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How to Create a Work in Progress Report in Tableau

Cody Schneider••8 min read

Tracking the status of every moving part in a project can feel like a full-time job. A Work in Progress (WIP) report gives you a clear, visual snapshot of what's happening, what's stuck, and what's next. This article will show you exactly how to build a dynamic and insightful WIP report in Tableau, step-by-step.

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What is a Work in Progress (WIP) Report?

A Work in Progress report is a project management tool that tracks the status of tasks or items as they move from "to-do" to "done." Whether you're in manufacturing tracking production stages, a dev team monitoring features in a sprint, or a marketing agency managing campaign deliverables, a WIP report makes the workflow visible. Its primary goal is to identify bottlenecks, manage team capacity, and keep stakeholders informed about progress without needing lengthy meetings or email chains.

Why Use Tableau for Your WIP Report?

While you could track WIP in a spreadsheet, Tableau turns a static list of tasks into an interactive dashboard. Instead of just seeing what's late, you can visually explore why it's late. Here are a few benefits:

  • Visual Clarity: Tools like Gantt charts and Kanban boards instantly show timelines and task distribution, making it easy to spot imbalances or delays.
  • Interactivity: Team members and stakeholders can filter, drill down, and explore the data themselves to answer their own questions, like "What are all the tasks assigned to me?" or "Which projects have tasks blocked?"
  • Real-Time Data: By connecting Tableau to a live data source (like a project management tool's database or a constantly updated Google Sheet), your WIP report is always current, reflecting the true state of your projects.
  • Customization: You have complete control over what you show and how you show it, tailoring the report to your team's specific workflow and key performance indicators (KPIs).

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Preparing Your Data for Tableau

Before you even open Tableau, the most important step is getting your data right. A messy dataset will only lead to a confusing visualization. Your WIP data should be structured in a simple, tabular format (think rows and columns in a spreadsheet), with each row representing a single task or item.

Ideally, your dataset should include these key fields:

  • Task ID: A unique identifier for each task.
  • Task Description: A brief name or summary of the task.
  • Project Name: The project the task belongs to.
  • Status: The current stage of the task (e.g., Backlog, In Progress, In Review, Done).
  • Assignee: The person or team responsible for the task.
  • Start Date: When work on the task began.
  • Due Date: The expected completion date.
  • Completion Date: The actual date the task was finished.
  • Estimated Time: The planned effort required (e.g., in hours or story points).

The cleaner and more consistent your data is from the start, the easier your work in Tableau will be. For example, ensure your status names are consistent ("In Progress" vs. "In-Progress") and your dates are in a standard format.

Step-by-Step Guide to Building a WIP Report in Tableau

Once your data is ready, it's time to build the report. We'll create a few different views that you can later combine into a comprehensive dashboard.

Step 1: Connect to Your Data Source

Open Tableau and, under the "Connect" panel, choose the appropriate connector for your data. This might be Microsoft Excel, a Text File (for CSVs), or Google Sheets. If your data is in a database like PostgreSQL or SQL Server, you'll select that instead. Navigate to your file or enter your server details to load the data into Tableau.

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Step 2: Create a Kanban Board View

A Kanban board is a classic way to visualize workflow. It uses columns to represent stages and cards to represent tasks.

  1. Create a new worksheet and name it "Kanban Board."
  2. Drag the Status field from the "Data" pane to the Columns shelf. This will create a column for each unique status in your data.
  3. Drag the Task ID or Task Description to the Rows shelf. You'll now see a text table.
  4. On the Marks card, change the dropdown menu from "Automatic" to "Shape" or "Square". This will turn your text labels into visual marks.
  5. Drag the Assignee field to the Color mark. Tableau will assign a unique color to each team member, making it easy to see who is working on what at a glance.
  6. Finally, drag Task Description and Due Date to the Tooltip mark. Now, when you hover over a specific task, you'll see its details.

You now have a simple, effective Kanban board showing your entire workflow.

Step 3: Build a Gantt Chart for Timelines

Next, let's create a Gantt chart to visualize project timelines and task dependencies.

  1. Create another new worksheet and name it "Gantt Chart."
  2. On the Marks card, change the dropdown menu to "Gantt Bar".
  3. Drag the Start Date field to the Columns shelf. Make sure it's set to "Day," which you can adjust by right-clicking the pill.
  4. Drag the Task Description and/or Project Name to the Rows shelf.
  5. To give the bars length, you need to calculate the duration of each task. Create a calculated field by navigating to Analysis > Create Calculated Field. Name it "Task Duration" and enter the following formula:
DATEDIFF('day', [Start Date], [Completion Date])
  1. Drag your new Task Duration calculated field to the Size mark on the Marks card. Your bars should now extend to represent their duration.
  2. Drag the Status field to the Color mark to see the status of each task directly on the timeline.

This view is great for understanding project scheduling, identifying potentially overlapping tasks, and tracking everything against a timeline.

Step 4: Visualize Bottlenecks and Task Aging

A key goal of a WIP report is to find tasks that are stuck. A task aging chart helps you spot problems quickly.

  1. Create a new worksheet named "Task Aging."
  2. Create a calculated field called "Days In Progress." We'll use a formula that checks if a task is not yet complete and, if so, calculates how long it's been in progress.
IF ISNULL([Completion Date]) THEN
 DATEDIFF('day', [Start Date], TODAY())
END
  1. Drag Task Description to the Rows shelf.
  2. Drag the new Days In Progress field to the Columns shelf.
  3. Sort the view in a descending order to bring the longest-running tasks to the top. You now have a bar chart that instantly highlights a potential bottleneck.
  4. Drag Status to the Filters card and exclude any "Done" or "Completed" statuses, so you only focus on active work.

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Step 5: Assemble Your WIP Dashboard

Now it's time to bring all your views together into a single, interactive dashboard.

  1. Click the "New Dashboard" icon at the bottom of the screen.
  2. From the "Sheets" list on the left, drag your "Kanban Board," "Gantt Chart," and "Task Aging" worksheets onto the dashboard canvas. Arrange them however you like.
  3. To make the dashboard interactive, add filters. For example, drag a Tile dashboard object onto the canvas and then from the sample Kanban board you laid down, select the caret from the top right menu options, and from the dropdown choose "Filters" and then a specific column from your spreadsheet such as "Assignee." Use the filter controls to affect how a view interacts with the page, such as making it clickable so when that item is clicked, the entire screen filters results based on that click. From that same dropdown menu, choose a different type of filter called "Use as Filter." Doing this for your Kanban view will make it so clicking on a particular task block, for example, will now filter the Gantt and Aging charts to only show data related to that clicked task's assignee, highlighting their timelines and other tasks.
  4. Repeat this process for your "Project Name" so viewers can focus on a single project.

Tips for an Effective WIP Dashboard

  • Focus on Clarity: Don't try to cram too much information into one view. Each chart should answer a specific question clearly. Use clear titles and labels.
  • Use Color Meaningfully: Color should guide the eye and convey information. Use it to distinguish between team members, show task status (e.g., red for blocked, green for on track), or highlight overdue items.
  • Tell a Story with Tooltips: Tooltips are perfect for providing extra context without cluttering the main view. Add details like task details, links to the task in your project management system, or notes.
  • Consider Your Audience: A project manager might need granular detail about individual tasks, while an executive may just want a high-level overview of project health. Tailor your dashboard to who will be using it.

Final Thoughts

Putting together a WIP report in Tableau gives you a powerful, real-time lens into how your team works. By visualizing progress with Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and aging reports, you can stop just tracking tasks and start proactively managing your workflow, tackling bottlenecks before they become major problems.

While Tableau is a fantastic tool, we know it involves a learning curve and requires careful data preparation. If you need insights from project management tools like JIRA, popular SaaS applications from partners, or your spreadsheets without the manual setup, Graphed offers a faster path. We allow you to connect your data and build an entire dashboard just by describing what you want to see in plain English, transforming hours of setup into seconds of conversation.

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