Examination Domains

This section will describe the focus of each of the four examination domains, including what proportion of the examination they account for. The sections within each domain will be described along with the chapter the corresponding content can be found in within this textbook.

Connect to and Transform Data

The first examination domain is Connect to and Transform Data. This section accounts for 24% of the examination content, and is focused on the following:

• Connecting to data from Tableau Desktop or Prep
• How to clean, transform, and combine the data within those tools
• Customizing the final data source to be ready for analysis in Tableau Desktop

These topics are covered across four subsections:

• Connect to Data Sources
• Prepare Data for Analysis
• Perform Data Transformation in Tableau Prep
• Customize Fields

The first subsection, Connect to Data Sources, covers the different data source types that Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep can connect to. This includes Tableau-specific files such as .hyper or .tde files, data sources that are published on Tableau Server/Online, spreadsheet files, and both direct connections to tables/views and custom SQL queries to relational databases. Knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of the different data sources and when to choose one type over the other is also important. Similarly, an understanding of the benefits of live data source connections compared to data source extracts is required. Specific Tableau Desktop skills when it comes to how to replace data sources for existing content are also covered. This content is explored in Chapter 1, Connecting to Data.

The second subsection, Prepare Data for Analysis, covers basic data cleansing operations in Tableau Desktop. Knowledge of how to prepare data using Tableau’s Data Interpreter as well as how to pivot and split columns is required. General cleaning operations and organization of columns into folders are covered, as well as how to assess columns for key measures of data quality such as completeness, consistency, and accuracy.

You will need to know how to combine data sources within Tableau Desktop via relationships, joins, unions, and blending. It is important to understand how the data structure is impacted by these data combinations, as well as the benefits of one type over the other. Pre-filtering data using extract filters is another skill specific to Tableau Desktop that is required. Chapter 2, Transforming Data, covers the content in the subsection.

The third subsection, Perform Data Transformation in Tableau Prep, requires an understanding of how to clean, filter, transform, and combine data in Tableau Prep, including knowing which transformation is most suitable given a specific business scenario. How to perform unions, joins, aggregation, and pivoting is covered, and it is important to understand how each of these transformations will impact the granularity and structure of the data. Chapter 2, Transforming Data, also covers the content contained within this subsection.

The final subsection within the Connect and Transform Data domain is Customize Fields. This subsection is specific to Tableau Desktop and covers the final customization of columns in preparation for data visualization. Required knowledge includes how to rename columns, default property customization, such as changing the field type and sort order, and aliasing names. It is important to fully understand the distinction between discrete and continuous fields, as well as dimensions and measures, particularly the implications of the combination of these field types. The content for this subsection is covered in Chapter 1, Connecting to Data.

Explore and Analyze Data

Explore and Analyze Data is the largest examination domain, accounting for 41% of the examination’s content. The domain covers the bulk of Tableau Desktop’s features for exploring and analyzing data, including custom logic using calculated fields, the creation of dynamic view-based table calculations, the various methodologies for filtering data, and how to use Tableau’s parameters to increase interactivity. The options available for structuring data is required knowledge and so is how to create charts using geographic field types. Finally, Tableau’s analytics features are all included – from reference lines to predictive models.

The Create Calculated Fields subsection requires you to know how to create custom logic in Tableau Desktop using Tableau’s own calculated field language. Simple logic (such as converting data types) is required as well as knowledge of how to aggregate measures and write string and number functions. Basic logical expressions (such as if and case statements) must be understood, as well as the various date functions available. The most complex type of calculation needed for the examination is the Level of detail calculations that allow Tableau users to fix data at a specific level of aggregation. The required calculations will be covered in Chapter 3, Calculations.

The second subsection covers the creation of quick table calculations. Quick table calculations are logical calculations that work on aggregated data in the view and are created via the interface selections. The examination can include questions on creating quick table calculations to show a moving average, a percent of the total, a running total, a difference or percent of a difference, a percentile, and a compound growth rate. It is important to understand what these table calculations show in the view and how to customize them to work in different directions or based on different levels of aggregation. Quick table calculations will be covered in Chapter 3, Calculations.

The Create Custom Table Calculations subsection builds on the quick table calculations by requiring an understanding of how to use table calculations to implement either date-based or ranking logic. Date-based logic includes how to use table calculations to dynamically display year-to-date, month-to-date, and year-over-year values. Ranking logic includes adding IDs or rank values to the view using either index, ranking, first, or last table calculations. Custom table calculations will be covered in Chapter 3, Calculations.

How to create and use filters is a subsection focusing on limiting the data shown in the view using Tableau Desktop’s various filtering methods. The difference between filtering dimensions and measures must be understood and it is also important to understand the types of filtering available for dimensions, such as top and bottom N, include, exclude, wildcard, and conditional. The order in which different types of filters occur is covered, including the impact of adding filters to context. You will also need to know how to apply a filter across multiple sheets and data sources. This content will all be covered in Chapter 4, Grouping and Filtering.

Parameters are user-created static variables that are available in Tableau Desktop. Knowledge of how to apply parameters in calculations, filters, and reference lines is needed for the examination and this will be covered in Chapter 4, Grouping and Filtering.

The next subsection within Explore and Analyze Data focuses on how to structure the data. This section includes the various methodologies Tableau Desktop users can implement to create groupings within their data. Fields can be grouped into hierarchies where some field values represent a higher or lower-level grouping of the values of other fields. Field values can also be manually grouped together, in the case of dimensions, using Tableau’s groups or sets. Dynamic grouping can also be set up for dimensions using sets and can be set up for measures using bins. The functionality available for all the mentioned methods of data structuring must be understood, and these will be covered in Chapter 4, Grouping and Filtering.

Geographic data can be mapped in Tableau via symbol, heat, density, and choropleth (filled) maps. The difference between these as well as an understanding of how to create each is required for the examination. Geographic chart creation will be covered in Chapter 5, Charts.

The final subsection in the Explore and Analyze Data domain involves summarizing, modeling and customizing data by using the analytics feature. You are required to know how to use the analytics feature to add subtotals and totals, reference lines and bands, average lines, trend lines, and distribution bands. Knowledge of advanced analytics features such as default and customized forecasting and the creation of predictive models is also required. Chapter 5, Charts, ends with an explanation of each Analytics feature.

Create Content

The third examination domain is again specific to Tableau Desktop only and covers 26% of the examination content. It focuses on the creation of content, namely how to create the basic chart types available in Tableau and then how to combine them into dashboards and stories. Dashboard development in terms of the interactivity options available as well as formatting capabilities are also covered.

The Create Charts subsection is comprehensive, requiring users to know how to create bar charts, line charts, pie charts, highlight tables, scatter plots, histograms, tree maps, bubbles, data tables, Gantt charts, box plots, area charts, dual axis charts, and combo charts. You need to know how to create these charts from scratch as opposed to using Tableau’s Show Me functionality. This means you will need to understand the key areas of the Tableau Desktop interface, including the rows and columns shelves as well as the marks card, and how placing different field types on each of these sections will result in different types of charts being created. Sorting of the data within the charts must also be understood, including custom sorting. Chart creation and sorting is covered in Chapter 5, Charts.

The creation of dashboards to combine worksheets (charts) into a consolidated piece of analysis is also covered. This means you will need to know how the various layout options available in Tableau Desktop work, and more specifically how layout containers work. You also need to know what the different dashboard objects are and how to bring them onto a dashboard. The combination of dashboards into stories must also be understood. Dashboard and story creation are covered in Chapter 6, Dashboards.

Knowledge of the interactivity options available when creating dashboards is another requirement for the examination. This includes how to apply filters to a view, and how to add interactivity to charts in the form of hover, click, and menu options. You will need to know what types of actions are available, including filtering, highlighting, and URL actions, as well as how to configure them and provide guiding sentences if required. You need to know how to implement navigation via buttons as well as how to implement sheet swapping using parameters or sheet selectors. The functionality for this subsection is covered in Chapter 6, Dashboards.

The final subsection of the domain is Format Dashboards. This section requires you to be able to use all the formatting options available to make charts look more presentable and focus the analysis on key insights. This includes how to customize color, fonts, shapes, and styling using the marks card as well as how to add custom tooltips. Cleaning up charts by removing gridlines and table formatting must also be understood. You must also know how to add annotations to charts to point out key insights. At the dashboard level, you will need to know how to add padding to dashboards to create whitespace and avoid a cluttered look, and you must also know how to customize device-specific layouts for dashboards. Tableau has standard shapes and color schemes available to all users but an understanding of how to add custom shapes and color schemes to Tableau Desktop is also required. The content for this subsection is covered in Chapter 7, Formatting.

Publish and Manage Content on Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud

The final examination domain, Publish and Manage Content on Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud, is mainly focused on the sharing and managing of content in Tableau Server/Online but also requires knowledge of uploading content from both Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep. This is the smallest domain, accounting for 9% of examination content. The domain covers publishing content from Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep, scheduling data refreshes and Tableau Prep flows on Tableau Server/Online, and managing alerts and subscriptions on and to published workbooks.

The first subsection, Publish Content, requires an understanding of how to publish workbooks and data sources to Tableau Server/Online from Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep. How to print and export from Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server/Online must also be understood, along with the print and export format types available. This content is covered in Chapter 8, Publishing and Managing Content.

Scheduling data updates must also be understood in terms of how to schedule both an extract refresh and a Tableau Prep Workflow on Tableau Server/Online. Tableau Server and Online scheduling will be covered in Chapter 8, Publishing and Managing Content.

Tableau user alerts on data points within workbooks and subscriptions to workbooks must be understood in terms of how to set up, configure, and manage them. This will also be covered in Chapter 8, Publishing and Managing Content.