Tags-based Metrics

[Corey King]

In JA, the Strategic Driver Allocation pie charts gave me an idea, but I don't know if JA can accommodate it. Any help is greatly appreciated! 

Is it possible to generate a pie chart --or any sort of metric-- based upon the tags added to a work item? 

I envision running the Strategic Driver Allocation report, but getting another report that allows me to more specifically differentiate what kind of work is being done inside of that Strategic Driver so that I have greater awareness of where my teams' capacity is allocated. 

Is this possible?

[Rich Sparks · Accepted solution]

There currently aren't reports that work off tags. There are at least two options:

1. Export the Features from Align, and create your own reports in Excel or Numbers using pivot tables.

2. Leo, the BI database available with Align, would have this information. So you could use your own reporting tool (PowerBI, Tableau, Excel) to create the custom reports that you're looking for.

(I'm sure there are other options, but these are the two that leap to mind.) 

[Shawn Kessler]

Correct, tags are exported with the object in Leo. Leo users have them in both comma list and single value format for report labels or filters.

[Corey King]

Thank you @Rich Sparks and @Shawn Kessler I appreciate the quick and helpful response. I'll run an experiment and circle back to let you know how it went. 

[Corey King]

I'm happy to report that I'm happy :)

We ran the exports against stories, etc. (more on that in a minute), built a pivot, create V lookups, and lo and behold we have a treasure trove of data that is quite astonishing. So, thank you for the insightful help @Rich Sparks and @Shawn Kessler 

Observations / questions:

• As I understand the export function (correct me if I'm incorrect), we have to download the data separately (i.e. one report for stories, another report for features, etc.); if that is correct, this seems strange to not offer a report that behaves similar to the "WIP by State" report or "Trace this Epic" functionality. 
• The functionality described above seems like an obvious report to have in the system under one of the many dropdown questions; e.g. "Are we going to finish this PI on time?"
• Is the above functionality in the tool today and I'm just missing it, or is it on the planned roadmap? 

Thank you again; I truly appreciate the fantastic help! 

[Shawn Kessler]

Hi @Corey King --glad to hear you are happy :)

For your first bullet point, you are correct with your understanding of the export function.

It seems like you are already familiar with the WIP Report:

https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005258428-10X-Work-In-Process-by-State

and the Trace Report:

https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000137753-10X-View-Work-Item-Relationships-with-the-Trace-Report

Can you be more specific about the type of report you are requesting? I can always bring Product Management into the discussion if needed. Maybe @Rich Sparks has some suggestions?

[Corey King]

OK, let's circle back to my response to dig a bit into where I was going with respect to more in-depth data interpretation and ideas for the JA product roadmap.

Here's where my head's at: The tool is used by coaches, teams, product, program and portfolio leaders, etc. and thus the type of reporting must vary greatly; however, all of my recommendations use existing data and/or functionality but in a new way:

• Enhancement #1: As Rich showed, numerous reports already know the parent/child relationship of all work items, so use that to enable the download of all work items from Initiatives to Stories as a single report and pre-grouped. Today that is not possible and it requires multiple downloads and merging via a V Lookup to correctly match work items -- I feel is an opportunity to improve the product and it's quite simple to enable.

• Enhancement #2: With the above data downloaded and massaged, I now have powerful insights regarding the accuracy and consistency of a Team's (or an entire Program or Portfolio's) work item size estimation (visualized as a distribution scatter plot based with size and effort axes).
• ...by itself, this is telling but now couple this with JA's existing functionality on Epic and Feature cards of manually entering initial estimations to be compared to the final size to see the delta,
• ...and now add the "scope added" report and you have an incredibly powerful data-driven narrative that makes clear precisely where things are working well and where coaching is needed

• Enhancement #3: This one requires a bit of lifting but it will add tremendous value. I like that we can "capture" burndowns and other reporting graphics. And I like the hover state of expected v actual burn by date. What would be great is if for reporting users were able to show causation between changes in Planned v Actual by pulling/linking data from the impediments, dependencies, scope change, etc. fields/reports to illustrate root cause on the actual burndown itself. 

If anywhere above I've mentioned a capability already available, please let me know. I may be unfamiliar with existing functionality, or my org may have toggled off some functionality (I know that some has been). 

@Shawn Kessler and @Rich Sparks thanks for the ongoing chat, responding to my queries, and humoring my ideas. If you like, I can end this thread. If you have questions, comments, etc., happy to take it offline -- my profile has my contact info should you need it. Just let me know. And thanks again! 

[Shawn Kessler]

@Corey King thanks for the details! That is very helpful! I am going to add a few more people to the discussion thread.

@Caz is a product manager, who can address roadmap and enhancement requests.

@Jeremy Stokeld is our BI guru, and may be able to help you with custom reports.

[Rich Sparks]

Thanks, @Shawn Kessler , I was going to propose @Corey King look at our BI solution too. If there's a need for custom reporting (and Corey has lots of great ideas), then using our BI solution with whatever visualization tool is available might be a great solution.

[Deja Webb]

Hi ! I wanted to add to this. We gather metrics of how much time is spent by developers during Sprints, broad scale, epics with tempo, and we tie our epics all the way down to Sprints to specific clients by way of labels. We utilize the above views, however, our team is trying to compare how much time specific teams, or even more granular, specific developers contribution to specific clients. Is there a current view or a way to create this view?

[Rich Sparks]

There are a number of different reports that show progress in the PI, and each support slightly different perspectives. There's the Program Increment Progress report, where you can look at burndowns or burnups for the story and feature level. Here you can drill into specific epics or teams, but it gives you an idea if you're on track to have those work items all accepted by the end of the PI.

You might also look at the Program Tracking report (contact your Align administrator if it is not available in the Program menu.)

https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000122154-10X-Program-Tracking

It shows the status of all the work objects you have, including epics, objectives, dependencies and so on. This view below just shows the state of epics and features (capabilities aren't enabled in this portfolio.) If you're midway through a PI, this view might be acceptable. If you're nearing the end of the PI, this view is quite pessimistic.
The Program Increment Cleanup Report shows how much work is remaining. This report is really useful as you're starting planning for the next PI, as it shows you what might need to be moved.

https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004903548-10X-Program-Increment-Cleanup

And, of course, the Program Board gives a great view of how all the features and dependencies are coming together for your program and teams.

https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005049268-10X-Program-Board

[Corey King]

@Rich Sparks I appreciate the response; however, I believe I did not articulate myself well, as I know about and use the above reporting. I'll respond to @Shawn Kessler 's question with what I meant by more in-depth reports.