Scorecards

Overview

Use Scorecards to establish best practices, track migration, promote accountability among teams, enforce standardization across entities, or define maturity standards.

In a Scorecard, entities are scored against rules. Rules can reference entities' metadata within Cortex, and can pull data from third-party integrations. Use levels and points in Scorecards to gamify the process and encourage developers to make progress toward goals.

You can configure Scorecards in the Cortex UI, or you can follow a GitOps approach. See Scorecards as code for more information.

Common Scorecard use cases

For information about common use cases and examples, please see Scorecard examples.

How to create Scorecards

Prerequisites

• To create a Scorecard, you must have the admin or manager role, or you must have a custom role that includes the permission Edit Scorecards.

• Scorecards evaluate entities, so before using Scorecards, make sure you have entities in your catalogs.

• Make sure you have set up any integrations you want to write rules against.

Step 1: Configure the basic Scorecard fields

When you create a new Scorecard, you have the option to use a Scorecard template or Start from scratch.

Cortex offers the following templates:

See the tabs below for instructions on starting your Scorecard.

Step 2: Add levels

When you create a Scorecard, there are two options to set up your Scorecard's evaluation:

• Level progression

  • Establish progressive levels as you add rules to make it obvious which set of rules are the highest priority. Levels allow you to set up a gamified system to encourage developers to make progress toward goals and improve entities' performance.

• Point-based rules

  • Use points to assign weighted values to each rule you add to a Scorecard.

To add a level:

1. While creating your Scorecard, in the "Define evaluation rules" section, click Add level.

2. In the modal, configure your level:

   • Color: Click the star icon to select a color for this level.

   • Name: Enter a name that represents this level.

     • You might choose to go with classic levels names, such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold, or you can choose something more unique to your organization.

     • Levels are designed to inspire progress on important goals, so consider level names that will motivate your team members.

   • Description: Enter a description for the level.

3. Click Add level.

You can add more levels to the Scorecard, or you can move on to the next step and add rules to each level.

Reorder levels

When you have more than one level, you can click the arrows on the right side to reorder them:

Step 3: Create a rule

There are two methods to build a rule: through a form in the Cortex UI or via the CQL editor.

The form is the fastest option, as you can choose from pre-configured rules for each integration. The CQL editor is best when writing complex rules or accessing data from multiple sources.

1. While creating your Scorecard, in the "Define evaluation rules" section, click Add rule.

   • Level progression scoring type: Click Add rule within a level.

     • When using the "Level progression" scoring type, we recommend including the most essential rules in the first level so developers know to prioritize them.

   • Point-based rule scoring type: Enable the toggle next to Point-based rules, then click Add rule:

2. The rule creation modal defaults to the Form type, where you can choose a pre-configured rule based on configured integrations. To write a CQL expression instead, click CQL:

3. Configure the basic fields in the form:

   • If you chose Form:

     • Integration: Choose one of your configured integrations to apply this rule to.

     • Rule: Choose a rule.

     • The next fields vary depending on the type of rule you choose. For example, you may need to choose a boolean operation or set a file path.

     • Rule name: Enter a descriptive name. Names make it easier to understand the outcome of the rule without having to read the CQL expression.

   • If you chose CQL editor:

     • CQL expression: Enter your CQL rule. On the right side of the modal, you can use CQL Explorer for help.

       • Note: If writing an expression that references a Jira issues, Cortex will not append new filter logic to your default JQL query. See Adding filter logic to the default JQL query in a Scorecard for more information.

     • Rule name: Enter a descriptive name. Names make it easier to understand the rule without having to read the CQL expression.

4. Optionally configure the additional fields:

   • Description: Enter a description for the rule.

   • Failure message: Add links or instructions to tell users how they can remediate this rule if it's failing.

   • Restrict rule to specific groups: Select groups to include or exclude.

     • This option can be used when a group of entities should be evaluated by the Scorecard as a whole, but a specific rule in the Scorecard does not apply to that group.

     • See Scorecard rule filters for more information on configuring a filter.

   • Points: Enter how many points this rule is worth.

     • You can use points to signify each rule's importance. Rules worth more points are more critical than those with fewer points.

   • Schedule evaluation start date: If you want to schedule the evaluation of a rule to start on a specific date, schedule a start date here. When the field is blank, the rule will take effect immediately. If a start date is provided, the rule will take effect at the start of the specified day (UTC).

     • This is helpful when you want users to be aware of an upcoming rule, but you do not want to evaluate the Scorecard yet based on that rule.

     • Scheduled rules are visible to all users and will be included in the weekly team and user reports to help with socialization.

     • Users can choose to receive notifications when a scheduled rule is added to a Scorecard evaluating an entity they own, and they can receive reminders before a scheduled rule impacting an owned entity goes into effect.

5. Click Save rule.

You can repeat the steps above to continue adding rules to your Scorecard. You cannot duplicate a rule across levels, since developers will have already completed that task earlier. It is common, however, to have similar rules with different thresholds if you want developers to progress in stages. For example, a base level might require that the P50 latency for API requests is under 5 seconds, while a higher level may required that the same P50 is under 2 seconds.

Step 4: Save the Scorecard

After you have finished adding levels and rules to your Scorecard, you are ready to save the configuration.

1. Choose whether to keep your Scorecard in draft form, visible only to users with permission to configure Scorecards. To keep it in draft form, enable the toggle next to Save as draft.

   • If you choose to keep your Scorecard in draft status, it will not appear in reports or send notifications.

   • If you choose to publish your Scorecard, it will be visible to all users who have the View Scorecards permission. Notifications, if enabled, will be triggered.

2. Click Create Scorecard.

After you save the Scorecard, it will automatically evaluate all the entities that apply based on the rules you have configured, and you will be redirected to the Scorecard's page in Cortex.

Next steps

After you have established Scorecards, you can start using Initiatives to drive progress across the organization on your goals. Initiatives allow you to prioritize specific rules within a Scorecard and set deadlines for team members to accomplish tasks.

Create Initiative from Scorecard

Initiatives allow you to prioritize specific rules and set deadlines, making sure your team members complete higher priority tasks on time.

You can create an Initiative while viewing a Scorecard. Note that the Scorecard must be published - i.e., not in draft mode - in order to create an Initiative for it.

1. In the upper right corner, click +Create initiative.

   
2. Configure the Initiative form.

   • For detailed instructions on creating an Initiative, see the Initiatives documentation.

You can also create an Initiative while viewing reports for the Scorecard under its Reports tab.

Viewing and editing Scorecards

View Scorecards list

Click Scorecards in the main nav in Cortex.

All of your organization's Scorecards are listed under All, while Scorecards you created will appear under Mine.

Edit a Scorecard

If you have not disabled UI editing, then you can edit a Scorecard in the Cortex UI. You can edit the name, description, levels, rules, draft status, filter criteria, and the entity's being evaluated by the Scorecard. You cannot edit a Scorecard's unique identifier.

You must have the Edit Scorecard permission.

To edit:

1. Navigate to the Scorecard in Cortex.

2. Click Edit in the upper right corner of the Scorecard page:

   
3. Make changes to your Scorecard, then at the bottom of the page, click Save Scorecard.

Any time you edit and save your Scorecard, Cortex will automatically begin reevaluating the relevant entities to reflect your changes.

Review a Scorecard

When you navigate to a Scorecard's page in Cortex, you can see high-level information at the top of the page:

• Median level entities have achieved

• Percent of entities at the highest level

• Percent of entities without level

• Number of entities per level

• The scheduled Scorecard calculation

• Whether notifications or rule exemptions are enabled

On the side the page, you can see:

• A description of the Scorecard

• The total number of entities being scored

• The number of scheduled rules

• The next evaluation time for the Scorecard

On the Scorecard page, click through each of the tabs to learn more:

Scores

Overview

Rules

Reports

Exemptions

Initiatives

Under Scores, view each entity that is being scored via this Scorecard, the entity's current overall level, and its points or number of rules passed per level.

Point-based Scorecards will display progress based on points, while level-based Scorecards will display the number of passing rules.

For example, in the screen shot above, the first two entities achieved 50 points out of 50 possible points within the Bronze level of the Scorecard. They also each achieved 3 out of 3 possible points under the Silver level.

View more about each entity

Click an entity to open a side panel with more information:

• Next to the entity name: A link to its entity details page

• At the top of the panel: The entity's current level, score, rank, percentile, and an overview of its rule progress

• Under the Rules tab: A list of failing rules, passing rules, and rules not evaluated yet

• Under the Exemptions tab: A list of exempted rules

• Under the Progress tab: A graph showing the entity's progress

Filter and sort the scores list

In the upper right corner of the list, click Filter to narrow the scope of the list. You can filter by domain, failing rules, groups, levels, owners, passing rules, and teams.

Click Level to select a different method to sort by, and choose whether to sort ascending or descending.

Share the Scorecard

Need to show progress to leadership? Click Share in the upper right corner. This copies a link to your clipboard, which you can share with anyone who has access to view this Scorecard in your workspace.

Under Overview, see which entity is the highest ranking, which entity is most at-risk, which rule is the most at-risk, the most improved entity, the entity with the worst drop, and the most-moved rule.

Under those metrics, see a graph displaying the progress of all rules. Click All rules above the graph to filter it by specific rules.

By default, the Trends and changes blocks show data from the last month. Click Last month to select a different timeframe.

Under Rules, view all of the Scorecard's rules, per level. Expand a rule to see its CQL expression:

Note that if you did not set a name for a rule when you created it, it will display here as a CQL expression.

Under Reports, click to view a Bird's Eye report, Progress report, or Report card.

Under Exemptions, view a list of all rule exemptions that have been requested.

Each request includes its current status, the rule, an expiration date, the reason for the request, and the user who requested it.

How exemptions affect scores

When a rule is exempted, entities are not marked as passing or failing — the rule simply does not apply to those entities.

Approving or denying exemptions

You must have the the Configure Scorecard Exemptions permission to approve or deny exemptions.

To approve an exemption, click the checkmark icon. To deny an exemption, click the X icon:

Under Initiatives, see all initiatives associated with the Scorecard.

Scorecard examples

Gamification motivates developers to not only progress through the levels of a Scorecard, but to maintain the quality of their entities over time.

See the Scorecard examples page to view common use cases and see how others are motivating their teams with Scorecards.

Scorecard evaluation

After you create and save a Scorecard, Cortex automatically evaluates the entities that the Scorecard applies to. How often the Scorecard is evaluated depends on the evaluation window you set when configuring the basic fields of the Scorecard.

Scorecard evaluations are also automatically initiated after Scorecard definition changes are processed via GitOps or other means. This evaluation is of lower priority than a manual evaluation and may take longer to return results. To see the re-evaluation results more quickly, you can cancel an automatic evaluation and trigger a manual evaluation.

Trigger an evaluation

To manually trigger a Scorecard evaluation:

1. Navigate to the Scorecard's page in Cortex.

2. In the details panel on the right side of the page, click Evaluate now.

   

Cancel an evaluation

If a Scorecard is in the process of being evaluated, you can cancel it:

1. Navigate to the Scorecard's page in Cortex.

2. Click Cancel at the top of the page.

   

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Cortex offers a wide variety of out-of-the-box integrations compatible with Scorecard rules. Sometimes, a Scorecard may have multiple integration queries with different endpoints, each with its own rate limits. While we strive to manage these rate limits efficiently, please keep the following points in mind regarding rule failures and third-party integrations:

Are errors logged in the UI?

Yes, any errors will be displayed alongside the rule for the relevant entity in the UI.

Are the rules related to the errors retried?

If we encounter a rate limit error, we will retry the rule for most integrations. This process occurs up to five times with a backoff period between attempts. If the rule fails after five retries, the last recorded score will be used.

How are scores affected by missing values due to API rate limiting?

If all retries are still affected by rate limit errors, we will use the last known score for the rule. This also applies to 5xx errors from upstream APIs and any unexpected errors from the Cortex side. If a new rule fails without a previous score, the rule will fail and display a 429 error.