We are organizing for and regularly reviewing Performance Indicators (PIs) in order to enable a dialog between ourselves (all of R&D) about most effective use of our R&D efforts towards the most impactful improvements. As a result we should:
As a communication tool, Performance Indicators are only as useful as the range of the audience. As a result we should:
| Stage/Group | PI Type | PI | Health | SaaS / SM | Implementation Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ops | Section TMAU | Sum of Ops Section SMAU | Okay | Both | Complete |
| Verify, Verify:CI | GMAU, SMAU | Unique users triggering pipelines | Okay | Both | Complete |
| Verify:Pipeline Authoring | GMAU | Number of unique users interacting with gitlab-ci.yml file | Unknown | Both | Implementation |
| Verify:Runner | Other | Total downloads of runner binaries and docker images per month for self-managed | Unknown | SM | Definition |
| Verify:Testing | Paid GMAU | Count of active paid testing feature users | Problem | Both | Implementation |
| Package:Package | SMAU, GMAU | Count of users publishing packages | Unknown | Both | In Progress |
| Release, Release:Progressive Delivery, Release:Release Management | SMAU, GMAU | Count of users triggering deployments using GitLab | Okay | Both | Complete |
| Configure:Configure | SMAU, GMAU | Proxy user count based on attached clusters | Okay | Both | Complete |
| Monitor:Monitor | SMAU, GMAU | Unique users that interact with Alerts and Incidents | Okay | Both | Complete |
A sum of all SMAUs across the five stages in the Ops Section (Verify, Package, Release, Configure & Monitor)
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: 2.1M by End of Q4
Is Primary PI: true
URL(s)
Metric Name: ci_pipelines, incident_management_total_unique_counts_monthly, deployments, packages
Chart (Sisense↗)
Secondary Chart (Sisense↗)
Tertiary Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Complete
A rolling count of unique users triggering pipelines in the last 28 days because CI is the foundation for several downstream product areas, and improving SMAU for people using pipelines is important to help with discovery of these further features.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: Our FY21 Q4 target is to see 10% growth month over month. We are tracking towards a goal of 680,000 unique users triggering pipelines by end of FY21 (Jan 31, 2021) as combined total for SaaS and Reported Self-Managed.
Is Primary PI: true
Metric Name: ci_pipelines
Chart (Sisense↗)
Secondary Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Complete
Count the number of users that are pushing MRs to gitlab-ci.yml files. Since we'd like to count the on-going usage of our users with pipelines.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Is Primary PI: true
Metric Name: Average time to first green pipeline - PI The average amount of time it takes to go from running your first pipeline to your first green one.
Secondary Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Implementation
The count of CI minutes used per month on GitLab.com Linux Shared Runners with the Docker executor. These are CI minutes as defined by those pipelines that are executed on runner managers with the label shared-runners-manager-X. One of our strategic focus areas is increasing total monthly active users (TMAU). Providing customers on GitLab SaaS, a performant, and full-featured build infrastructure supports that strategy. Therefore, we believe that measuring CI minutes usage by platform is a leading indicator of future performance. Also, there are several potential future investment areas for Linux Runners on GitLab SaaS, such as offering multiple virtual machine types. We must evaluate these investments with the strategic focus areas in mind.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: SaaS
Target: Growth rate of 5% monthly.
Metric Name: NA
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Target
The count of CI minutes used per month on GitLab.com Windows Shared Runners with the Shell executor. These are CI minutes as defined by those pipelines that are executed on runner managers with the label windows-shared-runners-manager-X. Measuring CI minutes usage by each platform is an excellent leading indicator of future performance. We must have a clear understanding of use and adoption to more effectively forecast the impact of future investments in GitLab SaaS Windows Runners on our strategic focus areas.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: SaaS
Target: Growth rate of 20% monthly. One million Windows Runner minutes used per month (not counting gitlab internal use) by Nov 31 2021.
Metric Name: NA
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Target
Count of downloads of runner binaries and docker images grouped by platform. We believe that measuring the downloads of runner binaries and Docker images by platform and analyzing the trends over month by month basis will provide insight into whether we are making the right investments in core runner features and capabilities. The assumption is that if self-managed users continue to maintain and upgrade their GitLab Runner build infrastructure, this may suggest continued long-term use of GitLab as their DevOps platform.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: SM
Target: TBD
Is Primary PI: true
Metric Name: NA
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Definition
A rolling count of unique users who have interacted with a paid testing feature in the last 28 days.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Is Primary PI: true
Metric Name: NA
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Problem
Implementation Status: Implementation
A count of events in which a package is published to the Package Registry on GitLab.com.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: SaaS
Target: The FY21 Q4 target is to see 10% growth month over month. We are tracking towards a goal of 240,000 packages published by end of FY21 (Jan 31, 2021) for GitLab.com.
Metric Name: NA
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Target
The maximum distinct count of users who published a package to the Package Registry. In the future, this value will the distinct count of users across all Package AMAUs.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: 10% higher than current month (SaaS and self-managed combined)
Is Primary PI: true
Metric Name: packages
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: In Progress
The distinct count of users who interact with a package that is installed from the Package Registry.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: 10% higher than current month (SaaS and self-managed combined)
Metric Name: packages
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Data Availability
A rolling count of unique users triggering deployments with Gitlab in the last 28 days.
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: Our FY21 Q4 target will be 30% growth, sustaining at least 10% growth MoM, given that retention is at 89%.
Is Primary PI: true
URL(s)
Metric Name: deployments
Chart (Sisense↗)
Secondary Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Complete
A rolling count of users creating releases in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: Our FY21 Q4 is 10%.
Metric Name: release_management
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Target
A rolling count of unique users that have at least one project on their environment dashboard in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Definition
A rolling count of unique users that have triggered pipelines with a HashiCorp Vault Variable in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Definition
A rolling count of unique users that have at least one release associated to a group milestone in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Definition
A rolling count of unique users that have a Pages project in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Definition
A rolling count of users triggering feature flag toggles with Gitlab in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Problem
A rolling count of users triggering automatic deployments (in without any manual activity) with Gitlab in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Definition
A rolling count of unique users triggering pipelines which created a review app with Gitlab in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Definition
A rolling count of users using advanced deployments, namely, canary and incremental rollouts with Gitlab in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Unknown
Implementation Status: Definition
A rolling count of users using using AutoDevOps or Ci templates to deploy to AWS based on cloud_service:$CI_CLUSTER_CLOUD_SERVICE_TYPE in the last 28 days.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: TBD
Metric Name: TBD
Health: Problem
A count of all users in projects that have an attached cluster because project users receive benefit from the cluster without direct usage.
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: 16000
Is Primary PI: true
Metric Name: project_clusters_enabled, group_clusters_enabled, instance_clusters_enabled
Chart (Sisense↗)
Secondary Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Complete
A rolling count of the number of projects using GitLab Managed Terraform State in the last 28 days
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: 3000 by end of Q4FY21
URL(s)
Metric Name: projects_with_terraform_states
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
Implementation Status: Target
A rolling count of the number of GitLab Kubernetes Agent instances in the last 28 days
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: 100 by the end of Q4FY21
URL(s)
Metric Name: kubernetes_agents
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Problem
Implementation Status: Target
Unique users that interacted with alerts or incidents. _This metric represents the GMAU for the Monitor:Monitor group as well as the SMAU for the Monitor stage. It is based on usage of the Incident Management category which is the only category in the group or stage that is being actively developed. The definition for Monitor SMAU will be seperated from Monitor:Monitor GMAU when we are able to expand the definition to include usage of the other categories. That work is currently not a priority._
Funnel Description: Handbook Link
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: 12,000 Estimated total SMAU
Is Primary PI: true
URL(s)
Metric Name: incident_management_total_unique_counts_monthly
Chart (Sisense↗)
Secondary Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
complete maturity for the category, we expect this value to continue to grow at a steady rate.Implementation Status: Complete
Count of projects creating incidents
SaaS/SM: Both
Target: 2,500 projects where incidents are being created for GitLab.com by the end of Q4 - January 2021
Metric Name: projects_creating_incidents
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Okay
complete maturity - enabling users to integrate any alerting tool with GitLab and on-call schedule management.Implementation Status: Complete
Count of users viewing the alert list, alerts detail pages, and changing the status on alerts
SaaS/SM: SaaS
Target: TBD once we [instrument Alerts MAU](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/277164)
Metric Name: update_alert_status, view_alerts_list, view_alert_details
Chart (Sisense↗)
Health: Problem
Implementation Status: Complete
| Value | Level | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Okay | The KPI is at an acceptable level compared to the threshold |
| 2 | Attention | This is a blip, or we’re going to watch it, or we just need to enact a proven intervention |
| 1 | Problem | We'll prioritize our efforts here |
| 0 | Unknown | Unknown |
Pages, such as the Engineering Function Performance Indicators page are rendered by an ERB template that contains HTML code.
Other PI Pages sectionThese ERB templates calls custom helper functions that extract and transform data from the Performance Indicators data file.
kpi_list_by_org(org) helper function takes a required string argument named org (deparment or division level) that returns all the KPIs (pi.is_key == true) for a specific organization grouping (pi.org == org) from the Performance Indicators data file.pi_maturity_level(performance_indicator) helper function automatically assigns a maturity level based on the availability of certain data properties for a particular PI.pi_maturity_reasons(performance_indicator) helper function returns a reason for a PI maturity based on other data properties.performance_indicators(org) takes a required string argument named org (deparment or division level) that returns two lists - a list of all KPIs and a list of all PIs for a specific organization grouping (department/division).signed_periscope_url(data) takes in the sisense_data property information from Performance Indicators data files and returns a signed chart URL for embedding a Sisense chart into the handbook.The heart of pages like this are Performance Indicators data files which are YAML files. Each - denotes a dictionary of values for a new (K)PI. The current elements (or data properties) are:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
name |
Required | String value of the name of the (K)PI. For Product PIs, product hierarchy should be separate from name by " - " (Ex. {Stage Name}:{Group Name} - {PI Type} - {PI Name} |
base_path |
Required | Relative path to the performance indicator page that this (K)PI should live on |
definition |
Required | refer to Parts of a KPI |
parent |
Optional | should be used when a (K)PI is a subset of another PI. For example, we might care about Hiring vs Plan at the company level. The child would be the division and department levels, which would have the parent flag. |
target |
Required | The target or cap for the (K)PI. Please use Unknown until we reach maturity level 2 if this is not yet defined. For GMAU, the target should be quarterly. |
org |
Required | the organizational grouping (Ex: Engineering Function or Development Department). For Product Sections, ensure you have the word section (Ex : Dev Section) |
section |
Optional | the product section (Ex: dev) as defined in sections.yml |
stage |
Optional | the product stage (Ex: release) as defined in stages.yml |
group |
Optional | the product group (Ex: progressive_delivery) as defined in stages.yml |
category |
Optional | the product group (Ex: feature_flags) as defined in categories.yml |
is_key |
Required | boolean value (true/false) that indicates if it is a (key) performance indicator |
health |
Required | indicates the (K)PI health and reasons as nested attributes. This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. |
health.level |
Optional | indicates a value between 0 and 3 (inclusive) to represent the health of the (K)PI. This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. |
health.reasons |
Optional | indicates the reasons behind the health level. This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. Should be an array (indented lines starting with dashes) even if you only have one reason. |
urls |
Optional | list of urls associated with the (K)PI. Should be an array (indented lines starting with dashes) even if you only have one url |
funnel |
Optional | indicates there is a handbook link for a description of the funnel for this PI. Should be a URL |
sisense_data |
Optional | allows a Sisense dashboard to be embeded as part of the (K)PI using chart, dashboard, and embed as neseted attributes. |
sisense_data.chart |
Optional | indicates the numeric Sisense chart/widget ID. For example: 9090628 |
sisense_data.dashboard |
Optional | indicates the numeric Sisense dashboard ID. For example: 634200 |
sisense_data.shared_dashboard |
Optional | indicates the numeric Sisense shared_dashboard ID. For example: 185b8e19-a99e-4718-9aba-96cc5d3ea88b |
sisense_data.embed |
Optional | indicates the Sisense embed version. For example: v2 |
sisense_data_secondary |
Optional | allows a second Sisense dashboard to be embeded. Same as sisense data |
sisense_data_secondary.chart |
Optional | Same as sisense_data.chart |
sisense_data_secondary.dashboard |
Optional | Same as sisense_data.dashboard |
sisense_data_secondary.shared_dashboard |
Optional | Same as sisense_data.shared_dashboard |
sisense_data_secondary.embed |
Optional | Same as sisense_data.embed |
public |
Optional | boolean flag that can be set to false where a (K)PI does not meet the public guidelines. |
pi_type |
Optional | indicates the Product PI type (Ex: AMAU, GMAU, SMAU, Group PPI) |
product_analytics_type |
Optional | indicates if the metric is available on SaaS, SM (self-managed), or Both. |
is_primary |
Optional | boolean flag that indicates if this is the Primary PI for the Product Group. |
implementation |
Optional | indicates the implementation status and reasons as nested attributes. This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. |
implementation.status |
Optional | indicates the Implementation Status status. This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. |
implementation.reasons |
Optional | indicates the reasons behind the implementation status. This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. Should be an array (indented lines starting with dashes) even if you only have one reason. |
lessons |
Optional | indicates lessons learned from a K(PI) as a nested attribute. This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. |
lessons.learned |
Optional | indicates lessons learned from a K(PI). This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. Should be an array (indented lines starting with dashes) even if you only have one lesson learned |
monthly_focus |
Optional | indicates monthly focus goals from a K(PI) as a nested attribute. This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. |
monthly_focus.goals |
Optional | indicates monthly focus goals from a K(PI). This should be updated monthly before Key Meetings by the DRI. Should be an array (indented lines starting with dashes) even if you only have one goal |
metric_name |
Optional | indicates the name of the metric in Self-Managed implemenation. The SaaS representation of the Self-Managed implementation should use the same name. |
Above ...Below ...At ...At or above ...At or below ...shared_dashboard, chart , and the dashboard key-value pairs to the corresponding Performance Indicators data file under the sisense_data property: in strings as it's an important character in YAML and will confuse the data parsing process. Put the string in "quotes" if you really need to use a :