{ TABLEAUOPS }
AP-0002Anti-Pattern · Waste
Frequency
High
Blast radius
Low
Time-to-detect
Months
Fix effort
Low

The phantom datasource

Refreshing every 15 minutes. For nobody.

Datasource
customer_metrics
v3.final.v2
Consumers
Zero workbooks
Zero viewers
Zero dependencies
no lineage
Schedule
every 15 min
24 / 7 / 365
35,040
Refreshes / year
0
Dashboards served
~$$$
Queue time wasted
?
Owner last seen 2022

Scout sees

the gap between cost and consumption.

  • Datasource has 0 downstream workbook references.
  • Schedule still active. Last viewer: 14 months ago.
  • Refresh queue impact ranked vs. live consumers.

Operator does

retires the ghosts, with a paper trail.

  • Pauses schedule, notifies last known owner.
  • Waits N days. No claim? Archives the datasource.
  • Logs every action for audit and rollback.

How to spot it yourself

  • Datasource name ends in "_final", "_v2", or "_test".
  • Refresh schedule active. Workbook lineage shows nothing downstream.
  • The Slack thread that requested it is from 2022.
The fix, as a scriptFind orphaned datasources with active refreshes
TableauOps · Scout + Operatortableauops.com/anti-patterns/0002