Asana for Tableau integration: 2 Easy Methods

This post is about how to integrate data from Asana to Tableau – one of the popular Reporting and Visualization tools.

Asana is an online Work Management platform that can be accessed over web or mobile apps. It helps teams organize, track and manage their tasks effectively.

Asana comes with reporting features that allow organizations to track key metrics related to project execution.

That said, organizations that use specialized Reporting and Visualization software aggregating all reporting may find the default reporting features lacking.

Prerequisites

• Access to an Asana account.
• Access to Tableau Desktop or Tableau Online.

What is Asana?

1. Asana is a completely Cloud-based Project Management platform that enables organizations to manage any kind of work.
2. It is an alternative to traditional Project Management tools like Jira and tries to do better with an intuitive user interface. It provides Kanban boards, timeline views, calendar views, and even automated workflow building features.
3. Asana can help visualize project progress in terms of strategic goals. Asana also provides the ability to view the status from the team’s perspective rather than the project’s perspective by providing visibility to workload metrics.

What is Tableau?

1. Tableau is a Data Visualization software that can be accessed based on installation or online.
2. Tableau comes with great connector support and can connect to virtually any Data Source with its built-in connectors.
3. If the built-in connector support proves inadequate, there are numerous community-powered connectors available.
4. It is an integrated platform that can interact with CRMs like Salesforce. Tableau also comes with AI/ML capabilities. Data governance, management, and collaboration features.

Method to Integrate Asana to Tableau

• Method 1 – Using a Community Connector for Asana Tableau Integration
  • Limitations

1. Using a Community Connector for Asana Tableau Integration

• While Tableau has built-in connectors for many applications, it does not provide an official one for Asana.
• Here is where the community support for Tableau and its large user base comes to the rescue. There is a community-supported connection that is available in the Tableau store to connect Asana to Tableau.
• Before you start, please note that this connector is only available for business and enterprise customers of Asana. Let’s understand the steps involved in using this connector.
• Head to the “Connect” menu on your Tableau Desktop application and click on “Web Connector“.

• Use the below URL for the web connector and wait till the page loads.

 https://tableau-wdc.integrations.asana.plus:443/

• The web page will ask you to enter your Asana credentials.

• Once logged in, authorize Tableau to use your Asana instance.

• After authorization is complete, you need to add the link for your Asana portfolio so that Tableau can fetch data.

• Click “Connect” and your data sync should start immediately. Please note that it might take a few minutes for your data sync to get completed.

That completes the instructions on how to establish an Asana Tableau integration.

Limitations

• The connector is meant only to be used with Tableau Desktop. So the connector will not be of use to a Tableau Online user. 
• The connector is not an officially supported one and is community-based. In case you run into trouble, you might have to wait till someone from the community takes mercy on your predicament.
• The connector loads data at once and there are no mechanisms for incremental upload or transformation while ingesting data. This can be a blocker in typical enterprise requirements.

Need for Connecting Asana to Tableau

While Asana provides all the basic reporting features, organizations might want to connect data from Asana to a full-fledged Reporting & Visualization tool like Tableau for the below-mentioned reasons.  

• Asana’s reporting is mainly based on predefined KPIs and metrics. Tableau will allow a seasonal Data Analyst with domain knowledge to create customized KPIs that may make more sense for the organization.
• Bringing all data to Tabluea, helps organizations combine Asana data with other sources of data. For example, an organization’s employee performance data or availability data may be kept in other places. Tableau will allow Analysts to combine both these data and deeper richer insights.
• Tableau specializes in visualizations while Asana specializes in work management. Combining them helps organizations to get the best of both worlds. 

Find out how moving data from Asana to PostgreSQL can improve your data operations. Our resource provides simple steps for effective data transfer.

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Conclusion

• This article helped you set up a connection from Asana to Tableau. This helps one to take advantage of the comprehensive visualizations and analysis features of Tableau to understand the project progress rather than being limited by Asana’s built-in reporting dashboard.
• However, the community connector comes with a number of limitations and if you are looking for a fuss-free integration of Asana Tableau, it may be worth checking out Hevo: A No-code completely managed ETL tool that can connect a variety of data sources and destinations.

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