What Requirement Questions Should You Ask Your Clients?

Before you even start creating dashboards, you need to know what questions to ask your clients. This is considered gathering requirements for your dashboard. This will help you to understand the needs of your clients, how you should format your data and design your dashboard!

I used ChatGPT and received the following results:

1. Purpose and Audience:

   1. What is the primary purpose of this dashboard?

   2. Who will be the primary audience for this dashboard?

   3. Are there any specific goals or objectives the dashboard should help achieve?

2. Data Sources:

   1. What data sources will be used for the dashboard?

   2. Are these data sources readily available and accessible?

   3. Are there any specific data sources that must be included or excluded?

3. Data Elements and Metrics:

   1. What specific data elements or metrics are important for the stakeholders?

   2. Are there any calculations or derived metrics required?

   3. How often should the data be updated?

4. Visualizations and Interactivity:

   1. What types of visualizations are preferred by stakeholders (e.g., bar charts, line graphs, maps)?

   2. Are there any specific interactivity requirements, such as filtering, sorting, or drill-down capabilities?

   3. Do stakeholders have any preferences regarding the layout or design of the dashboard?

5. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

   1. What are the key performance indicators that stakeholders want to monitor?

   2. How should these KPIs be represented in the dashboard?

   3. Are there any thresholds or benchmarks that should be highlighted?

6. Integration and Sharing:

   1. How will the dashboard be integrated into existing systems or workflows?

   2. Are there any specific sharing or distribution requirements?

   3. Should the dashboard be accessible on different devices (e.g., desktop, mobile)?

7. Security and Access Control:

   1. What level of security is required for the dashboard and its data?

   2. Who should have access to the dashboard, and what permissions should they have?

   3. Are there any compliance or regulatory considerations to be addressed?

8. Feedback and Iteration:

   1. How often should the dashboard be reviewed and updated?

   2. What process will be used for gathering feedback from stakeholders?

   3. How flexible does the dashboard need to be to accommodate future changes or additions?

9. Training and Support:

   1. Will training be required for stakeholders to use the dashboard effectively?

   2. What level of support will be needed post-deployment?

10. Success Metrics:

    1. How will the success of the dashboard be measured?

    2. Are there any specific metrics or performance targets that should be tracked?

By asking these questions, you can gather detailed requirements that will help you design and develop a Tableau dashboard that meets the needs of your stakeholders effectively.

I was surprised at how detailed the above questions are. These are all questions you should consider, even some I didn't even think of!

This process will help you understand the expectations of your clients. We all have created a dashboard at some point that didn't meet the expectations of a client. These questions should help you prevent that from happening.