> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cortex.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Improve bottlenecks in your software development lifecycle

export const RecipeBadges = ({badges = []}) => {
  const map = {
    "recipe": {
      label: "Recipe",
      color: "#A86400"
    },
    "ai-excellence": {
      label: "AI excellence",
      color: "#653EE8"
    },
    "production-readiness": {
      label: "Production readiness",
      color: "#226686"
    },
    "incident-mgmt": {
      label: "Incident management",
      color: "#86198F"
    },
    "migrations": {
      label: "Migrations",
      color: "#0E7C66"
    },
    "compliance": {
      label: "Compliance",
      color: "#475569"
    },
    "dora": {
      label: "DORA metrics",
      color: "#1D4ED8"
    },
    "security": {
      label: "Security",
      color: "#B42318"
    },
    "operational-readiness": {
      label: "Operational readiness",
      color: "#B54708"
    },
    "dev-onboarding": {
      label: "Developer onboarding",
      color: "#C11574"
    }
  };
  const items = badges.map(key => map[key]).filter(Boolean);
  if (items.length === 0) return null;
  return <div className="not-prose flex flex-wrap gap-2 mb-6">
      {items.map(b => <span key={b.label} className="rounded-lg px-2 py-1 text-xs font-medium" style={{
    backgroundColor: b.color,
    color: b.textColor || "#FFFFFF"
  }}>
          {b.label}
        </span>)}
    </div>;
};

<RecipeBadges badges={["recipe", "production-readiness"]} />

You can use Cortex MCP to quickly identify bottlenecks that are slowing your teams down, and use these insights to take action and track progress with Custom Dashboards.

### Step 1: Use Cortex MCP to identify bottlenecks

First, you can use [Cortex MCP](/get-started/cortex-ai-assistant/mcp) to quickly identify bottlenecks in your version control metrics across the organization.

Use a prompt such as *What are the bottlenecks in my version control metrics org-wide?.* The MCP will respond with an analysis of version control bottlenecks. Review the bottlenecks to understand what areas you should focus on.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/cortex-290c0c42/qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq/guides/images/mcp-bottlenecks.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq&q=85&s=6037f5cfa288eb1b7083938f211b4df2" alt="" width="828" height="352" data-path="guides/images/mcp-bottlenecks.jpg" />

In our example, the MCP flags the following:

* Review pickup is the primary bottleneck.
* Cycle time being lower than any single stage of review latency signals heavy overlap and/or outlier effects. Improvement should focus on accelerating reviewer response.
* Some teams have much longer wait times for first review.
* Another metric to watch is open PR count per team or repo.

#### Follow the MCP's recommended next steps

The MCP will also generate a list of suggestions to take action on the identified bottlenecks.

In our example, the MCP made the following recommendations:

* Set and enforce review SLAs on time to first review.
* Use Cortex [Data Explorer](/improve/eng-intelligence/data-explorer) to drill further by repository and reviewer to pinpoint which repos feed the extreme outliers.
* Close abandoned PRs.

### Step 2: Create a Custom Dashboard to track progress

In Cortex, create a [Custom Dashboard](/improve/eng-intelligence/dashboards/custom) to visualize the bottleneck. Add modules to the dashboard based on what was flagged by Cortex MCP.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Create modules for the metrics">
    In our example, the metrics flagged were Time to first review and Cycle time.

    1. Navigate to **Eng Intelligence > Metrics Explorer**.
    2. Click **+New module**, then click the default metric on the page (Cycle time). A modal will open where you can select a new metric.<br />

           <img src="https://mintcdn.com/cortex-290c0c42/qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq/guides/images/new-module.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq&q=85&s=76aaa0b15ab6e8533dd365f27f27e284" alt="" width="563" data-path="guides/images/new-module.jpg" />
    3. In the Version control metric category, select "Time to first review." Choose which operation to apply to the chart (average, max, median, min, P95, or sum) then click **View metric**.<br />

           <img src="https://mintcdn.com/cortex-290c0c42/qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq/guides/images/time-to-first-review.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq&q=85&s=da15b06b42daffc01041b29610a28eb0" alt="" width="563" data-path="guides/images/time-to-first-review.jpg" />
    4. The visualization will appear on the page. In the upper right corner, click **Save as**. Give the module a descriptive name, then click **Save module**.

    Repeat these steps for each metric you want to track.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Create a Custom Dashboard">
    1. Navigate to **Eng Intelligence > Dashboards**. In the upper right corner, click **Create Dashboard**.
    2. Enter a descriptive name for the dashboard, then at the bottom of the sidebar, click **Save**.
       1. In our example, since we identified review time as the bottleneck, we name the dashboard "Review time bottleneck."
    3. You will be prompted to select a module to add to your dashboard. Select a module, then at the bottom, click **Close**.<br />
           <img src="https://mintcdn.com/cortex-290c0c42/qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq/guides/images/select-modules.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq&q=85&s=531d022ee052c222346f2ab9a1c43962" alt="" width="487" height="739" data-path="guides/images/select-modules.jpg" />
    4. The page will reload with your module visualization. To add another module, click the **+** icon at the bottom or side of the page. Select a module from the list again, then click **Close**.

    The custom dashboard - "Review time bottleneck" - now contains the two metrics flagged by Cortex MCP, allowing for an easy side-by-side comparison:

    <img src="https://mintcdn.com/cortex-290c0c42/qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq/guides/images/bottleneck-custom.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=qRY2zZcIyXqFVeCq&q=85&s=2d30c99c6477981a712388a7ca988592" alt="" width="1114" height="466" data-path="guides/images/bottleneck-custom.jpg" />
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>


## Related topics

- [Velocity Dashboard](/improve/eng-intelligence/velocity-dashboard.md)
- [Building on the foundation: Catalogs, Scorecards, Workflows, and Eng Intelligence](/get-started/quickstart/building-on-the-foundation-catalogs-scorecards-workflows-and-eng-intelligence.md)
- [DORA Dashboard](/improve/eng-intelligence/dora-dashboard.md)