Performance recorder in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a Tableau developer at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants you to find out why a sales dashboard is slow to load and interact.

📊 Data: You have access to the sales dashboard and its data sources, including sales transactions, product details, and customer information.

🎯 Deliverable: You need to use Tableau's Performance Recorder to capture and analyze the dashboard's performance and provide a report with key bottlenecks.

Sample Data

Order ID	Product	Category	Sales	Order Date	Customer Region
1001	Chair	Furniture	150	2024-01-05	East
1002	Desk	Furniture	300	2024-01-06	West
1003	Pen	Office Supplies	5	2024-01-07	East
1004	Notebook	Office Supplies	10	2024-01-08	South
1005	Monitor	Technology	200	2024-01-09	North
1006	Keyboard	Technology	50	2024-01-10	West
1007	Chair	Furniture	150	2024-01-11	East
1008	Pen	Office Supplies	5	2024-01-12	South

1

Step 1: Open the sales dashboard in Tableau Desktop.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Dashboard is loaded and ready for interaction.

2

Step 2: Start the Performance Recorder by going to Help > Settings and Performance > Start Performance Recording.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Performance Recorder starts capturing all dashboard actions.

3

Step 3: Interact with the dashboard by filtering sales by Category and Customer Region, and by changing date ranges.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Performance Recorder captures the load and interaction times.

4

Step 4: Stop the Performance Recorder by going to Help > Settings and Performance > Stop Performance Recording.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

A new workbook opens showing the performance summary.

5

Step 5: Review the Performance Summary dashboard focusing on the 'Events' worksheet to identify slow queries and rendering times.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

You see which queries or dashboard actions take the longest time.

6

Step 6: Note the longest running queries and dashboard actions for optimization.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

You identify that complex filters and large data extracts cause delays.

7

Step 7: Prepare a report summarizing the findings with screenshots of the Performance Summary and recommendations to improve speed.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Report clearly shows bottlenecks and suggests actions like data extract optimization or filter simplification.

Final Result

Performance Recorder Summary
===========================
| Event           | Duration |
|-----------------|----------|
| Query 1         | 1200 ms  |
| Filter Action   | 800 ms   |
| Rendering       | 600 ms   |

Key Bottlenecks:
- Complex filters slow down queries.
- Large data extracts increase load time.

Recommendations:
- Simplify filters.
- Use optimized extracts.
- Limit dashboard complexity.

✓Complex filters on Category and Region cause slow query times.

✓Large data extracts increase dashboard load and interaction time.

✓Rendering time is moderate but can improve with fewer visual elements.

Bonus Challenge

Use Tableau's Performance Recorder to compare dashboard performance before and after applying filter optimizations.

Show Hint

Record performance once with original filters, then simplify filters and record again. Compare the two performance summaries.