Breakdown Matrix Vs Breakdown Relation Vs Breakdown Rollup in Performance Analytics
In this article we will be deep diving in breakdowns and looking at different use cases and variety of breakdowns you can create withing ServiceNow Performance analytics.
As we know what breakdowns are already, let’s discuss on
Breakdown Matrix: First, we need to understand the limitation when it comes to multi-level breakdowns, PA allows you to dive only up to two levels of breakdowns in a single view when your indicator has many breakdowns already provided the breakdown matrix is also checked for you indicator. Once you check the collect breakdown matrix you will see a warning, you can consider breakdown matrix exclusion for some breakdown, if necessary, that will not just improve the performance of PA data collection but also avoid any unnecessary data piling in PA scorecard tables.
For example, if a breakdown element is selected (Critical) form the first level of breakdown (Priority) you can only select one more level of element from any mapped breakdown.
Once you select the second level breakdown element, the option for breakdown 3rd level will never appear see below:
Breakdown Relation:
Once we are aware of the limitations with the breakdown Matrix, breakdown relations can come handy as an alternative. It doesn’t provide the exact same functionality as of breakdown matrix but a bit similar to it. First, Breakdown relations are supposed to be configured if you want to use it, in simple word it is a relationship between two breakdowns with same or different fact tables, and allows you to move from one breakdown element to another breakdown element if they are related. For example: Let say you have selected a breakdown element from any breakdown may be “software” element from “Assigned Group” Breakdown, now if you have to see the element of ”Assigned to” Breakdown, first of all you will be presented with all the elements from Assigned to breakdown see below:
And moreover you can only go to one more level because of restriction on breakdown matrix, now if we create a relationship between “Assignment group” and “Assigned to” breakdown we can achieve following things: a) We can only show the related elements from “Assigned to” breakdown, which means only people who are the members of the selected group from 1st level breakdown. b) After selecting an element from related breakdown you still have the ability to move the 2nd level breakdown. So, let’s do the configuration, we will start with the breakdown where you want to show the related breakdown options, in our case we will select “Assignment group” Breakdown, Select new form the related list of Breakdown Relations see below:
Once the configuration is completed let’s look at the result. First we will select the assignment group “software” , and we will end up with two breakdowns, one is “Assigned to” but the other is related breakdown that we have created ”Related Members” where you can only see the members belong to software group.
Now, if we select the related member (Beth Anglin), it will replace the 1st level of breakdown from software to Beth Anglin, and you will still have the ability to select 2nd level if there are any.
Breakdown Rollup:
The Breakdown rollup is a one kind of Breakdown Relation. The result of it also differs from the Breakdown relations as that we have learnt so far, and it uses a script to create an array of hierarchical breakdown elements. As a result, each drilldown into a Breakdown Element with a Breakdown rollup allows to navigate to the Parent breakdown element. In the example shown here, you can drill into Incidents by Caller located at a specific location Pune. From there, you can navigate to all incidents by callers from Maharashtra. And from there, you can navigate to all incidents by callers from India etc.
To understand this better let assume that on give day the number of open incidents by caller cities are in “bracket” (). The Rollup will help you to navigate and see the cumulative results at parent location as well. See below for example:
Above is the number of open incidents you will see from India which will be the cumulative of all the open incidents from the child location of India, i.e. (Karnataka + Maharashtra + Telangana), this is only possible when you are using the breakdown rollup using a script. To do this configuration you can use following script:
