This is as much for me as it is for all of you because I can’t tell you how many times I publish, then republish, and then probably WebEdit a dashboard before it’s “done”. The reason is that I forget the “little things” that I have to do every time I publish a viz… so combining my own list, with a few others I’ve found I present to you, The CheckList
We’ll break this up into several parts:
☐ Data
☐ Calculations
☐ Filtering/Parameters/Sets
☐ Formatting
☐ Finishing Touches
For Data there are a few things to consider:
Did you use a small extract for development, and if so, did you regenerate the full extract? If your plan is to go live, did you switch the connection type? How are you connecting to the data? Service Account credentials? impersonation?
☐ Connection Type? Live / Extract
☐ If Extract, did you regenerate it for initial use?
☐ For Publishing, how are you refreshing the data? (credentials)
☐ Can I utilize an incremental refresh?
For Calculations, the biggest thing I usually forget here is clean-up, as well as simplicity.
☐ Did I use a LOD when a table calc would work?
☐ Did I rename my calculations?
☐ Did I add comments and document what the calculation is doing?
☐ Did I set the default properties/formats/aggregations?
☐ When I filter the worksheet, does the math still work (order of operations)?
☐ Did I delete old/unused calcs?
For Filters, I always try and remember to check if I’ve applied them correctly, wide enough, so that I can avoid conflicts.
☐ Does the filter apply to just this sheet, the dashboard or some combination?
☐ If I’m using viz in Tooltips, check the filter is applied there too!
☐ Does the filter combination have the potential for conflict? If so, can I mitigate it, and if I can’t I need to communicate that to the users.
☐ Am I using a quick filter when an action filter will work better?
For parameters, it’s clean-up and configurations!
☐ Did I set the parameter to be dynamic if needed?
☐ Did I delete unused parameters?
☐ Did I name my parameters appropriately?
For Sets, be sure and check that they are working correctly, in particular, if you are filtering with additional fields, consider the Order of Operations
Overall, formatting is always a challenge! Here are some things I always forget to check!
☐ Font consistency (Workbook > Worksheet > Texts, Titles and Tooltip
☐ Does the Font Hierarchy make sense?
☐ Have a I removed any unneeded elements? (grid lines, zero lines, axis rules and ticks, etc)
☐ Is the dashboard accessible? (font color vs background, avoiding color vision deficiency, and font size)
Once I have all those things squared away, I start focusing on the little details.
☐ Are the tooltips adding value? If not, remove them.
☐ Are the worksheet titles accurate?
☐ Did I add text where needed to support the viz?
☐ Did I reference my data source?
☐ Did I have all the worksheets appearing on the Dashboard? (and delete any extra ones)
The last thing I generally forget to do, and is most important, is get some feedback ad make sure what I’ve done makes sense. This goes for personal work and professional work… so go get some feedback and make that great viz even better!
I hope this list helps, and if I missed something, please drop it in the comments and I’ll add it to this list!