Overview
Metrics is a flexible tool that allows you to save certain measurements for further comparison or analysis and may serve as custom performance or quality marks. With the help of Metrics, you can pick the required information from a timeline set and turn it into a separate unit.
In Timeline, being a separate tool, Metrics are not independent. They become a base for detailed analysis in such tools as Aggregations and Charts.
You can create timeline sets based on certain time periods, and, for each of them, a metric for the time gap between two events, for example, the obtaining of a package by a courier and the delivery to a customer. Put these metrics on a Dashboard as a Chart to be compared with similar ones from other time frames: months, weeks, etc. Thereby, you will get a visual representation of the possible deviations and the freedom to analyze the influence of external factors on the stability of your shipping service. You will not have to configure the comparison every time, since you have saved custom metrics.
How to configure a Metric
- Open Metrics tool. To do it, click
> Project configuration > Metrics.
- Click + Create.
- Set the Name for the metric.
- To determine the purpose of the metric later, add a description.
- Choose a Set name to base the metric on.
- Choose and configure metric type.
Show metric types
| Type |
Description and configuration |
| Attribute distinct count |
Shows the number of distinctive values for the given attribute in the chosen set.
Additional steps to configure:
Choose a pair of an event and its attribute (a dimension) by clicking + select dimensions...
|
| Attribute duration |
Shows the time difference between attributes or timestamps of the same event.
Important. Creation of this metric is possible only if the used data set contains enough timestamp-related information: date/time attributes or different timestamps within a single event.
Additional steps to configure:
- Choose one of the aggregator functions. *
- Select an event whose attributes should be measured.
- Define Attribute timestamps with different date/time attributes from your uploaded data. You can use event timestamps as well, but only if the selected event has more than one.
Note. The timestamps in the interval should be different for the valid metric configuration.
|
| Attribute value |
Shows the certain attribute values in timelines based on the chosen aggregator function. *
Note. This metric can be applied only to the attributes with type number.
Additional steps to configure:
- Choose one of the aggregator functions.
- Choose a pair of an event and its attribute (a dimension) by clicking + select dimensions... Make sure that the attribute has the type number.
|
| Business duration |
Shows the business duration of timelines based on the chosen aggregator function. *
The calculation is done according to the Calendar tool settings, so it is impossible to save this metric type in a project without an applied Calendar.
To learn how to set a calendar and for general information about the tool, see Calendars.
Additional steps to configure:
Choose one of the aggregator functions.
|
| Cost |
Counts the cost of timelines based on the chosen aggregator function. *
Only events with configured costs are calculated.
Additional steps to configure:
- Choose one of the aggregator functions.
- Optional. Choose a specific event to count its cost. Otherwise, all happened events will be counted.
|
| Cost of events |
Counts the cost of events based on the chosen aggregator function. *
Events without set cost (with cost 0) are also included in the calculation.
Additional steps to configure:
- Choose one of the aggregator functions.
- If needed, choose a specific event.
|
| Count of events |
Shows the total occurrence number of events or a single event in the chosen set.
Additional steps to configure:
Optional. Choose a specific event to count its occurrence. Otherwise, all happened events will be counted.
|
| Count of events per timeline |
Shows the number of events or a specific one in timelines based on the chosen aggregator function. *
Additional steps to configure:
- Choose one of the aggregator functions.
- Optional. Choose a specific event to count its occurrence in one timeline. Otherwise, all happened events will be counted.
|
| Count of timelines |
Shows the number of timelines in the chosen set. |
| Count of unique events per timeline |
Shows the number of events that occur only once in the chosen set of timelines. Based on the chosen aggregator function. *
Additional steps to configure:
Choose one of the aggregator functions.
|
| Derived metric |
Shows the calculation of two metrics depending on the chosen arithmetical operator.
Additional steps to configure:
- Choose formatting: number, cost, time, business time (according to the Calendar tool's settings).
- Set first and second metrics, that should be calculated.
- Select an operator:
- "+" - addition
- "-" - subtraction
- "*" - multiplication
- "/" - division
- "^" - raise to the power of
|
| Duration |
Shows the overall duration of timelines based on the chosen aggregator function. *
Additional steps to configure:
Choose one of the aggregator functions.
|
| Event duration |
Shows the time gap between two certain events based on the chosen aggregator function. *
Additional steps to configure:
- Choose one of the aggregator functions.
- To set the interval, choose start and end events by clicking the "+" icons. Select a pair of an event and its attribute or toggle on Any event.
Note. Only one start and end event can be chosen.
- For events that occur more than once in a timeline, make sure to choose if the first or the last occurrence should be used.
- Optional. If you have attributes that contain additional timestamps in your current data set, you can choose to use their values as Time attributes instead of those from the column mapped as Timestamp upon data upload.
|
| * - The aggregator function is a mathematical function where the values of multiple data sets are grouped together to form a single summary value. In Timeline you can use the following aggregators: min; max; average; sum; median; 10, 25, 75, 90 percentiles; standard deviation. |
- Click Save to apply settings.
Metrics in other tools and analysis modules
Aggregations
In this tool, you can combine your metrics with dimensions and display the result in a table view.
For general information about the tool, see Aggregations.
Charts
Charts can be based on metrics. Add an already existing metric or create a new one to use it as a chart source for further visualization. With the help of such charts, you can add your metrics to dashboards and the Board side of the Process view analysis module.
For general information about the tool, see Charts.
Side-by-side analysis
Metrics are the main elements for this analysis module. Add your created metrics to the Side-by-side analysis to get a visualized comparison on one screen.
For general information about this analysis module, see Side by Side Comparison.
Dashboard
The metric list can be accessed directly from a dashboard. You can check this list to find out what metrics are already created in this project or create new required metrics to simplify the creation of the correct charts based on them.
Important. The metric list is available only for users who have User, Data manager, or Administrator role in the project where the needed dashboard is contained.
For general information about the Dashboard feature, see Dashboards.