Tableau project team roles and responsibilities
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The cross-functional project team includes IT/BI professionals, Tableau administrators and selected content creators (data stewards and content creators). The cross-functional project team is focused on the following:
- Establish and maintain the analytics practice, which includes defining Tableau governance processes, policies and guidelines.
- Define roles and responsibilities for managing the organisation’s data in compliance with business and/or regulatory requirements.
- Plan and execute the Tableau deployment and implement the organisation’s vision for modern analytics.
- Review policies and procedures periodically to adapt to and evolve with changing business needs.
Depending on the size of the organisation and the degree of specialisation for a particular role, you may find that each of the roles listed below equates to one person in a large organisation, while more than one person may serve different roles in smaller organisations. What is most important is that each role is filled at the time it’s needed, rather than the number of people on the project team. The diagram below shows where the project team roles may sit in an organisational hierarchy (in larger deployments, community leaders may reside in each of the lines of business).
Note: Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud both support multi-tenancy. Tableau Server administrators can create sites for segregating users and content and delegating responsibilities for administrative tasks and designate site administrators for scoped administration to the site level. Tableau Cloud site administrators manage site settings, create projects for organising content and delegate responsibilities for administrative tasks.
IT/BI professional roles
The IT/BI professional roles are collectively responsible for integrating Tableau with your enterprise architecture and making data available in a secure, governed manner to Tableau users. Whether IT and analytics departments are combined or separate may vary from company to company. Their involvement is critical to planning, installation, configuration, and ongoing management and monitoring of the deployment.
Initially, meetings should be held weekly or every other week to plan and track the progress of the deployment with the full project team. After an operational routine is achieved, meetings can transition to a lesser frequency unless you are planning upgrades, scaling server infrastructure or integrating with other systems.
IT/BI professional role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|
Analytics Director or | The Analytics Director owns the use of Tableau, including placement and fit of analytics within the organisation, alignment with strategic initiatives, and user enablement and adoption. |
Enterprise Architect | The Enterprise Architect identifies technical requirements and integrates Tableau with enterprise architecture standards.
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Security & Compliance Administrator | The Security & Compliance Administrator ensures the company complies with its internal security and data security policies and external regulatory requirements.
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Database Administrator | The Database Administrator is responsible for the administration, monitoring, maintenance and security of databases in the organisation. Coordinating with data engineers and data stewards, the DBA will provide data access and assist with modelling, structuring and optimising sources of data that connect to Tableau. |
Systems Administrator | The Systems Administrator installs, configures, manages and maintains the hardware and operating system on which the Tableau Server or Tableau Bridge is installed in the data centre or the cloud, while enforcing company policies in compliance with business and technology strategy. |
Network Administrator | The Network Administrator maintains network communications and connectivity, including SSL, VPN, Tableau Bridge and mobile networking to access Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud.
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Client Administrator | The Client Administrator installs and configures client software including database drivers, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep Builder, Tableau Mobile and Tableau Bridge.
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Project Manager | The Project Manager ensures that the project is delivered on time and within budget by effectively staffing and managing relationships with a wide range of groups, allocating and utilising resources in an efficient manner, and maintaining a cooperative, motivated and successful team. |
Community Leader | The Community Leader coordinates efforts related to user enablement, including support resources, engagement events, connecting users within your company and analytics evangelism. Note: Not all organisations will have a dedicated position for these responsibilities. |
Tableau administrator roles
Tableau Server administrators are responsible for the operation of the server application, while Tableau site administrators are responsible for their respective site(s), permissions, content and users when sites are used.
Initially, weekly, or bi-weekly meetings should be held to track the progress of the deployment, content utilisation and user engagement with the full project team. After an operational routine is achieved, administrator meetings can transition to a monthly schedule unless you are planning upgrades, changing or scaling the infrastructure, or enabling new functionality, such as mobile, advanced analytics or extensible features.
Administrator role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|
Tableau Server Administrator | The Server Administrator has full access to Tableau Server settings, all sites on the server, users and groups, and all content assets, such as projects, data sources and workbooks to monitor and maintain overall server health.
KPIs for Tableau Server Administrators are outlined in Tableau Monitoring. |
Tableau Site Administrator | In Tableau Server, Tableau site administrators create and manage the site’s users and groups, create projects to organise content on the site, and assign permissions to allow users (groups) to access the content. They also promote and certify content and measure the use of analytics within their site. In Tableau Cloud, site administrators are the highest administrator role. They manage site settings, create projects for organising content and delegate responsibilities for administrative tasks. They also promote and certify content and measure the use of analytics within their site.
KPIs for Tableau Site Administrators are outlined in Measurement of Tableau user engagement and adoption.
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Tableau content creator roles
Content creators include data stewards and content authors. It is important that the individuals who are selected for the project team have a good understanding of their business domain and data, as well as provide meaningful contributions to the development of organisational policies and procedures. The content creators identified on the project team are known as Tableau champions. For more information, see Tableau support processes.
During the initial deployment, data stewards and content authors should create certified data sources and relevant workbooks for content consumers to use at launch. Any bottlenecks or issues raised by this group should be shared with the full project team and/or executive governing body for consideration and resolution, depending on the stage of the deployment.
Initially, weekly or biweekly meetings should be held to track the progress of the deployment, content utilisation and user engagement with the full project team. Weekly meetings for content creators should be held for sharing best practices, planning, and tracking the creation of content, workflow design, and content utilisation metrics. After an operational routine is achieved, meetings can transition to a monthly schedule unless you are testing upgrades or enabling new functionality, such as mobile, advanced analytics or extensible features.
Content creator role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|
Data Stewards | Data Stewards understand the business domain and the interaction of business processes with analytics. A Data Steward ensures that there are documented procedures and guidelines for data access and use, and will work with the Database Administrator and/or Data Engineers to plan and execute an enterprise-wide data governance and compliance policy. Data Stewards should have a Tableau Creator licence. |
Content Authors | Content Authors create and publish dashboards and/or data sources. They will also be a resource for others ramping up their Tableau skills. Content Authors should have a Tableau Creator licence. |