Dashboard score

A Dashboard score showing summary performance of all dashboard metrics that have thresholds.

You can add a score to provide an automatic summary assessment of performance controls within the dashboard.

This gives you immediate insight into the health of your initiative without spending time on manual analysis and presentation.

Dashboard scores can be derived from single metrics with thresholds. Certain types of metric values prevent score calculation. For more information see Why is the score shown as N/A?

Choosing a date for the dashboard score

The score is shown for the date selected by the Date selector at the top of the page. This lets you inspect scores for any given day. 

When you select a time period, the trend chart is revised to show the period preceding the selected date.

Calculating the Dashboard score

Score calculation description.

The score is determined by how well individual controls meet your risk thresholds. Specifically, the dashboard score is the percentage of the threshold assigned metrics on the dashboard that are passing.

On any dashboard, a metric is considered passing its risk assessment if it has green or amber status.

The score is calculated as follows:

1. Count the total number of metrics on the dashboard that are assigned a threshold to assess risk, let’s call this TOTAL.
2. Of these metrics, count how many are passing with a green or amber status, call this PASSING.
3. The score is simply PASSING/TOTAL * 100 which is the percentage of TOTAL that are passing.

Adding the Dashboard score to a Dashboard

To add a Dashboard score:

• Open the ... (three dots) menu at the top-right of the page and select Add score.

Add score option.

The score is shown near the top of the page.

Dashboard score.

Using the Dashboard score trend chart

The trend chart is a useful tool for tracking performance over time and planning a response according to trend direction.

A drop or consistent downward trend indicates that one or more metrics have deteriorated and may require remediation.

Selectable time period buttons are above the chart.

Select a time period from the buttons above the chart from one of 7 Days, 1 Month, 3 Months, or 1 Year. The chart then updates with data for the period preceding the date of the score (shown in the Date selector).

Using a combination of the Date selector and the time period, you can zoom in or out on data that shows significant changes.

Why is the score shown as N/A?

To calculate the score, you must be using compatible metrics. Single metrics with thresholds can be used as they express a value and have no ambiguity.

However, you may see the score as shown in the image below if metrics are evaluated in a way that cannot be used in score calculation.

Unable to calculate Dashboard score.

There are one of three reasons the score is N/A:

• No metrics with thresholds. The Dashboard score depends entirely on metrics with thresholds as it is a percentage of passing metrics. Without thresholds there can be no assessment of pass or fail. 

• Metrics with missing data. It is rare, but there may be occasions when the data is not available due to an issue with data collection. Although temporary, when this happens there’s no way of knowing if the metric is passing or failing and so the score would not be accurate until the data is restored. For this reason, the score is not calculated.

  
  A Metric with missing data.
   
• Metrics with breakdowns. Metrics broken down across dimensions represent a challenge in establishing pass/fail due to the data's multiplicity. This is explained in more detail below.

Avoiding metric breakdowns for Dashboard scores

There are some important issues to be aware of when you are using metrics with breakdowns to contribute to the calculation of a Dashboard score. 

Metrics with thresholds that have breakdowns applied are not included in the Dashboard score.

Below you can see an example of a metric that is subject to a breakdown.

A metric broken down by data source and business unit.

When metrics are segmented by dimensions, there are several methods to calculate the overall score. For example, you could calculate it on a per-region basis to understand how many regions meet the criteria.

Alternatively, you might total the individual scores from each cell, integrating all dimension values into the final assessment. This raises ambiguity on how to determine a final assessment.

To ensure clarity and consistency, we've chosen to exclude metrics with breakdowns from contributing to the dashboard score. This approach avoids ambiguity and simplifies data interpretation.

Best practice for metric breakdowns and Dashboard scores

To have metrics contribute to the Dashboard score, you should create individual metrics for each specific combination of properties, rather than using breakdowns over a single metric.

For instance, create separate metrics for each pairing of data source and business unit, such as one for Corporate and Active Directory (AD). Continue this process for each desired combination to effectively contribute to the Dashboard score.

How metric breakdowns impact RAG totals for Dashboard scores

The threshold counts for a breakdown metric that you can see at the top right of the metric, are added to the total counts at the top of the page. However, the metric totals for a breakdown metric are not factored into the Dashboard score calculations.

Metric RAG totals are always added to the Dashboard RAG totals, but totals from metrics with breakdowns are not used in the Dashboard score.