Is it possible to create a stacked time-series visualization (Department vs Software Model) in Perfo

[shubham007]

Hi everyone,

I am currently working on a Performance Analytics dashboard in ServiceNow using par_dashboard (Platform Analytics Workspace dashboards) and have encountered a limitation while trying to design a specific visualization.

Requirement

The objective is to create a time-series visualization that:

• Shows a trend over time
• Is grouped by Department (derived from the assigned user)
• Is further split by Software Model

In essence, for each time period, I would like to display total allocations per department, with a breakdown of software models within each department (i.e., a stacked representation).

Data Context

• Source table: alm_entitlement
• Cost data resides on: alm_license
• Entitlement data is currently being used as a proxy for allocation

Challenge

Based on my analysis:

• Performance Analytics supports time-series visualizations such as line and bar charts
• Breakdowns can be applied (e.g., Department)
• I am building this using PAR dashboards in Platform Analytics Workspace

However, I have not been able to achieve a visualization that combines:

• Time-series trend
• Grouping by Department
• Stacking by Software Model

Questions

1. Is it possible to create a stacked bar or column chart for time-series data in Performance Analytics (specifically within PAR dashboards)?
2. Can multiple breakdowns (e.g., Department and Software Model) be combined in a single time-series visualization?
3. Are there any recommended approaches or workarounds to achieve this type of visualization in Platform Analytics Workspace?

Goal

The goal is to represent allocation trends by department while also showing how different software models contribute within each department over time.

I would appreciate any guidance or best practices from those who have worked on similar requirements.

Thank you.

[SebastianBarnes]

Hi @shubham007, you can definitely accomplish this.

I would actually recommend reporting from the User Allocations "alm_entitlement_user" table for this, as it will make things easier and it has all of the fields you need. Here are some steps you can follow to setup a Visualization for your dashboard:

1. Create a new visualization and choose User Allocations as your source. Add any filters here if you want to exclude certain departments or models, otherwise leave as is.

2. Choose a Time series visualization type. I'm using Column in my example.

3. For "Trend by" choose "Created" for the field, and pick your aggregation period. I recommend choosing something like month, quarter, or year. "Created" is the date that the allocation was made, so this will show you the history of allocations over time.

4. Now you can start grouping your columns. For "Group by" choose "Entitlement > Software model." Make sure to dot-walk from Entitlement.

5. Below the "Group by" you just added, you can now click "Add alternative group by." Choose "Assigned to > Department." Make sure to dot-walk here from Assigned to, you'll need this to pull the user's department info.

6. When adding your alternative group by, make sure to check "Selector visible by default." This will allow you to toggle between Department and Model view.

7. After these steps, you'll be able to see a column of all allocations by date, for each model or department. You can drill down into each section to see the list view of the records. If you want to see specific allocations per model per department at the same time, you'll need to utilize a "Filter" element on your dashboard. You can read more about these filters here: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/zurich/now-intelligence/interactive-filters-workspace.html

My recommendation would be to create your time trend report, group it by Entitlement > Software model, and then use the filter element to select the specific department(s) you want to see the data for.

8. Don't forget to turn on "Show data labels" under the Data label tab. You can also turn on a data table under Display settings. This will help you and the users quickly gauge the numbers without mousing over.

I hope this is helpful, and enough info to get you started!

Sebastian