Following a heavy week of Alteryx, DS27 moved back to Tableau for Week 4 of training.

Monday: In the morning we had a session on dashboard design using containers with Andy. We broke down and rebuilt a simple but effective dashboard comparing change between yearly KPIs. After lunch we focused on parameters with Lorna and looked at how they can be used to make worksheets and dashboards more interactive.

Tuesday: A full day looking at the Tableau Data Model that was introduced in the 2020.2 version of the software. We covered relationships, joins, blends and unions using different examples to illustrate the benefits and drawbacks of each. This required a lot of brain power and by the end of the day it was fair to say we were all pretty wiped out.

Wednesday: We had a thorough tour of Tableau Server and all its functions from a user point of view. As we continue to move through training, we’ll be getting more of a deeper dive into the behind the scenes server technicalities.

Thursday: Today was our first Train the Trainer session, designed to make us start thinking about the Learn What The Data School Learns (LWTDSL) topics we'll each be presenting and teaching to the public at the end of November. To begin with, we we’re split into two groups and had to plan a training session based on a Tableau or Alteryx topic we had covered over the last few weeks. Afterwards, we chose topics for the real sessions, for which I'll be covering Macros in Alteryx. In the afternoon we looked at Tableau Prep and completed a handful of Preppin' Data challenges that highlighted some key differences when compared to Alteryx.

Friday: Another test! Tableau this time but an internal evaluation rather than a formal certification. This was mainly to see how we are getting on individually with Tableau and what areas we need to revisit going forwards. Following this, we had a bit of time to work on our own, before watching DS26’s client presentation.

The first month of training has flown by and we have a busy few weeks ahead with LWTDSL and the start of client projects. With so much more to come, my colleague Marius will be documenting and blogging the next couple of weeks of DS27's training. Be sure to check them out!