Connect your Metrics to Measures

You can build a "Performance of Single Metric" widget to analyze how an imported metric has performed over time. Based on the performance trend, you can then connect the metrics (either imported from a source or created manually or from aggregation of metrics) to measures to track their progress in Cascade. When the metrics are created, they'll show the historical trend of how the metric has progressed over time. The initial and target values that you set while connecting a metric to a measure will define its expected progress.

Click the metric tile to view its information from the Sidebar:

New20Metric20sidebar

You can either create a new measure to connect to the imported metrics or add the metrics to an existing measure in your workspace. You can do this in any of the following ways:

  • Hover the mouse over the metric tile, and click the Measure20icon20in20metrics-1(measure icon).

  • Click the three dots in the metric tile, and click Create measure from metric.

  • Open the metric in Sidebar view, and click the three dots. Click Add metric to measure.

  • From the Measures tab in Sidebar view, click Create new measure from this metric.

Create a new measure from the metrics:

You can access the Add metric to measure page in one of the ways mentioned above.

Before you begin: Make sure you have the plan, focus area, and the relevant objective already created in the workspace. Also, you need to be an Admin or someone with edit permissions on the plan to create a new measure from the metric.

To connect a new measure to a metric:

  1. Plan & focus area - Select the relevant plan and the focus area from the drop-down list.

  2. Objective - Select the objective to which you need to associate the new measure. Once selected, the due dates of the objective will be displayed.

  3. Measure - Select New measure

    1. Name: Give it a proper title.

    2. Dates: You can either select the check box to have the same due dates as the associated objective, or choose your own due dates from the date picker. Remember that, the dates must be within the date range of the parent objective.

If the metric has datapoints beyond the end date of the measure, it'll no longer automatically sync those data, i.e., the measure stops pulling in data from the metric once its end date is passed. You need to either change the end date of the measure or click Sync now manually every time the value in the metric changes to sync the data in the metric and the measure.

    1. Owner: Assign the measure an owner from the list.Connect20metric20to20measure

  1. Click Continue.

    1. Target - Choose the Target type and set the target values to track the progress of a measure.

      If you wish to customize the tracking option of the measure, choose the relevant Maintain option from the Target type dropdown. Set the target limits and the critical limits to track and visualize the measure progress. See Maintain measures article for detailed information.Metric20specs20in20measure

  2. Expected progress - Choose the update cadence depending on when you would like to make an update. If the Send update reminders based on the expected progress schedule check-box is selected, then the owner of the measure will be notified to make updates. If not selected, then from the measure's sidebar, you can do it from the Set schedule against Update schedule section. See Set-up Reminders for Goal Updates for details.

  3. Click Create measure.

The measure will be created and displayed in the Measure Sidebar view. The metrics from which it is connected is displayed, and you can click on it to view or edit the metric details.

Metrics20measure

You can edit it to add more context like description, assign collaborators, add risks, and so on. You can also make updates, and share feedback with comments to collaborate. See The 'Sidebar' article for more information.

Connect an existing measure to the metric:

You can access the Add metric to measure page in one of the following ways mentioned above. Also, to connect an existing measure to a metric, you can navigate to the relevant measure, and edit it from its Sidebar.

Before you begin: Make sure you have the plan, focus area, objective, and the relevant measure already created in the workspace. Also, you need to be an Admin or someone with edit permissions on the plan to add a metric to an existing measure.

To connect an existing measure to a metric:

  1. Plan & focus area - Select the relevant plan and the focus area from the drop-down list.

  2. Objective - Select the objective to which the relevant measure is associated with. Once selected, the due dates of the objective will be displayed.

  3. Measure - Select Existing measure, and choose the measure from the list.Connect20metric20to20existing20measure

  4. Click Continue.

  5. Target - Choose the Target type and set the target values to track the progress of a measure.

    If you wish to customize the tracking option of the measure, choose the relevant Maintain option from the Target type dropdown. Set the target limits and the critical limits to track and visualize the measure progress. See Maintain measures article for detailed information.Metric20specs20in20existing20measure

  6. Click Add metric.

You can also connect an existing measure to a metric in this way - Navigate to the relevant measure, and edit it from its Sidebar:

  1. Under the Tracking section, select Metrics library from the drop-down list.Tracking20section20for20metric20conected20measure1

  2. In the Metric Name field, choose the metrics from the list.

  3. Choose the Target type and set the target values to track the progress of a measure.

    If you wish to customize the tracking option of the measure, choose the relevant Maintain option from the Target type dropdown. Set the target limits and the critical limits to track and visualize the measure progress. See Maintain measures article for detailed information.

  4. Expected progress - Choose the update cadence depending on when you would like to make an update. If the Send update reminders based on the expected progress schedule check-box is selected, then the owner of the measure will be notified to make updates.

  5. Click Save.

The measure will be connected to the metrics and can now be tracked accurately. Note that, the initial value in the measure is defaulted to the value of the metric on the day of the measure’s start date. You can now pull these measures created or connected from the metrics into reports and dashboards to gain powerful insights.

When a measure is connected to a metric in a relationship (calculated or related), you can see a sub-measure relationship with those child metrics or measures connected to the relevant child metrics in the Planner page. If you wish to explore more on sub-measure feature, please reach out to us and we can enable it for you.

FAQs

Is it mandatory to connect a metric to a measure?

No. But if you connect the metric to a measure, its progress can be tracked alongside its strategic objectives. From the metric, you can understand its historical trend, and then connect it to a measure with deadlines and target to track it more effectively. This measure can then be grouped with projects to improvise the metric's performance and be associated with a strategic objective or an outcome that you wish for.

Why do we need to assign targets when connecting to measures?

The initial and target values that you set while connecting a metric to a measure will define its expected progress, and help with the measure's health calculation. This is important to track the performance of the measure connected with a metric.

Can I connect the same metric to different measures?

Yes, that's the main advantage of using metrics. However, be careful when you connect the same metrics to different measures and not get confused by them.

Can I add historical data points to the measure? Will they overwrite the data that was already present?

Yes. In case of manually tracked measures or measures connected to manual metrics, you can do this from their Goal hub page. Click Edit data in the Measure table area; in the case of measures connected to manual metrics, this'll open up the metric table. Click the three dots beside the table rows to add rows to add a historical data point. If you wish to update the value in the past that's already present, then the value you now enter will overwrite the previous one and reflect in the progress chart. You can change the value in the Expected progress/target column too from here.

If the tracking is done from the Metrics library or using Integrations, and if you wish to edit the value or add historical data points, then those need to be done in the source and not from within Cascade.

What happens if the measure's end date is passed but the metrics still has data points in the present?

In this case, you'll not see any data points on the measure beyond its end date. But if you wish to see actual data which the metric is still pulling in, there're 2 ways:

  • Change the measure's end date to a date in the future so that it'll keep syncing with the metric.

  • Click Sync now manually every time you need to sync the data from the metric.