We invited you to our "Ask the Experts" session at the Platform Analytics Academy on April 3rd, 2024. Known for their rich content, these sessions included engaging Q&As with our Platform Analytics Experts. Attendees were encouraged to submit questions promptly for tailored answers, enhancing their understanding of Platform Analytics in a professional, interactive setting.
Questions & Answers
Q1: What advice do you have for creating indicators and breakdowns from database views?
- Additional Resources to support the Q1:
- April 19th, 2023 - Metric Indicators in Platform Analytics Workspace
- October 4th, 2023 - Mastering Data Relationships
Q2: I want to change my breakdown source that will ultimately provide the same results but with a different table and condition. However, there are scores stored using this breakdown source and it is preventing me from changing the source. Is there a way to do this while preserving the data?
Q3: Customers love the NLQ in Now Assist Panel examples, like “I want a chart of all incidents in the last 30 days by category” and it responds with a few chart options. Is there a tentative timeline for that? What about just redirecting those prompts to the already existing NLQ prompt area in View/Run?
Q4: How often are you upgrading the Migration Center with the latest updates? Are the upgrades part of a normal release or patch? My company upgraded a lower environment to the Washington Release a month or two ago. I see a warning in the Migration Center to upgrade it for the latest updates.
Q5: Do you have any additional information regarding the reports and dashboard migration process to the platform analytics center and what are the necessary actions?
- Additional Resources to support the Q5:
- Platform Analytics Enablement Toolkit
- March 20th, 2024 - Platform Analytics Migration Center
- January 24, 2024 - Platform Analytics "Collateral & Enablement"
Q6: We use Business Rule Query to show/Hide cases based on who should see each service type. However, we have noticed that the Analytics Center does not Respect these business rules and shows all cases to all agents in the Analytics Center UI (works in classic list view). Is this expected behavior?
Q7: Can a custom column(s) be created within a database view to separate two sets of data available within the same table but not easily filterable otherwise?
Q8: Had a couple of line managers ask how to report on incidents by assigned on day to the agent. This seems to not be available unless metric is set up and non-admin cannot access metrics with oob acl's. Is there a better way to have them pull this in their reports?
Q9: What is the panels recommended approach to simplifying survey reporting? Data is spread across multiple tables. I typically run with task assessment details so that the ticket and survey data fields are all available and it's simple to report on the responses to one question but there never seems to be a simple way to present a clear view of all the questions and answers without multiple click-throughs.
- Additional Resources to support the Q9:
- Sept 23, 2020 - Simplifying Reporting on Surveys
Q10: Do you have good resources for reporting on time cards? Issues we encounter: Our timecard table is enormous, so performance is often bad, and users often want to combine the reporting with reporting on resource plans, etc
Q11: Can you fill in Targets from another table in ServiceNow?
Q12: In Performance Analytics, is there any way to get a time series widget to trend in an order other than when the record was created or closed, e.g., I would like to create a widget showing survey results trended by when the underlying ticket (for which the survey was created) was closed rather than when the survey was completed. So far, I haven't found any way in performance analytics to dot walk from the metric results table to the incident table containing the data on the underlying ticket.
- Additional Resources to support the Q12:
- Sept 23, 2020 - Simplifying Reporting on Surveys
Q13: Is Zurich a confirmed release we will no longer be able to use dashboards?
Q14: Are there going to be sessions on the Migration Center at Knowledge 24? What other training classes are planned?
Q15: For scheduling reports in Platform Analytics (PAE/PAW), the only file type options are Excel and PDF. For Excel, the file is sent as XLS format. Can CSV be available, and couldn't there also be XLSX?
Q16: Is there a way to show metrics on how often people with ITIL licenses are performing actions that require the ITIL license?
Q17: Is there any option to write a script on the aggregation option for a report?
Q18: I see dashboards in the new Platform Analytics center but it was just said that dashboards will go away in an upcoming release. what does that mean and what are we to use instead of dashboards when it goes away?
- Additional Resources to support the Q18:
Q19: Can database views be constructed with a workspace similar to CMDB Query? Or is there any plan to expand CMDB Query to work as a more universal type of interface for querying the platform as a whole?
Q20: My question is, how to identify which feature of PA - Fees or non-fees?
Q21: What is the difference between PA Standard Complimentary and PA Premium?
Questions answered via Typed Response
Q1: Can widget reports created from indicators be filtered by an interactive filter on a dashboard? If not, is there any sort of way to filter a widget report created from an indicator on a dashboard?
Answer: If you are using new next experience dashboards - then yes - the dashboard filter will automatically apply to data visualization based on the indicator (as long as the indicator has the breakdown matching the filter). If you are using responsive dashboards - then the interactive filter is not applied to the pa widgets. To filter indicator data you should add a dashboard breakdown. You can learn more about how to use/configure it here: Using breakdowns on dashboards
Q2: In Next Experience Analytics (e.g. Platform Analytics Workspace in Vancouver), when a user enters KPI Details and selects Show Records, users cannot export the data and users cannot configure the columns shown. These features are currently available in Core UI performance analytics and are pretty important. Will these be available in Next Exp Analytics in Washington?
Answer: Those capabilities are currently not available in KPI details and will not be available in Washington.
Q3: I have a question I can probably validate myself but figured could ask here instead. When a PA collection job is run and then again rerun for the same collection period, are scores collected the 2nd time added to those from the first job or are all scores replaced by the rerun? So, if I have an automated indicator on a collection job and then go and manually run the collection job again how does that impact the scores already collected?
Answer: At the time the job is run again, all the existing scores are discarded. For this reason, it’s also important to keep in mind that scores collected incrementally over time are going to be more accurate than scores collected from a historical context.
Q4: Please describe M2M tables. When should these be used?
Answer: Many to Many tables, so like a Reference field is a connection from one table to one record on another table, the many to many are similar, but where you may have multiple records on both sides. Standard related lists are based on that one2many or many2one relationship. Many CIs have one assigned location, so on the Location record, you can have the related list point to many CIs, but on the CI side, it’s just a field with Location in it. Many2Many lets you associate multiples in both directions… the one that jumps to mind for me right now is like CMDB relationships, but there are lots of places. Technically the many2many table is just an intermediate table with a reference field on both sides to connect them Like the cmdb_rel_ci table.
Q5: With an INC able to be reopened, how do you recommend updating a daily resolved INC count to be updated?
Answer: My honest approach would be to look at the number of tickets that were reopened. As far as the changes to the total number of tickets that were resolved in a day being altered by reopened tickets, that should be an almost insignificant number from that perspective (i.e. what business decision is going to be altered by the change from 573 tickets resolved on Tuesday to 569?). If it doesn’t alter my business outcome, then it’s not worth chasing down perfect accuracy (the fact that it was reopened also doesn’t necessarily change that it was marked resolved on that day, from a sheer accuracy perspective). Now, the question of what percentage of my tickets are being reopened is a different one, and I’d report on it from that perspective. It also is inclusionary versus exclusionary which makes it much easier to determine where the problem is. If I’m trying to reveal a systemic issue with tickets resolved in error, rerunning the totals after the fact isn’t going to show me the tickets that were reopened.
Q6: 1. Do you advise updating OOB metric definitions to inactive that have been replaced by PA indicators? For example, 'active' or 'resolved' metric definitions that have been replaced by Average/Summed duration indicators.
2. Are there any guidelines on metric instance data retention? We have over 100M records in the Metric [metric_instance] table, and the performance of reports on the database views makes it unusable. We are looking at creating a sys_auto_flush record to only retain 2 years' worth of data. (The goal is to use PA where possible to address slow dashboard performance – a common complaint from our users)
Answer: 1. The big differentiator to me between Metrics and Indicators is that Indicators are aggregated, whereas Metrics are specific. There’s a lot to be gained using Indicators on the Metrics table (key example: reporting on time an assignment group spent working on a ticket that they didn’t close). But ultimately where metrics are super powerful is like the metric timeline view… a ton of info on a single record, where the indicator is that aggregated summary data.
2. 2 years seems like plenty for that. It’s nice to be able to go, for example, an incident that took over a month to close, and see the progression of states, or progression of assignment groups, etc. in the metric timeline view… at 2 years, do you care anymore about the one ticket? You’ll auto aggregate and roll up any indicator scores based on the metrics, so metrics themselves you could probably make an argument for as short as 90 or 180 days.
Q7: Can you list what roles are needed to be an admin in the Platform Analytics modules and have access to create dashboards, visualizations, migrate a set of dashboards, etc but does not give admin access to the overall platform?
Answer: You can find some information on this product doc page: Platform Analytics Roles
Q8: Let's say we see the list of computers assigned to a user. We want to filter the list with users having more than 2 computers(laptop, server) assigned to them.
Answer: In your condition builder, look toward the bottom for the (usually collapsed by default) “related list conditions”. You should be able to go to the user table and in the Filters, add a related list condition that says “Related to -> more than 1 -> records on cmdb_ci_computer” or similar.
Q9: When will the Pivot Table widget allow date parsing (Month of) as a row or column selection?
Answer: We don’t have an exact date yet, but it is definitely on the roadmap of one of the key improvements
Q10: What are we supposed to use instead of dashboards and what is the difference between the dashboards and the visualizations?
Answer: We have released from Tokyo the new Platform Analytics workspace/experience and that is where the migration of analytics content will go. You can check the last session on the Migration: March 20th, 2024 - Platform Analytics Migration Center
Q11: Can reports be created for portal-only users using platform analytics?
Answer: Yes, report_admin users will maintain the access to create reports for the Service portal, similarly for pa_admins to create PA widgets
Q12: Where is the KPI Composer/Planning elements in the Platform Analytics Experience?
Answer: Right now there is nothing specific to the new Platform Analytics experience. The current KPI composer in the planning phases will still work till we are in the process of rethinking about the solution for the Platform Analytics experience.
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