Style Guide.
  • Ensuring your project folders are created and managed in line with current guidance from the BI Specialist.
  • Contributing constructively to discussions on the development and use of Tableau Server.
  • Ensuring your dashboards meet any GDPR and Accessibility guidance issued to Tableau Developers.
  • Ensuring bulk requests for Tableau Server users and groups contain relevant information for DTS.
  • Ensuring you read and implement the items in the good practice guides on the Tableau Developer channel of the Tableau Teams site.

Developers failing to meet their responsibilities may have their ability to publish to Tableau Server restricted.

Tableau Developer Resources

Using the style guide

Planning Division have responsibility for maintaining the School Visualisation Style Guide for Tableau. If you need help implementing the style guide please contact planning.division@lse.ac.uk and they will be happy to support your use of the guide in your own dashboards.

Key elements of the style guide are stored in the files area of the Tableau Developer channel of the Microsoft Teams Tableau site including LSE colour palettes (via the preferences.tps file) and key images such as the LSE square logo, filter and menu buttons etc.

Guidance Documents

A range of guidance documents for Tableau Developers are stored in the files area of the Tableau Developer channel of the Microsoft Teams Tableau site covering topics such as: Setting up Tableau Projects; Deletion Schedules; Setting up your tableau preference files.

Example Dashboards

Not all dashboards are available to all users but the following dashboards show some example implementations of the style guide.

  1. League Tables
  2. Actual and Target Registrations
  3. School Census Summary
  4. NSS Survey Data

 

Training

The Information Lab

The Information Lab is LSE’s provider of Tableau Services. They facilitate the purchase of Tableau licences and support our implementation as well as providing training and advice.

The following resources from The Information Lab can help you develop your skills and knowledge.

The Information Lab - Training

The Information Lab Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/theinformationlab/featured) for Information Lab webinar recordings.

The Information Lab email training program - these are regular emails covering key learning topics for new Alteryx and Tableau users: Creator (http://til.bi/creator): 14 days covering key topics such as mapping, intro to calculations, parameters, working with time series data and more.

The Information Lab meetup group (https://www.meetup.com/Lets-talk-Data/events/) for classroom training and live webinars, events and more, everyone is welcome.

The Information Lab have developed a Learning Hub for self-directed study.  Please contact planning.division@lse.ac.uk for information on how to access this resource.

For specific data issues the Information Lab also have a Centre of Excellence platform called Convo. If you would like access to Convo please email the BI Specialist in DTS via tech.support@lse.ac.uk so that they can request The Information Lab add you to the Platform. This works in a similar way to our own developer Teams site as a place you can post questions. Note: Do not share real data outside of LSE - only provide dummy data with any queries to ensure you do not break any Data Protection or GDPR guidelines. If you need assistance in establishing what can be shared please consult our records management team via email (glpd.info.rights@lse.ac.uk).

Other Useful websites

https://www.tableau.com/learn/training/20204