# Testing Tableau and automating it with Wiiisdom Ops for Tableau

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2022-04-27
- **Format:** Video · 41 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Tool strategy, Productivity, Analytics
- **Tools:** Tableau (cloud, filters, parameters, performance, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/testing-tableau-and-automating-it-with-wiiisdom-ops-for-tableau
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MoWsngubI4

I walk through how testing Tableau workbooks usually happens manually and why that's slow and hard to repeat, then explore Wiiisdom Ops for Tableau as a way to automate it. Using a trial of the tool, I demonstrate functional, performance, regression and cross-environment testing, and share my honest impressions of working with it.

## Key takeaways

- The four main testing types for Tableau are functional, regression, cross-environment and performance testing, each checking different aspects of a workbook's behaviour and infrastructure
- Wiiisdom Ops stores tests as JSON objects and drives a real browser via Selenium, while using Tabjolt under the hood for its performance and stress tests
- Assertions let you check workbook results against known values, including running an assert SQL equals against the data warehouse to confirm an analyst's numbers match the source
- Regression and cross-environment tests work by capturing a baseline snapshot of views, filters, parameters and even images, then comparing future runs against it to catch unexpected changes
- Results can be pushed out via integrations like Postgres, Slack, email and webhooks, so you can keep a history of runs and get notified when a test fails

## Chapters

- 0:00 Why manual Tableau testing falls short
- 1:03 Testing types and terminology
- 4:00 Disclaimers about the tool
- 5:13 Touring the tool and how it works
- 9:06 Running a functional test
- 13:35 Performance and stress testing
- 19:58 Regression testing
- 25:09 Cross-environment testing
- 25:59 Building a functional test from scratch
- 35:22 Tableau Online quirks and final thoughts

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/testing-tableau-and-automating-it-with-wiiisdom-ops-for-tableau

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena