Metric Navigation and Team Dashboards
Metrics, and the Team Dashboards you can build with them, are the functional heart of the Allstacks platform. Using metrics we can identify process bottlenecks, encourage positive habit adoption and provide insights into teams' activities.
Metrics
Allstacks has over 100 default metric views, all of which can be filtered and configured to fulfil your reporting and investigative needs. Let’s walk through an example using the “Velocity” metric.
You’ll find our default metric views underneath the metric heading on the left-most menu of the platform. From here, search for “Velocity” or open the metrics listed under “Team Productivity”
Note: Some metrics have multiple default views. See the dropdown in the top-middle of the metric page below:
Navigation
Legends/Series:
Located on the top right of the metric area, you can toggle any series on or off by single clicking it. To only view a single series, double click the series in question.
On-Hover Legend/Series:
Hovering over any individual section of the graph will show you the relative data points and adjacent data points.
Click Actions and the Source Data Table
Below every metric is the source data that is used to create the visualization. Clicking on any segment of the chart will filter those items to match the area selected.
Note: Most items in the Source Data table will have links to view those items in your source tools.
Basic Filtering
Most metrics can filtered by three components: Time, Work, and People. Every metric handles those concepts slightly differently based on the source data used, and we highlight that nuance above each picker for each metric.
Time: The date range during which an activity happened.
Work: A body of work and items affiliated with it’s contents.
People: Who took the action or is related to the work.
Note: By default, metrics will default to the last 90 days with no work or people selected. The metric will include data related to all tools and employees you have enabled at the team level.
Advanced Filtering
Advanced filtering allows users to reduce the returned data of a metric to a relevant subset using most properties of the metric’s base data.
For example, the filters in the example below would take a standard metric, like velocity, and let us answer the question “How can I see all bugs completed by my team?”
Chart Settings
Chart settings allow us to answer a myriad of questions based on standard and custom fields. For example, what if you wanted to look at velocity, but instead of looking at it weekly by issue type, you wanted to look at it monthly by issue priority? Read on for the basics, or visit Chart Settings for an in-depth guide of all things chart settings.
Basic Changes: Chart Types, Data Aggregation Methods, Time and Averages
Chart Types:
Changes the visualization of the graph, typically without modifying the existing legends or groupings.
Aggregation:
Selects a different mathematical operator to apply to the data set. Common examples include changing from means to medians.
Time Grouping:
Allstacks will automatically apply a time grouping based on the dat range selected, but you can override this in the Time dropdown.
There is also a Custom grouping option, allowing you to select a pivot date and period duration. Use this to replicate sprint windows.
You can also add an average line to your metrics based on the series, the individual data points, or the cumulative sum of the data points. You can also create trailing averages to better show historic trends.
Using Additional/Custom Fields
Allstacks allows you to display your metrics based on other fields related to the base data of a metric. For example, if you want to look at a metric like “Issue Creations Over Time” by the “Issue Priority” instead of the default “Issue Type” you can select that field in the dropdown for the series.
Adding Annotations to Metric Visualizations
Utilize annotations to set benchmarks or goals on metrics, or to mark significant events, such as process change implementation dates.
Special Case Filters
These filters are context specific based on the current metric.
Exclude Tickets Without Merged PRs:
Only available on card/issue based metrics, this option will filter out cards that have no affiliated Merged Pull Requests linked.
Include Disabled Team Members:
This setting expands the metric data set to include users that are disabled in Team Management. This setting is not available for custom metrics.
Saving and Sharing
Now that you know how to create the metrics you want, let’s talking about saving and sharing them.
Sharing a Link:
If you don’t want to save a configuration to a dashboard, but want to share a situation-specific metric, selecting the arrow icon on the top-right of the page opens a dialog to create a shareable link.
Date Range: Here you can choose either a static date range so the metric never changes, or a rolling date range so the metric updates over time.
Note: Metrics created this way can only be accessed by users with access to your Allstacks organization.
Saving to a Dashboard:
To save a metric to a Team Dashboard (more on those later) select the plus icon on the top-right of the page.
“Full Metric” saves the entire visualization to your team dashboard.
“Compact KPI” save a widget card object to your dashboard to indicate a directional trend.
Name: You can add a custom name, or use the default view name by leaving the field empty.
Date Range: Here you can choose either a static date range so the metric never changes, or a rolling date range so the metric updates over time.
Use the Destination section to save your metric or compact KPI to one or multiple dashboards.
Team Dashboards
Team Dashboards give a place to consolidate and organize your favorite metrics and compact KPIs.
Note: Team Dashboards are always visible for all users. Editing a dashboard will change the view for every future viewer.
The title of the dashboard is also dropdown to access other team dashboards or create new dashboards.
Creating Additional Dashboards
Creating a new dashboard will land you in a view similar to the image below.
Quick Defaults
When creating a new dashboard, you have the option to pick a default set of metrics. Selecting one of the icons will populate the dashboard with a set four to six starter metrics.
Adding Headings
Once your dashboard has metrics, you can select “Add Heading” to create an editable separator with a title and descriptor. Once created, you can drag it to the desired location.
Additional Navigation
Clicking the menu icon in the top right corner of any save widget brings up the following options:
Go To Metric: Goes to the full metric page with the saved settings applied.
View Source Data: Pulls up all configurations that went into creating this metric, such as series enabled and disabled.
Rename: Opens a modal allowing you to rename the widget.
Remove from Dashboard: Permanently removes the widget from the dashboard.