Tableau to Power BI Migration Checklist: 36 Tasks Across Six Phases
August 10, 2026
A Tableau to Power BI migration runs 36 tasks across six phases: inventory and prune, analysis and scoring, plan and sequence, convert, validate, and cutover and enablement. Every task below carries an owner and an exit criterion, so a phase ends when its outputs exist rather than when the team feels ready.
This page lists what to remember, not how each step works: the six-step migration process covers the how, the planning guide the plan document, and Microsoft's Power BI migration series the vendor sequence. Very large estates add task families beyond these 36: subscriptions and alerts, Tableau Prep flows, gateway clustering, capacity sizing.
Phase 1: inventory and prune the Tableau estate (6 tasks)
Nothing can be estimated until the estate is counted, and the cheapest dashboard to migrate is one you retire instead. Tableau's administrative views supply the usage figures. Seasonality skews them: quarterly-close and annual-planning dashboards look unused for months, so check a full cycle or ask the owner first.
| # | Task | Owner | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Export every published workbook, data source and owner | Platform admin | One inventory covering all sites and projects |
| 2 | Attach 90-day view counts to each workbook | Platform admin | A usage figure on every inventory row |
| 3 | Mark workbooks unused for 90 days as retirement candidates | Platform admin | Draft retirement list |
| 4 | Group duplicates and near-duplicates | Dashboard owners | Consolidation list naming the surviving version |
| 5 | Confirm a named owner for everything that stays | Project owner | No unowned content left in scope |
| 6 | Obtain written sign-off on the retirement list | Project owner | Frozen count of dashboards to migrate |
Phase 2: analysis and scoring (6 tasks)
Scoring turns a dashboard count into an effort estimate. The rubric lives on dashboard complexity analysis; these tasks make sure it covers every workbook in scope before the schedule is signed.
| # | Task | Owner | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Inventory calculations per workbook: LOD, table calcs, custom SQL | BI developer | Feature list per workbook |
| 8 | Score each dashboard simple, moderate or complex | BI developer | A score on every in-scope dashboard |
| 9 | Flag features with no Power BI counterpart, such as sets and set actions | BI developer | Manual-rebuild backlog sized on its own |
| 10 | Record the source behind each workbook: extract, live or blended | Data engineer | Source map for the estate |
| 11 | Check whether each source is reachable from the target tenant | Data engineer | List of sources needing rework first |
| 12 | Convert one representative dashboard as a proof of concept | BI developer | Measured effort per complexity band |
Phase 3: plan and sequence (6 tasks)
This phase produces waves, workspaces, licenses and the two policies that prevent later arguments: what counts as validated, and when Tableau edits stop. Duration assumptions live on the timeline page.
| # | Task | Owner | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Group the estate into waves, simplest first | Project owner | Wave plan with dates and dashboard lists |
| 14 | Map waves to target workspaces and a naming standard | Platform admin | Workspace and naming decision recorded |
| 15 | Size licensing per audience against current Microsoft pricing | Project owner | License counts entered in the budget |
| 16 | Write the validation policy: measures, grain, tolerance, signatory | Validator | One-page definition of acceptance |
| 17 | Set a Tableau change freeze window per wave | Project owner | Freeze dates agreed with dashboard owners |
| 18 | Set cutover and decommission dates per wave | Project owner | Dated plan ending before the Tableau renewal |
Phase 4: convert Tableau dashboards to Power BI (6 tasks)
Most plans overweight this phase and underweight the two around it. The model comes first: a report page on an unfinished model cannot be validated against anything.
| # | Task | Owner | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | Build or confirm the semantic model for the wave | Data engineer | Model published, relationships documented |
| 20 | Configure the gateway and refresh schedule | Data engineer | Scheduled refresh succeeding twice in a row |
| 21 | Convert each source dashboard into a report page | BI developer | One report per source dashboard |
| 22 | Review every flagged calculation against the original | BI developer | No open flags left in the wave |
| 23 | Rebuild features that have no counterpart | BI developer | Rebuilt interaction accepted by its owner |
| 24 | Apply the report theme and layout standard | BI developer | Consistent presentation across the wave |
Phase 5: validate (6 tasks)
Validation compresses least: someone who knows the original still has to confirm the numbers. Microsoft treats creating and validating content as one stage.
| # | Task | Owner | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | Reconcile the agreed measures against Tableau at the agreed grain | Validator | Signed reconciliation sheet |
| 26 | Test filters, drillthrough and cross-filtering paths | Validator | Interaction test log completed |
| 27 | Test row-level security with one user per role | Platform admin | A recorded result for every role |
| 28 | Measure refresh duration and page render time | Data engineer | Both inside the agreed limits |
| 29 | Have each dashboard owner review their own report page | Dashboard owners | Owner sign-off per report |
| 30 | Re-test after fixes and close the defect list | Validator | Defects closed or accepted in writing |
Phase 6: cutover and enablement (6 tasks)
This is where a technically finished migration still fails, because consumers were never moved deliberately. Microsoft's deploy, support and monitor stage is the same ground.
| # | Task | Owner | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | Promote validated content through a deployment pipeline | Platform admin | Production matches what was tested |
| 32 | Set permissions and app audiences to match current access | Platform admin | Access review signed |
| 33 | Run the agreed parallel period with Tableau edits frozen | Project owner | Parallel window completed without drift |
| 34 | Train consumers and authors separately | Project owner | Training delivered to each audience |
| 35 | Redirect links, then unpublish and archive the Tableau workbook | Platform admin | Old workbook retired, archive retained |
| 36 | Review usage after 30 days and release unused licenses | Project owner | Adoption figures and a license decision |
What Antares does with this checklist
Antares is a BI migration tool covering phases 1, 2 and 4. Metadata-only, deterministic and free, the Analyzer returns the inventory, the usage-based retirement list and a complexity score per workbook. Mappings it cannot resolve with confidence come back flagged, which narrows calculation review in phase 5 to that list. Owner reconciliation of the agreed measures still runs in full.
Phase 4 runs on the Converter: $200 flat per source Tableau dashboard, nothing charged per user, nothing that expires, LLM work billed by your own provider at typically under $20 per dashboard, private endpoints supported. The approach is deterministic-first with guardrailed, validated AI steps and the output like-to-like, so redesign is missing from this list on purpose. Run the free Analyzer to close phases 1 and 2 before committing to dates.
Related reading: the Tableau to Power BI migration guide, migration best practices and the migration risk register. Primary sources: Microsoft on pre-migration steps, requirements and deployment planning.
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Frequently asked questions
What should a Tableau to Power BI migration checklist cover?
Six phases: inventory and prune, analysis and scoring, plan and sequence, convert, validate, and cutover and enablement. The list on this page runs to 36 tasks. What separates a usable checklist from a wish list is an owner and an exit criterion on each line, so completion is evidence rather than opinion.
What has to be finished before Tableau to Power BI conversion starts?
Four things: a frozen inventory with retirement decisions signed off, a complexity score on every dashboard still in scope, a source map showing which data is reachable from the target tenant, and a written validation policy. Without the last one, review runs indefinitely because nobody agreed what finished means.
Who owns the tasks in a migration checklist?
Six roles recur: a project owner for scope, dates and sign-off; a BI developer for conversion and calculation review; a data engineer for the model, sources and refresh; a validator for reconciliation and testing; dashboard owners for accepting their own content; and a platform admin for workspaces, licensing and permissions.
How many tasks does a Tableau migration actually involve?
This checklist uses 36 as a working baseline for a single estate moving in waves. Small estates collapse several tasks into one sitting, and large ones split conversion and validation per wave, so the count multiplies across waves while the six phases stay the same.