Idea: Visual dependency map

[#1]

Hi everyone, Ra here from the Compass design team. I would like to share a visual dependency map concept we recently explored during innovation week.

Currently, we have a dependency list view where you can see the upstream and downstream dependencies related to a component. We wanted to explore different ways of displaying this information for the innovation week.

We explored this concept as a component-centric view that lets users focus on the current component and its direct dependencies in the visual map view. 

Here is a demo video of a dependency concept prototype we explored during the innovation week.

This concept is an experimental concept for now, but we would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. What else would you like to see on the visual dependency map?

[Fabian Lim]

Hi @Ra Kang

Are the components the same components that a jira software project would use?

Regards

[Luke Machowski]

Hi Fabian

No, from the video, in the top left corner, we can see that these are components in their upcoming Compass product.

As I understand Compass so far, these new components can be used to track “Things”, with a particular lean towards devops concepts at first. As always, there is great integration with Jira and their other tools. 

I hope this clarifies where the dependency diagram could fit in.

[Luke Machowski]

It would really be awesome to have a zoomable canvas view of the deep dependencies.

We use Miro for building these by hand (would be happy to demo) but it would be really useful if we could use the Compass dependencies to see the same “deep dependency diagram”.

[David Harper]

This looks great. I could envisage it on big TV screens in an office (if we ever go back to offices!). Are incidents coming from JSM? Could it update in real time without refreshing?

Does it integrate with the Announcements? Maybe put a badge on the blocks that have announcements with a count?

[Ra Kang]

@Fabian Lim , Thank you for your comment :) the Compass component is not the same as a Jira component. A component in Compass is the combined output of a software engineering team, typically tracked in source control. We are hoping to use the Component field in Jira to track Compass components. You can see more details of the Compass component here. 

@Luke Machowski Thank you for your comment to Fabian and feedback on the concept. :) Previously, we also explored the org-centric zoom-out version of the dependencies. Still, we've decided to explore the component centric view this time. Just check my understanding; how deep are your current dependencies? Would you like to see a whole org level component dependency?

@David Harper Envisioning this concept on a big TV sounds excellent! We don't have the incidents coming from JSM, but currently, we are exploring the integration, and it should be updated in real-time. 

Indeed, we also explored the announcements with dependencies! What kinds of information would you like to announce with the dependencies? And have a look at this announcement concept below. Any thoughts?

[Andrew Freedman]

Hi @Luke Machowski — we've still got your Miro example front and centre for how customers use visual tools for understanding their systems!

How have you been finding Compass? I'd love to know what's been working for you and where the gaps are so if you've got the time then yeah, always keen to have a chat; calendly link to schedule.

---

On the question of a zoomable canvas view, yes, makes total sense and is something we'd like to do. Finding the right balance between detail and "field of vision" has been tricky so our starting point is the "zoomed in" view. We think this can help users understand the up and down stream dependencies which are very close to them. We'll grow that "field of vision" out as we proceed.

[Katie Silver]

Hi @Fabian Lim! I wanted to expand on Ra's comment about Compass vs Jira components. 

This is a question we're actively exploring right now; namely, how do users want to track work done in Jira against a specific Compass component?

The "Components" field seems to make the most sense in Jira Software, but there are some interesting complexities when we look at Jira Service Management. If you have any thoughts about it, I'd love to hear how you'd expect to see that relationship show up in the products. 

Feel free to leave comments here, or if you'd be up for it, book 30 minutes with me to chat about your thoughts :) 

[Fabian Lim]

Thanks @Katie SilverAnd @Ra Kang

I would love to chat, but I need to understand more about compass. I have a good understanding of all altasian products, but i need to know the value this will bring to our atlassian ecosystem. Is there a video that showcases the main features of compass

Thanks 

[Katie Silver]

Sounds good @Fabian Lim. Yes, we put up this post earlier this week that has a great overview of what Compass provides thus far and where we're going in the next iterations (including videos.) Let us know what you think!

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Compass-Alpha-articles/An-update-on-Compass-and-our-journey-so-far/ba-p/1876269  

[David Harper]

@Ra Kang that's exactly what I was imagining!

[Massimo Siani]

That looks amazing! I like the announcements badge. Is there any plan to integrate that with Jira/Bitbucket? For instance, having the latest version of a service and show which downstream dependencies need to be updated.

Of course, that would require to maintain compatibility versions matrices among deps.