Testing and Product Process in Tableau Server

I'll start off by saying that when using Tableau Sever (Especially enterprise core models), the management of the 'Reporting Asset Pipeline' if-you-will, is a crucial process for any decent task workflow.  In my mild (couple years) experience with various industries and clients it is a conversation to have at time of consideration when Buying Tableau Server.  If you are finding yourself in the situation where you must create this process with an existing hierarchy of 'junk' already being thrown about in your data server this can be difficult.

A few quick answers to help you get organized:

• How do you make updates to previously deployed dashboards?
  • Depending on the need/use for the dashboard I will just publish it to a DEV or TEST (site/project depending on your server structure) and append my initials to the end of the file name [ex: Testworkbook-jk.twbx].  I use this when I need some specific changes that have been made to be approved or looked at by a client at which time the client (who has rights to edit my published material) will usually just publish that exact workbook without my initials to it -- this is overtop of the original one and will later navigate back to the DEV/TEST-project/site and remove the old one.  I also will make a local copy of my altered workbook with my initials and date of when I created/made changes.
  • Another option that is for systematic updates is to use the built in scheduler for data and extract refreshing in server.
  • If it is not a data issue but rather a dashboard design/ad hoc analysis complication, I would create a separate site or project in the server for everyone to drop their in-progress works and have a file naming convention that allowed each user to keep track and replace as needed while still allowing others to find and see their progress in a central location.  (i.e. testdashboard_draft/ver1.twbx, etc...)
  • Again it changes according to the needs of the business, the users and workflow constraints (data securities, turn-around-time, authoring rights, etc...).
• How do manage the revisions of these dashboards?  Does Tableau have method of keeping a version of each workbook?
  • Like my first response above if you have a separate area in your Tab Server you can manage version control with simple but uniform naming convention, or use the landing area as a historical record of everything and only publish to a different Project/Site when the changes are 'ready-to-deploy'.
• How do you deploy an updated dashboard into the production area if the name already exists?  Does Tableau let you overwrite?
  • Yes Tableau has a dialogue box that appears and will say a file, object, etc.... already exists with that name would you like to overwrite that object?  with a yes or no option.