Reports and metrics - where is the difference and in what use-cases

[stefanolejko]

Hey everyone,

I just discussed with a colleague what the differences are between reports and metrics. Now iam totally confused.

Can someone describe me the differences and maybe with a use case so it gets totally clear and I can explain it to him?

[Naresh27 · Accepted solution]

1. Metric is something you measure in general. the same applies in ServiceNow Metrics using Metrics definitions/Metric instance table's. Metric is tracking of a change happened on any field on any table like when/by whom/how long/old&new values. what gets tracked is instance, what you define to track is definition.
   1. for example Incident assignment group, incident can be assigned to may group in its life. so if you want to track all the changes on group like when/whom/how long it was assigned to specif/all groups.
2. On the other hand, Reports are more kind of way to show information in several ways by using data from service now tables and applying filters like incidents opened this week. As you understand. you can also create a Report an a metric.

[stefanolejko]

Thanks for your fast reply.

So when I get this right I dont display data through a metric but i use the data from a metric to build a report?

What is the difference to a data collector for performance analytics? Dont see the differences tbh.

[dangrady510]

With Performance Analytics the engine uses scheduled jobs to capture point in information about configured KPIs that the organization deems relevant to achieving business outcomes.   Take a look at this blog post that may help Context: The ABCs of Performance Analytics

[Naresh27]

Yes Stefan you got it right! You can use metrics only as a data set where you can build reports on. both are way different than what it sounds like. and in other words metric runs throughout the system to keep an eye on any change. where as report is on-demand when you load/run it. and what Slawomir explained on PA Jobs is correct.