Using the OpEx Review report

Each OpEx Review covers a single reporting period. The Executive briefing tab provides a recap narrating what changed across the five DRIVE pillars, and the Metrics by tab breaks those same metrics down by team or domain. The Follow-ups tab tracks the action items that come out of the review. Your own custom dashboards can be added as additional tabs. Because each report is tied to a fixed reporting period, you can share a link to the exact report you’re viewing, or pull up a past period next to the current one.

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Reading a report

Users with the View OpEx permission can view a report. To access a report, select OpEx Review from the main sidebar. Under the page title, the header shows when the current report was generated, how often it generates, and when the next report is due.

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Report tabs

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’Executive briefing’ tab

The agent-generated executive briefing contains an overall summary and insights into each DRIVE metric. On the Executive briefing tab, you’ll find an overview of the period’s highlights and concerns, plus the option to ask Cortex AI anything about the report. The summary includes a short synopsis of the cycle: what improved, what regressed, and where to focus.

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‘Metrics by’ tab

The Metrics by tab presents your report’s metrics as a table, with one row per team or domain depending on the report’s scope, and a column for each metric the report tracks. Unlike the Executive briefing tab, the table isn’t a snapshot. Cortex rebuilds it from your current report configuration each time you open it, so it always reflects what the review tracks rather than a stale export.

• Expand a team or domain to see its children and find where a number is actually coming from.
• Click the card title to open the table as a standalone module. The report’s dates carry over.
  
• Click the Filter icon in a card’s upper-right corner to narrow that card by entity, entity type, group, domain, or entity owner.
• Click any metric value to drill down to the trace view, showing the records behind that number.
  

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‘Follow-ups’ tab

The Follow-ups tab tracks the action items that come out of your reviews. It splits them into two lists:

• Added this report - Follow-ups created since this report was generated. The date range next to the heading runs until the next report.
• Outstanding follow-ups - Follow-ups carried into this review: every open follow-up, plus any completed since the previous report was generated.

Above the Outstanding follow-ups list, cards show the number of open and completed follow-ups and the completion rate. The completion rate is the share of follow-ups from prior reports that have been completed. A new follow-up starts counting toward the completion rate in the next report. Click the Open follow-ups due or Completed follow-ups card to show only those follow-ups in the list. Each list shows the follow-up, its assignee, who created it and when, and the review cycle it’s tracked against. To find a follow-up in either list:

• Click All statuses to show all, open, or completed follow-ups.
• Click the sort control to sort by assignee, creator, created date, or review cycle. The list is sorted by review cycle by default.
• Click Filter to narrow the list by assignee, creator, or review cycle.
• Use the search bar to find a follow-up by its text.

To add and manage follow-ups, see Tracking follow-ups.

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Selecting a reporting period

The dropdown in the upper-left corner of the page lists each report by the dates it covers, with the most recent labeled Latest. Select a period to view that report.

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Selecting a team or domain

If the report you’re viewing is filtered to specific teams or domains, an additional dropdown appears next to the reporting period. Click the dropdown and select one of the following:

• Aggregate report - All selected teams or domains rolled up together
• An individual team or domain - That group’s own narrated summary

If your report covers your whole organization, there’s only one report per period. To change which teams or domains a report covers, see Configuring OpEx Review.

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Pillars and metrics

On the Executive briefing tab, to the right of the summary, metrics are grouped into the Overview section and the five DRIVE pillars. Metrics can be KPIs (deployments, incidents, cycle time), Scorecards, or SLOs from Datadog. For KPIs, each metric card shows:

• The current value for the report period, with the change from the prior period beside it
• A chart of the metric over the last 12 report periods, with completed periods in gray and the report’s period in purple
• A shaded band showing the range the metric normally sits in.
• An AI insight interpreting the result

For Scorecards, each metric card shows:

• The distribution of levels of ladder-based scorecards, or the average score for point-based scorecards.
• An AI insight interpreting the result

For Datadog SLOs, each metric card shows:

• How many SLOs are Passing, At risk, Failing, or have No data, as counts and a distribution bar
  • The change in each count since the previous period
  • Click a status, or the summary itself, to open the full SLO list. See Drilling into SLOs.

KPIs and Scorecards also include an AI insight interpreting the result, along with a link to Ask Cortex AI so you can dig into what’s behind a trend and ask follow-up questions. See Digging deeper with Cortex AI below. Insights name specific teams and numbers rather than restating the metric. In the example above, the deploy frequency insight identifies which three teams drove the volume and offers a read on whether the dip reflects scope changes or a pipeline problem.

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Drilling into a KPI

On the Executive briefing tab, click a metric’s value on any card to open a side panel scoped to the report’s period and teams. In the side panel:

• Select the Explorer tab to view a chart of the metric over time, with a breakdown table below it.
• Select the Trace view tab to view a list of the underlying records behind the number.
• At the top of the panel:
  • Click the date range to adjust it
  • Click Filter to narrow the scope
  • Click the Group by dropdown to slice the data differently
  • Click the expand icon to open the metric in Data Explorer

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Drilling into Datadog SLOs

On the Executive briefing tab, click any number on the SLO summary to open a side panel listing every SLO the report measured. Clicking a status (Passing, At risk, Failing, or No data) opens the panel already filtered to it. The list opens sorted by least error budget remaining, so the SLOs closest to breaching are at the top. A blown budget goes negative and sorts above everything healthy. Each row shows the SLO’s name, entity, target, status, and error budget left. Click a column header to re-sort. At the top of the panel:

• Click Group by to group the table by Service or Group, or leave it on No grouping
• Click Filter to narrow by Status or Service
• Use Search SLOs to find an SLO by name
• Click the SLO Name to open the SLO in Datadog

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Digging deeper with Cortex AI

When a metric raises a question the report doesn’t answer, ask Cortex AI without leaving the report. On the Executive briefing tab, ask Cortex AI directly from the summary area on the left or click Ask Cortex AI on a metric card. Enter your question in the Ask Cortex AI field, then press Enter. Cortex AI can query further breakdowns by team, entity, or time period, so it isn’t limited to the insight you started from. For what you can ask and what to expect from a response, see Using Cortex AI in OpEx Review.

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Sharing a report

The Share button copies a link to the exact report you’re viewing, including the reporting period, the team or domain selected, and the tab you’re on.

1. Open the report, period, and team you want to share.
2. Click Share in the upper-right corner of the page. The link is copied to your clipboard.
   

Anyone you share the link with needs the View OpEx permission to access the report.

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Commenting on a report

Comments let your team discuss a report right next to the numbers. You can comment on the summary, a highlight or concern, or any metric card, then reply in threads, mention teammates, and react with emoji. Each reporting period’s report keeps its own comments. Users with the View OpEx permission can read comments. To add, reply to, or resolve comments, you also need the Edit OpEx Comments permission. Managers and admins have it by default.

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Adding a comment

1. On the Executive briefing tab, click the comment icon next to the summary, a highlight or concern, or in the upper-right corner of a metric card. If an item already has comments, the icon shows how many.
2. Enter your comment. To mention a teammate, team, entity, Scorecard, or Workflow, type @ and select it from the list. You can also include links.
3. Click Comment.

Each new comment starts its own thread, and an item can have several threads. Threads appear beside the item they belong to.

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Replying and reacting

• To reply to a thread, click Reply below it.
• To react to a comment, hover over it, click the Add reaction icon, then select an emoji. To add your own reaction to an existing one, click that reaction.
• If a thread has a lot of replies, click Show replies to expand it.

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Managing a comment

Hover over a comment, then click the More actions icon to see what you can do with it:

• Share - Copies a link to the comment.
• Edit - Updates your comment. Edited comments are labeled (edited).
• Delete - Removes your comment.

You can only edit or delete comments you wrote. If you delete a comment by mistake, click Undo in the confirmation that appears.

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Resolving a thread

When a discussion is settled, hover over the thread’s first comment and click Resolve. Resolved threads move to the Resolved tab in the Comments panel. To reopen a thread you just resolved, click Undo in the confirmation that appears.

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Viewing all comments on a report

Click Comments in the upper-right corner of the report to see the latest comments on the report, then click Show all to open the Comments side panel. In the side panel, you can:

• Filter comments by author with the All authors dropdown.
• Search comment text.
• Switch between the Open and Resolved tabs.

Unread comments are marked with a dot.

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Getting notified about comments

Cortex can notify you when someone mentions you in a comment, and when there’s activity on a thread you’re part of. Both are on by default. Follow the steps below to choose which of these you get.

1. From the main sidebar, click your avatar in the bottom-left corner.
2. Select Settings.
3. From the Settings menu, locate the Preferences section, then select My notifications.
4. From the Personal tab, scroll to the OpEx section, then adjust the settings. For more information, see Notifications.

If you get a comment notification in Slack, you can reply to it in Slack. Your reply is posted to the thread as a comment.

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Tracking follow-ups

Use follow-ups to capture the action items that come out of a review, assign an owner, and check on them at the next review. Users with the View OpEx permission can see follow-ups. Users with the OpEx comments permission can add, edit, complete, reopen, and delete them. To add a follow-up:

1. From any tab of the report, click Add follow-up.
2. Enter a description of the action item.
3. Optionally, assign it to anyone in Cortex and add a link, such as a ticket or doc.
4. Click Save.

To manage a follow-up: On the Follow-ups tab, find the follow-up, then do any of the following:

• Edit - Change the description, assignee, or link.
• Complete - Mark the action item as done.
• Reopen - Move a completed follow-up back to open.
• Delete - Remove the follow-up from the review.

Open follow-ups stay on the list from one review to the next, and each shows how many reviews it has carried over.

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Managing dashboard tabs

Users with the Configure OpEx permission can change the report’s tabs. You can add your own charts, KPI cards, and modules by pulling in any existing custom dashboard as a tab, so everything the meeting needs lives on one page. Dashboard tabs stay pinned to the report’s period, but the data inside them is always current, not a snapshot. To add a dashboard tab:

1. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the page.
   
2. In the Edit tabs side panel, click Add dashboard.
3. Search for and select the dashboard you want to add.
4. Drag a tab by its grip icon to reorder.
5. Click Apply to report.

To manage a dashboard tab:

1. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the page.
   
2. In the Edit tabs side panel, click the overflow menu icon next to the tab you want to manage.
3. Do any of the following:
   1. Edit dashboard - Opens the dashboard in Eng Intelligence for editing.
   2. Rename dashboard - Changes the dashboard and tab name.
   3. Share dashboard - Copies a link to the dashboard. To share the whole report instead, click Share in the upper-right corner of the page.
   4. Duplicate dashboard - Creates a copy and adds it as a new tab.
   5. Remove dashboard - Removes the tab from the report. The dashboard itself isn’t deleted.