eazyBI Blog – Easy Business Intelligence for Project Teams

eazyBI at Atlassian Team '26 — Questions We Heard at the Booth

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2026-05-25T00:00:00Z

"Can your tool tell me why I have bottlenecks?"

That was one of the questions we heard at Team '26 in Anaheim this year. Two years ago, nobody asked a reporting tool "why" questions — they asked “how” and “what.” This year, that wasn't even the only "why" we heard. And those shifts, more than any industry report, show us what's actually going on in the reporting world right now.

Here are six questions we heard most often this time, some old, some new, and how we answered them.

1. What are the new and cool features in eazyBI?

This is a classic — our current and even former customers are eager to know how the tool has evolved.

We still have our sights set on AI: eazyBI AI Assistants are now embedded across most of the tool, helping you build reports, prepare data, and understand how numbers are calculated.

Beyond AI — new integrations with QMetry and YouTrack. A brand new Gantt chart. New table formatting options. And a lot of background work that you don't see, but feel, like migration to Forge. Learn more about the recent product updates and features here.

And yes, you can also add eazyBI reports to Jira gadgets, which was another question that came up a few times.

2. Why is eazyBI better than other reporting options for Jira (Power BI or Atlassian Analytics)?

This is also an oldie but goodie — how are we better than our competitors? Only the competitors' names change from time to time.

Our answer is usually the same: if you are happy with your current reporting tool, have good know-how, get the support you need, and can answer your own questions well, use it and master it!

Otherwise, give eazyBI a try. It is a proper BI (business intelligence) reporting tool with all main functions, and it scales from small teams to the whole company. Unlike generic BI tools, it works with Jira data directly and integrates with most of the popular Jira apps, which means you can build reports across all of that in one place. And our support team is made up of humans who know reporting and will sit with your specific question until you get an answer.

And we also have cool cat stickers.

We also have a separate blog post comparing eazyBI and Power BI.

3. Can your AI Assistant explain what the report results mean — is it good or bad, and what should I do?

Of course, many questions were about how AI can help with reporting — or even whether you still need reporting at all when there is AI.

eazyBI AI Assistants help you build reports, prepare your data, and explain how the numbers in your report are calculated. What they don't do (yet) is tell you whether the result is good or bad for your business — that part is still on you. For now, you can export the report results to CSV and ask your favorite AI tool to find patterns and give you a second opinion.

But this is also where we like to remind ourselves of a quote:

You can outsource your thinking, but you cannot outsource your understanding.

— Adnan Masood

AI can look at the numbers and find patterns. But understanding what those numbers mean for your team, your product, your customers — that stays with you. And we think that's a good thing.

Where we are heading: solutions that let AI work together with BI, so you get the best of both worlds — trustworthy and traceable data calculated with eazyBI, and more insights from AI on top of it.

4. How do I get started, and where can I learn more about eazyBI?

This one we have heard over the years, and each year we think about how to make the start easier. Now our suggested path is:

Check our demonstration account — it has several dashboards organized by themes, so you can see what eazyBI actually looks like with data.
Start a 30-day free trial and build your first reports — the AI Assistants can help you get going. The real benefit comes when you see your own data in reports.
Go through the first courses in our Learning Center to learn the main concepts and get comfortable with the tool. It already contains 7 courses, from basic to advanced.
Write to eazyBI support if something is not clear or if you get stuck. They really do read and answer everything.

One thing that surprised us this year was that several Jira admins came to the booth and said, "I don't need to use eazyBI myself, but I would like to learn more about it." So now we have an answer to that — Learning Center.

A small note from our data: while AI Assistants are great helpers to get your reports done, customers who actively use the Learning Center lessons get the most out of eazyBI. The two work best together.

5. What is this book on the shelf?

This year, we brought a book to the Atlassian Team '26: Mapping the Uncharted. A Story of How eazyBI Was Built, written by three eazyBI employees.
The book is about how a small, fully remote team without managers builds a product used by customers around the world, and about our approaches, traditions, and culture. We wrote it because the tool and the team are not separable. Different people would have built a different product.You can read it online.

And finally — cat or dog?

Usually, during our discussions, we inevitably arrive at the main question: Are you a cat or a dog person? Because our cat sticker collection (sneaky cat, disco cat, AI cat, and more) is a magnet that pulls people in.

But this is also an important question. At the end of the day, we are people building a tool for other people — and the conversations that follow this little sticker question often tell us more about our customers than any reporting requirement could.

And more frequently asked questions can be found on our product page.

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Tracking SLAs Outside Jira Service Management

Jakub Kochańczyk — 2026-04-24T00:00:00Z

At eazyBI Community Days, Jakub Kochańczyk from Almarise shared a topic that many teams eventually run into: how to track SLAs when Jira Service Management (JSM) isn’t part of the setup.

JSM is a powerful tool, but not every team has it. In many cases, work already happens directly in Jira, especially when internal teams are involved, and everyone is comfortable working within the same environment. There’s no need for a customer portal, and sometimes avoiding additional licensing is simply the more practical choice.

Still, the need remains the same. Teams want to track time, manage workflows, and ensure they meet their commitments. That’s where things start to get complicated.

When “Just Tracking Time” Isn’t That Simple

At first glance, measuring time sounds straightforward. But once you try to do it properly, small details quickly add up. Working hours are rarely continuous. Weekends, holidays, and local calendars all affect how time should be counted. Even something as simple as a public holiday can behave differently from year to year.

Without the right setup, it’s easy to end up with numbers that look correct but don’t actually reflect reality. This is exactly the gap SLA PowerBox was designed to address — handling time tracking in a structured way and making that data usable for reporting in eazyBI.

A Closer Look at a Support Process

Let’s look at the typical three-line support setup. A ticket starts with the first line of support, then moves to the second line for deeper analysis, and in some cases ends up with an external vendor.

From a business perspective, the goal is clear. The more tickets you resolve at the first level, the better, as it is usually the most cost-efficient part of the process.

To manage this properly, it is not enough to track total resolution time. You need to understand how time is distributed:

How long did each team work on the issue?
How much time was spent waiting?
Where does the delay actually happen?

Instead of a single timer, SLA PowerBox tracks time across different stages. Each clock runs only when the issue is in a relevant state and pauses when it shouldn’t count. This allows you to see both the full picture and the individual contributions of each support level.

From an Operational View to Reporting

During daily work, this setup provides real-time visibility. Teams can see how much time is left, whether a ticket is at risk, and its current status.

You start to see the real value once this data is brought into eazyBI and analyzed from a broader perspective. SLA PowerBox data can be imported into eazyBI as custom fields using standard functionality. Once the information is available for reporting, it becomes much easier to step back and look at trends over time. You can see how often SLAs are breached, how resolution times evolve, and whether certain teams or steps are becoming bottlenecks.

A simple report showing average resolution time alongside the number of breaches is often enough to highlight that something has changed. From there, you can start digging deeper.

Understanding Where Things Slow Down

When you find that the overall resolution time is increasing without additional context, it might suggest a general slowdown across the entire process. However, once the data is broken down by support level, it becomes clear that the first-line support has taken longer than before, while the other levels remained stable.

This kind of insight can make a big difference. Instead of reacting broadly, teams focused on a specific part of the process and investigated the changes.

Applying the Same Logic Beyond Support

A similar approach can be applied outside of support, including scenarios such as tracking time across initiative delivery phases — analysis, design, implementation, and delivery.

By measuring each phase separately, it becomes possible to see how work moves through the process. In some cases, improvements in one phase can delay another, making it difficult to spot without this level of visibility.

SLAs in Development Work

Although SLAs are usually associated with service management, they can also be useful in software development, especially when dealing with production issues.

Teams may want to define expectations for how quickly bugs are fixed, how long code reviews take, or how fast changes are deployed. By tracking these steps in a similar way, it becomes possible to monitor performance and identify where delays occur.

This becomes especially visible when you start analyzing the data more closely. Instead of focusing on the most critical tasks, teams were resolving less important ones faster. Without this level of detail, it would be easy to miss.

Combining SLA tracking with eazyBI reporting gives a clearer view of how time is distributed across the process. It connects real-time operational data with longer-term analysis, helping teams understand what’s happening and where improvements are needed.

Final Thoughts

Tracking time is not the hard part. The real challenge is tracking it correctly and using the data afterward. With the right tools and setup, the data becomes much more than a measurement. It becomes a way to understand the process and make better decisions based on what is really happening.

Watch the full presentation recording here.

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11 eazyBI Certified Partners in Year One

Svetlana Avene-Aveniņa — 2026-03-18T00:00:00Z

Our partners help customers unlock the full value of data analytics in Jira and beyond. To support this mission, we launched the eazyBI Certification Program as part of our Partner Program giving partners the opportunity to deepen their expertise and become officially recognized as eazyBI Certified Partners.

eazyBI fully covers the training costs — so partners can build deep analytical skills and hands-on experience with eazyBI reporting and data modeling at no cost. After completing the training and successfully passing the certification exam, partners become eazyBI Certified, gaining recognition for their expertise and additional benefits within the partner ecosystem. In just one year since the launch of the program, 11 partners across 14 countries have already earned eazyBI Certified Partner status.

Here's who they are — and what certification means for their business

Nimble Evolution
Nimble Evolution supports organizations through consulting, continuous education, and software tools, helping teams achieve better outcomes and embrace continuous improvement. The company also provides eazyBI training in Brazil and the United States in Portuguese and English. Nimble was one of the first eazyBI partners in Brazil, and it has been a pleasure to see our collaboration grow over the years. The team has played an important role in bringing eazyBI to the Brazilian market and supporting the local community. We have had the opportunity to attend the NEXP event year after year with the Nimble team — a fantastic event that brings together a vibrant community of experts, partners, and friends. Also, Nimble experts have participated in several eazyBI events. Moments like these truly reflect the strength of our partnership.

“The eazyBI training program has been very important for our team, strengthening our technical expertise and giving us greater confidence to position, implement, and expand analytics solutions for our clients. Becoming a Certified Partner has also brought clear business benefits, including the continuous flow of qualified leads from both Brazil and the United States, which has helped us expand our market presence and reinforce our credibility in the Atlassian ecosystem. Our overall experience working with eazyBI has been extremely positive — the collaboration is always professional, responsive, and partnership-oriented. Our customers choose eazyBI because it provides powerful, flexible, and reliable reporting capabilities that unlock real strategic insights from Jira and other Atlassian tools, enabling better and faster decision-making.”
— Anderson Barcat, Sales Director at Nimble Evolution

Sngular
Sngular is an Atlassian Platinum Partner in Europe and Gold Partner in the U.S. and LATAM, with over 20 years of experience helping organizations optimize processes and modernize work management using Atlassian solutions. Sngular, formerly known as Tehnofor, has been a long-term eazyBI partner with whom we have built a truly great relationship over the years, that feels more like friendship. From working closely together as a Training Partner to now becoming a Certified Partner, it has been wonderful to see this partnership grow. We especially value the many moments shared at Atlassian team events — learning, collaborating, and celebrating together. Visiting Spain is always about sngular. This makes our partnership particularly special.

“The eazyBI training program has been instrumental in upskilling our consultants team, allowing us to tackle complex data challenges with confidence and precision. Being a Certified Partner not only reinforces our credibility but also ensures we provide the top-tier business intelligence solutions our customers trust for their flexibility and deep integration with Jira. Our clients consistently choose eazyBI because it turns their project data into actionable insights, and we truly value the seamless collaboration and support from the eazyBI team.”
— Daniela Pérez, Partner Manager & Apps Dev Sales at Sngular

bit2bit Americas
bit2bit Americas is a global consulting company with offices across the United States and Latin America, serving customers in more than 25 countries. Their expertise spans analytics, DevSecOps, service management, and data visualization with Atlassian tools. bit2bit Americas has always been a responsive and supportive partner who helps us better understand the LATAM market. That’s why, when they recently invited us to join their event in Mexico, we gladly accepted and made the most of the opportunity they created by organizing client visits for us.

“The eazyBI training program has been crucial in enhancing our team's skills, enabling us to provide higher-quality services to our customers. Our Certified Partner status has established significant trust, leading stakeholders to value and act on our expert recommendations. Overall, our experience has been excellent. We particularly appreciate the speed at which we can build reports and the impressive new AI integration. While the Cloud navigation experience has room to match the seamless linking of Data Center, our customers continue to choose eazyBI for its unmatched flexibility in integrating Jira with external data via REST API.”
— Yumi Yshara, Head of Continuous Improvement, bit2bit Americas

Methoda
Methoda Computers Ltd. is a leading provider of KM and ALM solutions in Israel and a full-service Atlassian Solution Partner offering consulting, implementation, customization, and training services. Methoda is one of our oldest partners, and they’ve played a big role not just in supporting and educating eazyBI users but also in helping us evolve the product. Their honest, straightforward feedback, also about eazyBI limitations, improved our understanding of the needs of larger customers and built features that many users benefit from today.

“The eazyBI training program increased our knowledge and gave us a good understanding of the app and how to use it. Our overall experience working with eazyBI has been very good — the support is very professional. Our customers choose eazyBI because they need complex BI solutions, and in most cases they prefer a marketplace app instead of an external BI platform. We are happy to recommend eazyBI, as a very good app vendor.”
— Ran Lavi, Methoda

catworkx
catworkx is a Platinum Atlassian Solution Partner and winner of the Atlassian Partner of the Year 2024–2025: High Velocity Service Management award. With more than 360 experts across 11 countries, they help organizations scale Atlassian solutions and integrate them into complex enterprise environments. Working with catworkx has always been smooth, direct, and held to the highest standards. Their journey from partner to Certified Partner was fast and without compromises. And of course, the catworkx river cruises are some of the best parties at Atlassian ecosystem events. Luckily, there’s no competition between the eazyBI cats and the catworkx cats, only great collaboration.

“The eazyBI training program was a huge milestone for the foundation of our company’s eazyBI Know How. Me and my team feel now empowered to tackle any challenge that awaits us. It furthermore laid the foundation for the professional development of customer-oriented reporting solutions. The program has also been great for our team-building. Learning and growing together to achieve this goal as a team was a great experience.
The certified Partner status directly validates your expertise and offerings in presales and day-to-day customer interactions. It makes everything you say or propose in regards to eazyBI have more weight. This is especially felt in conversations with new or potential customers. The preferred handling of our eazyBI support tickets is definitely felt and very much appreciated as well!
We love working with eazyBI. As someone who has years of experience with other BI-Tools, I am still impressed, how fast and easy you can set up a basic reporting, covering the most important KPI, with eazyBI. The slogan “simple things eazy, complex things possible” absolutely hits the nail on the head. Creating a whole lot of “simple” reports in a quick and efficient way or solving the more complex challenges, both things are equally fulfilling with eazyBI. Even things like history based analysis (e.g. Time in Status reporting), which are complex topics in traditional BI tools, work right out of the box.
Here are the most important decision drivers for eazyBI: Seamless integration within the Atlassian ecosystem; Quick implementation of a full reporting possible; Often Low-to medium BI Expertise within the organization which makes eazyBI with all its in-built features very attractive; Lots of possibilities for customization; Valuable price point.
Total required effort for a fully working reporting environment is comparatively low. E.g. to setup a Jira Reporting with comparable functionalities within PowerBI would require a multiple of the same effort compared to eazyBI.”
— Jonas Plate, catworkx

Infosysta
Infosysta is an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner specializing in collaboration tools, DevOps, Agile project management, and enterprise services. Their expertise helps organizations improve teamwork, productivity, and digital transformation initiatives. What makes this partnership especially meaningful to us is that Infosysta was the very first partner to become a Certified Partner with us. That milestone felt truly special and reflects the trust, dedication, and expertise they bring. Their commitment to quality and helping teams work better together makes them a valued partner in our journey.

Valiantys
Valiantys is a global Atlassian consulting and services company dedicated to helping organizations accelerate business transformation through modern teamwork and digital processes. Over the past 15 years, they have supported more than 5,000 customers worldwide. Valiantys has been a long-term partner of eazyBI and was among the very first to join our partner network, later becoming our second Certified Partner. We truly appreciate the collaboration and support over the years. It was also a special moment for us to visit your Toulouse office during the Beyond Team Tour two years ago. Meeting one of our earliest partners in person and getting to know your team better made the partnership even more meaningful.

GetConnected – Gruppo Euris
GetConnected provides tailor-made solutions based on the Atlassian suite, guiding customers from initial analysis through implementation and post-production support. Their approach combines consultancy expertise with strong development capabilities. Watching the GetConnected team’s journey from an eazyBI Partner to a Certified Partner has been as enjoyable as a good Italian coffee. Their knowledgeable team plays an important role in supporting eazyBI customers in Italy, and we are truly proud of what we have achieved together. Happy about our partnership and looking forward to continuing this journey.

knowmad mood
knowmad mood is a global digital transformation company focused on innovation, technology, and sustainable development. They help organizations create real change through cutting-edge solutions and continuous evolution. knowmad mood represents exactly the kind of forward-looking partner we value at eazyBI — innovative, technology-driven, and focused on helping organizations achieve real transformation. Their global reach and expertise make them a strong addition to our Certified Partner community, and we are very happy to welcome them to the eazyBI ecosystem.

Tagueri
Tagueri AG has been advising European enterprises and innovative SMEs for more than 30 years, helping organizations successfully implement transformations and sustainable programs. Their consultants actively use eazyBI to support clients with data-driven insights and reporting. Tagueri is a special partner to me, as our collaboration began when I had just joined the eazyBI team. Since then, we have gone through the entire journey together, from becoming an eazyBI Partner, to a Training Partner, and now a Certified Partner. I had the privilege of guiding them through each step of this path, which makes this partnership particularly meaningful to me. Their professionalism, dedication, and structured approach truly reflect the strong standards of our partner ecosystem.

“The eazyBI training program was extremely valuable for our team, covering a wide range of use cases and helping us broaden our perspective on what is possible with data and reporting in Jira. In our experience, eazyBI stands out for its consistency, reliability, and continuous innovation, including the very practical use of AI, and we believe it is still underestimated in the market. Our customers choose eazyBI because it offers significantly more powerful reporting capabilities than native Jira options while remaining seamlessly integrated with Jira and Confluence.”
— Mohammed Majeed, Tagueri AG

Growing the eazyBI Partner Ecosystem

The strong results in the first year of the Certification Program demonstrate the value of structured training and certification for partners. By investing in partner education and covering the training costs, eazyBI helps partners strengthen their expertise and deliver even greater value to customers.

Interested in becoming an eazyBI Certified Partner? Learn more about the Partner Program here.

Learning MDX with eazyBI Learning Center

Gerda Grantiņa — 2026-02-27T00:00:00Z

If you are already using the eazyBI Learning Center, you have likely built several reports using dimensions, measures, and filters. You know how far you can get with drag and drop — and you may also have reached the point where standard measures are no longer enough. This is usually the moment when you realize you need your own, specific custom calculations.

This is usually when MultiDimensional eXpressions (MDX) start to appear.

You might find different MDX calculation examples in documentation, community answers, or existing reports, and wonder what role calculation plays and where it actually makes sense to use it. The good news is that MDX in eazyBI is not a separate skill you need to master all at once. It is a natural next step to extend reports you already understand.

The learning how to write your custom calculations in the eazyBI Learning Center is built for exactly this stage — when you already trust eazyBI and the learning format, know the basics, and want a structured way to add MDX calculations without guessing or breaking reports.

Across these three MDX courses, you work through 20 focused lessons. Each lesson introduces one concept at a time — such as the formula editor, tuples, or aggregating dimension members — helping you understand how calculations work in eazyBI and how to apply them safely in real reports.

You work with practical examples, not abstract formulas. The goal is to help you understand why a calculation works and when to use it — not just how to write it.

The goal is to help you understand when a custom calculation is needed and how it works — not just how to write it.

Introduction to MDX Calculated Measures

The first MDX course focuses on creating calculated measures in eazyBI and understanding how calculations behave in reports. You begin by adding standard calculations without writing MDX, then gradually move to using the formula editor to create your own calculated measures.

Along the way, you learn how to reference measures and dimension members, apply formatting, and handle common edge cases such as division by zero. The course also introduces tuples, showing how they are used inside calculations to control context and return precise results.

In the Original estimated vs. Hours spent on resolved issues lesson, you build a report that compares original time estimates with actual hours spent on resolved Story issues, showing the monthly difference. Wrapping up the lesson, you use this calculation in a report and notice how it adapts automatically for each month, and even use color formatting on that.

Working with Tuples in MDX

Another course is dedicated entirely to using a powerful MDX construction — tuples — in calculations. You learn how to combine members from different dimensions and then use tuples in different arithmetical operations.

Practical examples focus on real reporting scenarios, such as comparing all issues with unresolved ones, analyzing how many issues are bugs or have the highest priority, or calculating average story points in the backlog. These lessons help you understand why a calculation returns a result and how to adjust it when the context changes.

In the Logged hours by user on assigned and unassigned issues lesson, you create a report that compares the hours an assignee spent on their own issues with hours logged across all issues in Jira, including work done for others or on unassigned issues. You learn how to use MDX tuples to change calculation context inside a measure — matching members across dimensions, working with the current row context, and removing filtering when needed.

Calculated Members in Other Dimensions

The final course extends MDX beyond measures to dimensions themselves. You learn how to create calculated members in dimensions, like reorder and group members in the Priority dimension, retrieve specific member sets based on dates or text patterns, and apply filtering functions.

These lessons introduce working with properties, dates, and text-based filtering. This allows you to reshape dimensions when needed — for example, showing only major releases or creating custom groupings for analysis.

In the Work Days member in the Week Day dimension lesson, you create a report that shows issues created and resolved by weekday, using a calculated Work Days member to group Monday through Friday into a single view. This technique is useful for building custom groupings for report filtering.

The Next Step in Your Reporting

Creating new custom calculations with MDX does not replace the drag-and-drop report builder — it complements it.
We created those courses to help you learn MDX step-by-step with short lessons and examples that build on what you already know.

We hope that by the end of these courses, you will understand how MDX works. Whether you write the formula yourself or ask our AI assistant to generate it, you will know what the calculation is doing and be able to evaluate whether the result truly fits your report.

Learn how to start using the eazyBI Learning Center in our documentation.

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How Boubyan Bank Saves 100+ Hours Every Month with eazyBI

Tomasz Pabich — 2026-02-19T00:00:00Z

This case study was shared during eazyBI Community Days by Tomasz Pabich from Genius Gecko. In his presentation, Tomasz walked through Boubyan Bank’s reporting journey and showed how the bank was able to save significant time every month by building clearer, more automated portfolio reporting with eazyBI.

A Need for Clearer Portfolio Reporting

Boubyan Bank was on a journey to strengthen how projects and portfolios are managed across the organization. Like many large companies, the bank was running multiple initiatives at the same time, and leadership needed a clear way to track progress, control costs, and understand what was happening across departments.

Reporting often depended on manual work — collecting information from different systems, not only Atlassian Jira, updating spreadsheets, preparing presentations, and rebuilding the same reports month after month. This took significant time, created pressure on teams, and made it harder to ensure that decision-makers always had the latest data when they needed it.

At the same time, Boubyan Bank already knew what kind of insights were essential. They had a set of key reports that supported their portfolio and project management processes, and they wanted to move these reports into a more automated and reliable environment.

That’s where eazyBI became a natural fit.

Replacing Manual Work with Automation

One of the most immediate benefits for Boubyan Bank was automation. Many reports that were previously created manually in Excel or PowerPoint could now be built directly in eazyBI and updated automatically.

Instead of spending hours every month collecting data, adjusting numbers, and formatting slides, teams could rely on dashboards that are always ready and always consistent. Reporting became part of the workflow, not an extra task that required late nights and constant effort.

This shift away from manual reporting helped Boubyan Bank save more than 100 hours every month — time that could be redirected toward analysis, planning, and improving project execution.

Making Sure Reports Reach the Right People

However, saving time was only part of the story.

Another important improvement was how reports were delivered. In many organizations, reports exist, but they don’t always reach the people who need them most. Sometimes dashboards are created, but no one is informed, or the information arrives too late to support real decisions.

Boubyan Bank focused not only on building reports, but also on making reporting dependable. With eazyBI, key stakeholders could access the right information at the right time, and reporting became a recurring, trusted part of portfolio governance.

This helped ensure that insights were not only created, but actually used.

Keeping Reporting Simple, Clear, and Actionable

Boubyan Bank’s dashboards are intentionally simple, and that simplicity is what makes them powerful. Instead of overly complex visuals, the reports are designed to be quick to read and easy to understand.

A good report should not require long explanations. It should immediately show what is happening, highlight what needs attention, and help people take action.

By focusing on clarity, Boubyan Bank made sure that reporting supports decision-making instead of becoming noise.

Reports That Support Better Decisions

One example is a straightforward report showing projects divided by status. At first glance, it looks simple, but it gives leaders instant visibility into work in progress.

If the number of projects under execution suddenly changes, it raises an important question: is the organization facing bottlenecks, delays, or shifting priorities? From there, teams can dig deeper and understand what is driving the change.

Another valuable report focuses on project plan stability. Changes to plans are normal, but too many changes can signal weak planning or growing risk. By tracking how often project plans are adjusted, Boubyan Bank can spot patterns early and address issues before costs increase further.

Other dashboards provide high-level health indicators, allowing stakeholders to quickly see whether trends are improving or worsening. If something looks unusual, the report offers a clear starting point for deeper investigation.

These kinds of reports may look simple, but they create strong control and transparency across the portfolio.

One Central Place for Portfolio Insights

As part of their PPM journey, Boubyan Bank also introduced BigPicture, a Jira app for advanced project and portfolio management. While BigPicture provides robust planning features, including sophisticated Gantt capabilities, it was important to keep high-level reporting centralized in eazyBI. When key dashboards are available in one place, users don’t have to jump between tools just to understand project progress.

eazyBI became the main reporting layer — the place where stakeholders start, get an overview, and move into deeper tools only when necessary.

The Value Goes Beyond Time Savings

In the end, Boubyan Bank’s success with eazyBI comes down to more than automation.

Yes, removing manual reporting saved over 100 hours every month. But the bigger impact came from delivering reports on time, making insights accessible to the right people, and keeping dashboards clear enough to drive real decisions.

This is where the true value of good reporting lies — not only in hours saved, but in the ability to plan better, react faster, and continuously improve portfolio performance over time.

Watch the full presentation video recording here.

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Learning eazyBI Step by Step

Gerda Grantiņa — 2026-02-19T00:00:00Z

Building Jira reports in eazyBI is much easier when you know what to do first and what to leave for later. The eazyBI Learning Center gives you that path with short lessons, practical tasks, and a Jira sample dataset you can safely experiment with.

You won’t start with theory. You’ll start by doing: drag a dimension into the report, add measures, filter the view, change the chart type, and immediately see what changes. Across the first three courses, you’ll complete 20 guided lessons – from creating your very first report to more advanced chart and table formatting.

To make practice smooth, every user gets a training account with Jira sample data. It’s a sandbox where you can explore eazyBI features, test ideas, and save reports without affecting your production environment.

Course: Introduction to Building Reports

The first course introduces the fundamentals of building reports in eazyBI using Jira data. You’ll get comfortable with the report builder interface and learn what measures, dimensions, and properties mean in Jira terms. Also, you’ll explore data through drag and drop, drill into details, and use page and row filters to look at the same information from different angles.

Course: Simple Charts and Table Reports

Once you’re confident with the basics, the second course focuses on reports you may actually use day to day. You’ll build a project overview and progress reports, get the most active days, analyze versions, and learn how to combine dimensions and measures to answer common Jira questions.

One of the lessons is the Fix version progress report. Here, you will build a visual overview of unreleased versions, showing the total scope alongside resolved and unresolved work. By combining bars and scatter points in a single chart, the report makes it easy to see how much work has been done, how much remains open, and how each version is progressing at a glance.

As part of the lesson, you also refine the visual details — adjusting colors, adding percentage labels, and turning raw data into a clear, readable progress view.

Course: Mixed Chart Types and Advanced Formatting in Reports

The third course takes your reporting further with advanced formatting and chart combinations. You’ll work with mixed chart types, timelines, and separate axes to compare different metrics based on Jira data (such as issues resolved and hours spent) in a single view. You’ll also deepen your skills in conditional formatting for both tables and charts to make the most important values and patterns in the report stand out.

In the Performance report, part 2/2 lesson, you will bring these ideas together by creating a timeline that combines issue resolution trends with time tracking data. The chart shows how effort and delivery evolve over time, using columns, areas, and trend lines on separate axes to keep each metric easy to read.

This lesson helps you understand how to design richer reports that tell a story — not just by adding more data, but by choosing the right chart types, calculations, and formatting to make patterns and relationships stand out.

Learning Path That Grows With You

These three courses build on each other, but they’re flexible — you can follow the full sequence or jump into the topic you need most. The progression is intentional: no MDX, no shortcuts. You start by mastering the drag-and-drop report builder and core reporting concepts first, so you have a solid foundation for everything that comes next.

And when you’re ready to go further, the eazyBI Learning Center grows with you. You can continue into the introductory MDX courses to learn how to build calculated measures and expand what your reports can do — all with the same guided, practical approach that helps you learn with confidence.

Learn how to start using the eazyBI Learning Center in our documentation.

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How to Migrate eazyBI from Atlassian Data Center to Cloud

Kārlis Visendorfs — 2026-02-05T00:00:00Z

If you're preparing to migrate your Jira instance from Atlassian Data Center to Cloud, you're likely thinking about how your eazyBI reports and dashboards will make the journey. The good news: this doesn't have to be complicated.

eazyBI for Data Center and eazyBI for Jira Cloud are the same core application. There are no major functional differences. This isn't a rebuild or a reimplementation — it's a metadata transfer that typically completes in seconds to minutes.

This guide walks you through the entire process: what to prepare, how the migration works, and what to check afterward. Whether you're a Jira administrator handling the migration yourself or a solution partner supporting a client, you'll find everything you need here.

What Gets Migrated (And What Doesn't)

Before you begin, it's important to understand what the migration process actually transfers.

What IS migrated
Reporting metadata, like:

eazyBI accounts
User permissions and roles
Report definitions
Dashboard definitions
Advanced settings (custom configurations)

What is NOT migrated

Report data (the actual data behind your reports)

This is intentional. The migration transfers only metadata — the structure and definitions of your analytics setup. The actual report data must be re-imported from your Jira Cloud instance after migration.

Why? Because your Jira data has already been migrated to the Cloud. Once eazyBI for Jira Cloud is set up, it imports directly from Jira Cloud. This keeps the migration fast and ensures your reports reflect the data that's actually in your Cloud instance.

Before You Begin: Prerequisites & Preparation

Most migration issues trace back to ignored preparation. With the right prep, the migration is pretty painless.

Prerequisites

Start by updating eazyBI for Data Center to the latest version — the Database Migrator requires version compatibility with Jira Cloud.

Your Jira instance should already be in the cloud before you start migrating eazyBI. If your reports use data from third-party apps like Xray or Zephyr, install those in Jira Cloud first. The same goes for eazyBI itself — install eazyBI for Jira Cloud on your Cloud instance.

Leave eazyBI advanced settings empty – the migration will bring them over from Data Center. If anything is already added, the Data Center settings won’t be migrated and will need to be copied manually.

Finally, check your network. Your Data Center server needs outbound access to both your Atlassian Cloud URL and eazybi.com. If your network restricts outbound connections, check the eazyBI documentation for the list of IP addresses that need to be allowed.

Preparation

Based on our best practices, we suggest taking these preparation steps to avoid potential issues during the migration—better safe than sorry.

Back up your eazyBI database using your standard database backup tool — and test that backup. The ZIP file created by the Database Migrator is a migration package, not a backup. Don't confuse the two.

Document your custom field mappings. Custom field IDs often change during Jira migration. Record your current field IDs and names so you can update references later if needed.

Clean up first. Unused fields, abandoned accounts, and orphaned reports don't need to make the trip. Less content means fewer warnings to review and a cleaner starting point in Jira Cloud.

Make a list of your dashboard gadgets. eazyBI gadgets in Jira and Confluence dashboards must be re-added manually after migration. Document what exists now so you don't forget any.

Run a test migration. Migrate to a test Cloud environment before touching production. This reveals any issues while you still have time to address them — and it's far less stressful than discovering problems in production.

The Migration Process: Step by Step

With preparation complete, the actual migration is straightforward.

Step 1: Open the Database Migrator

In eazyBI for Data Center, navigate to Settings → Database Migrator

Step 2: Select Migration Type

Choose "From server to cloud" as your migration type.

Step 3: Enter Cloud Connection Details

You'll need three pieces of information:

Cloud Site URL — Your Atlassian Cloud instance URL (e.g., yourcompany.atlassian.net)
User Email — An admin account email that exists in Cloud
API Token — Generate this from your Atlassian account

To create an API token:

In Cloud, go to your profile → Account Settings → Security
Click "API Tokens" → "Create API Token"
Give it a name and set an expiration date
Copy the token and paste it into the migration form

Step 4: Select Accounts to Migrate

Choose which eazyBI accounts to migrate. You can select all accounts or specific ones.

Important: If you use template accounts, migrate them together with all associated child accounts; otherwise, the relationships between template and child accounts will be lost and will need to be restored manually after the migration.

Step 5: Click "Migrate"

Click the Migrate button and wait for completion. Since only metadata is transferred, this typically takes seconds to minutes — not hours.

Your Post-Migration Checklist

The migration itself is the easy part. Now comes the work of verifying everything landed correctly and reconnecting your data sources. Work through this checklist systematically:

Review migration warnings — Check for any warnings about users, fields, or accounts that weren't found. These are informational — they don't block migration, but they tell you what needs attention.

Verify advanced settings transferred — Check that your custom settings from Data Center appear in eazyBI for Jira Cloud.

Reset authorization if needed — If your Cloud user email differs from your Data Center user email, you'll see a permission error when trying to import. Fix this by going to Source Data → Reset Authorization → Assign to current user.

Import data into each account — Go to each account → Source Data → Import. This imports data from Jira Cloud. The first import will take longer than a regular import, as it is a full import.

Update custom field IDs in advanced settings — If any custom field IDs changed during Jira migration, update the references in your advanced settings and calculated fields.

Review source application import options — Verify that import settings are correct for the Cloud environment.

Re-add Jira dashboard gadgets — eazyBI report gadgets in Jira dashboards must be re-added manually. Go to your dashboards, add an eazyBI Report gadget, and configure it to display your report.

Re-add Confluence gadgets — Similarly, recreate any eazyBI gadgets in Confluence pages.

Check REST API data sources — If you import from REST API endpoints, ensure they're publicly accessible from Cloud. Update authorization if needed.

Check SQL data sources — Internal SQL databases may not be accessible from Cloud. Consider migrating them to a cloud-accessible location (Azure, AWS, etc.).

Test reports and dashboards — Compare your Cloud reports with the Data Center to verify data accuracy.

Troubleshooting: Common Issues and Solutions

Even with good preparation, you may encounter some issues. Here's what we see most often and how to resolve them.

Issue	Cause	Solution
Custom field IDs changed	Jira migration changes field IDs	The migrator automatically identifies fields by name AND type. If both match, the ID updates automatically. If a field can't be matched (e.g., name or type changed), manually update the ID in the advanced settings and calculated fields.
User permission errors	Different email addresses between DC and Cloud	Users are matched by email. If emails differ, use Reset Authorization to assign to the current Cloud user.
User keys changed	Jira migration may change user keys	If user keys change during Jira migration, historical data (such as issue assignee history) may not be correctly matched. Verify historical reports after migration.
Field type mismatches	Field types changed during Jira migration	Some fields may change type (integer → text). Re-select the field in import options and reconfigure if needed.
SQL/REST sources are inaccessible	Internal sources not reachable from Cloud	Internal data sources need public access or relocation to cloud-accessible infrastructure.
Template accounts not working	Template accounts are separated from children	Always migrate template accounts together with all child accounts that use them.
Third-party app field differences	Different field availability in the Cloud	Some Xray and Zephyr fields aren't available in Cloud. Check the app documentation for Cloud-specific limitations.
Zephyr imports slow	No incremental import in Cloud	Due to REST API limitations, each Zephyr import is a full import. Plan for longer import times.

Download Your Migration Checklist

We've compiled everything from this guide into a print-friendly PDF checklist. Use it to track your progress through each phase of the migration.

Download the eazyBI Migration Checklist (PDF)

The checklist includes:

Prerequisites verification
Pre-migration preparation steps
Migration process walkthrough
Post-migration verification
Common issues and solutions

Watch the Full Webinar

Want to see the migration process in action? Watch the complete webinar recording, including a live demonstration of migrating eazyBI from the Data Center to the Cloud.

What you'll see:

Live walkthrough of the Database Migrator
Creating API tokens for Cloud authentication
Handling authorization resets
Re-adding dashboard gadgets
Real-time Q&A with the eazyBI team

Q&A: Answers to Common Migration Questions

During the webinar, we received many questions from attendees. Here are answers to the most common ones.

Is there a list of IP addresses that need to be allowed for eazyBI migration?

Yes. Check the eazyBI documentation, specifically the REST API page, for the list of IP addresses that eazybi.com uses. If your network restricts outbound connections, you'll need to allow these IPs for the migration to work.

Does eazyBI store data on the Atlassian platform?

No. eazyBI stores data on eazybi.com , which runs on Google Cloud Platform — separate from Atlassian's infrastructure. eazyBI is SOC 2 Type II certified. For security assessments or compliance documentation, contact support@eazybi.com

How are user permissions and account roles migrated?

Users are matched by email address. If a user with the same email exists in Cloud, their permissions are migrated. If a user isn't found, you'll see a migration warning. Users with different emails between DC and Cloud will need their authorization reset manually.

Are custom field IDs updated automatically during migration?

The migrator attempts to identify custom fields by their name and type. If a match is found, the field ID is updated automatically. If not, you'll need to manually update references in advanced settings and calculated fields.

Can I migrate my Confluence gadgets?

Unfortunately, eazyBI gadgets in Confluence pages cannot be migrated automatically. This is an Atlassian platform limitation, not an eazyBI limitation. You'll need to recreate these gadgets manually after migration.

Are there differences for Zephyr in Cloud?

The data structures are largely the same between Data Center and Jira Cloud. The main difference is that incremental imports aren't available in Jira Cloud due to REST API limitations. Each Zephyr import will be a full import, so expect longer import times.

What if I use SQL databases that aren't publicly accessible?

Internal SQL databases won't be accessible from eazyBI for Jira Cloud. You'll need to either expose the database to the public network (with appropriate security) or migrate it to a cloud-accessible location like Azure SQL or AWS RDS.

Resources

Documentation: eazyBI Database Migration Guide
Webinar Recording: How to Migrate eazyBI from DC to Cloud
Support: support@eazybi.com — For migration questions, security assessments, and technical assistance
Security: eazyBI is SOC 2 Type II certified, Atlassian Cloud Fortified, and data is stored on the Google Cloud Platform. Learn more about eazyBI security.

Questions about your specific migration scenario? Reach out to us at support@eazybi.com — we're here to help.

eazyBI Learning Center: Accessible for Everyone

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2026-01-23T00:00:00Z

Rome was not built in a day, and becoming a professional data analyst takes years. However, a report is not a Colosseum, and a project progress chart is not rocket science.

We believe in data democracy, which means that anyone should be able to access the data they need to understand their daily work, without relying on a busy IT team or a consultant. At the same time, every tool, including eazyBI, has its own learning curve.

This is why the eazyBI Learning Center exists — and why it was built by our most experienced eazyBI support consultants and developers. We are proud of it. It is a safe space for any user to learn everything: from the very first steps in report creation to building complex charts and calculations.

"This is by far the best on-demand training that I have used. I love the guided examples with links to get more information."
— From customer feedback

So, what can you expect from the Learning Center, and how can you use it better?

Hands-On Approach

Throughout each lesson, you build. There are no dry theoretical concepts. Everything introduced is put into action immediately. You are guided step by step as you do the work yourself, and when you get it right, you can move on to the next step. And no punishment for wrong answers.

There is a space to think it through on your own and, at the same time, no shame to ask for the right answer. Hints on what to do, together with highlighted relevant elements, are always one click away.

"Very intuitive user interface. Good progression. Useful hints."
— From customer feedback

Use-Case Based Lessons

At the end of each lesson, you get a specific report or calculation that solves a real situation. This can be a performance or version report, a calculation that retrieves all backlog items, or a list of all higher-priority bugs.

In practice, it usually matters more to get a specific question answered than to study all eazyBI functions academically, and that is completely fine. By using eazyBI across different use cases, you gradually understand how it works and can apply that knowledge in other situations later. And if you want to explore something in more depth, there are always links to additional resources.

"This has been a valuable learning experience with eazyBI. I am confident that my skills will continue to improve."
— From customer feedback

Do It at Your Own Pace

The Learning Center is available 24/7, with no additional charge and no time limit on completing a course or lesson. Choose your own lesson order and pace. While we recommend following the lesson sequence, you can do as you like.

You can do one lesson a day or complete a whole course before lunchtime. Or find a specific lesson and use it when you want to create a specific report. The choice is yours.

Wide Topic Coverage

Currently, there are 6 courses and 39 lessons in total. On average, it takes 15–20 minutes for one lesson or around 12 hours to complete all (based on usage statistics). A new course is already in the works, and we have plans for more.

From core concepts to report building, different chart types, and MDX calculations — we have ambitions to cover all eazyBI functionality.

Created for Any Knowledge Level

Each course starts with an introductory lesson that sets up the playground and explains the UI or main concepts. During the course, knowledge is built gradually, with new things introduced step by step. Even if you know no coding at all, you will get through MDX courses (yes, we tested it with our marketing and administrative colleagues).

"The current learning environment is good — MDX calculated measures can be dealt with in more examples. It was fun learning about eazyBI."
— From customer feedback

You do not have to be a data analyst or developer; common sense and the willingness to build eazyBI reports yourself are all you need to start these lessons. Also, many long-term users say they have learned valuable tips and tricks, or finally had an AHA moment about why something works the way it does.

Created by Humans for Other Humans

All the lessons are based on our long experience in customer support. None of the authors had MDX experience when they started, and only some had a programming background. We learned the tool and the MDX language step by step, with help from books and colleagues.

Over the years, the same concepts were explained to our customers dozens of times. This made it clear which ideas are more complex to grasp, where people tend to struggle, and the most common errors. The Learning Center was built with this in mind.

It Is Your Safe Space

The Learning Center is personal for each user. Nobody sees your mistakes, how many times a formula was tried, or when a hint was needed. This is your learning process, and no one is looking over your shoulder.

Everything you build and save stays in your account. You can come back later and find everything exactly as you left it.

Your Private Sandbox

Moreover, a learning account can be used not only for dedicated learning courses, but also to experiment with and test your own calculations, or to report ideas before moving them to a production site.

The Learning Center contains 1000 demo work items with logged hours, story points, various statuses, and historical entries.

No Additional Permission Needed

You can access your learning space whenever you want. You do not need your Jira site admin or project manager to set it up for you. Just go to the Learning Center, follow the UI guidance, and create an account. The account is created instantly with one click and already includes demo data.

Go to eazyBI Learning lessons and start today!

Watch the video to see how to get started with the eazyBI Learning Center.

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AI-Powered Reporting with eazyBI

Mindaugas Gelumbauskas — 2026-01-22T00:00:00Z

In the past few years, the conversation around AI in business has shifted from whether we should use it to how we can use it effectively. Even before eazyBI AI Assistants were introduced, our customers and partners explored, experimented, and found practical value of AI for everyday work with eazyBI.

During eazyBI Community Days 2025, Mindaugas from TeamBit shared his journey of finding new ways to speed up and simplify his reporting with eazyBI using AI.

Mindaugas has been working as a Jira admin for seven years, and has the advantage of having eazyBI in the app portfolio. One of his responsibilities is to help users create reports and answer their questions. For many users, building complex calculation formulas in eazyBI has always been one of the most challenging parts of the job, especially without a technical background. But AI tools are changing that.

From Skepticism to Superpower

When ChatGPT first launched, it was tempting, but far from perfect. It often invented functions that didn’t exist, especially when trying to write MDX (Multi-Dimensional Expressions) calculations. At first, it felt like more of a toy than a tool.

Things started to shift with Bing AI and eventually ChatGPT-4. Once paid access became available, unlocking better reliability and longer context, everything changed. With paid access, better reliability and longer context were achieved. Creating a custom GPT became a game-changer, especially one trained to understand eazyBI's MDX syntax and documentation

Suddenly, Mindaugas had a reliable partner to debug errors, write code snippets, or just explain what a report was doing.

What Assistants Can Do

AI tools like the eazyBI AI assistants and custom GPTs can support your reporting work in a variety of ways:

Create simple reports using standard dimensions, measures, and filters.
Explain reports - create descriptions and clarify how filters or measures work.
Draft or review MDX formulas, JavaScript snippets, and advanced settings.
Get tips on optimizing reports, like offloading logic to Jira fields.
Use assistants as brainstorming partners to explore different approaches.

Debugging Together

When eazyBI AI Assistants were introduced, Mindaugas decided to compare both of the AI tools – his custom GPT for MDX calculations and then the just-released AI Assistant. Most of the requests I get revolve around MDX formulas. Take a seemingly simple question like: “How many issues were reopened at least once?” His custom GPT assumed he was interested in tracking transitions to a specific “Reopened” status. Meanwhile, the eazyBI Assistant interpreted it as a status category change. Both missed what he actually needed.

The real issue wasn’t with the tools, but with the prompt. The word “reopened” is vague and can mean different things depending on the workflow. For one team, it might mean a transition to a reopened status. For another, it might be tied to whether a resolution was cleared and then re-added.

If a more precise prompt was provided – something like: “I want to create a calculated measure that counts issues that had at least one change to the Resolution field (i.e., were resolved at least once) and later had the Resolution field cleared (i.e., the issue was reopened). The logic should be based on the Resolution field transition, not status changes.” – The correct answer would have come much sooner.

Takeaways

Working with AI assistants is no longer about asking for code and hoping for the best. It’s about using them as a thinking partner, one that questions assumptions, challenges logic, and helps shape better solutions.

The key isn’t just feeding it prompts. It’s building context, asking the right questions, and guiding the conversation.

And whether you're using the built-in eazyBI Assistant or your own custom GPT, there’s one golden rule: don’t treat AI like a magic genie, treat it like a curious teammate.

Watch the full presentation recording here.

Learn more about eazyBI AI assistants:

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Behind the Scenes: How We Built the eazyBI Assistants

Gerda Grantiņa — 2026-01-22T00:00:00Z

In the last couple of years, AI has gone from a buzzword to something real we can work with. It started with curiosity. Then came the experiments. And then the questions: Could we bring AI into eazyBI in a meaningful way? Could it become a helpful part of the product – not a flashy extra, but something that actually makes life easier?

During eazyBI Community Days 2025, Gerda from the eazyBI support team shared the eazyBI journey with AI assistants.

It Started with Curiosity (and a Bit of Skepticism)

When ChatGPT first launched in late 2022, we were skeptical – like many others. Would it last? Was it another tech trend that would fizzle out?

In the eazyBI team, there were cautious observers… and there were pioneers. Jānis Vanags was one of the first to explore how AI could be used alongside eazyBI. He shared experiments using Midjourney and GPT, including one idea that turned Jira issue descriptions into embeddings for a scatterplot visualization in eazyBI.

That idea made it to GitHub – but we weren’t quite there yet.

Other team members played with custom GPTs, trained with eazyBI documentation and use cases. Interesting results, but still not enough. We wanted something more structured, more controlled, and – most importantly – integrated directly into eazyBI.

Building the First eazyBI Assistants

In early 2024, during one of our regular in-person hackathons (we’re a fully remote company, but we like to meet up now and then), we began building what would become the eazyBI Assistants.

By March, the first versions were ready for internal testing. As always, our support team tried hard to break them – and found plenty of ways to improve the assistants.

In May 2024, the Assistants were released to all eazyBI Cloud users. A time of learning and iteration had paid off.

What Can the Assistants Do?

Today, there are five eazyBI Assistants available in the Cloud version:

Report Builder Assistant – for building simple reports and explaining what measures or filters do.
MDX Formula Assistant – for writing and debugging custom calculations in MDX.
JavaScript Custom Field Assistant – for writing JavaScript for advanced custom field logic (a favorite for those who know what they want from Jira, but aren’t fluent in JS).
Conditional Formatting Assistant – for setting up conditional formatting for your reports (tables and charts).
Report Optimizer Assistant – helps you improve and speed up existing reports.

Each assistant uses structured eazyBI metadata (like dimensions and measures), public eazyBI documentation, and curated sample reports as its source of knowledge. When a user types a prompt, the assistant searches this structured knowledge, builds a custom instruction, and then sends that to a large language model (LLM) hosted in Google Cloud. After processing the result, it returns an answer inside eazyBI.

Behind the scenes, there’s a lot of filtering and error handling going on, but for the user, the experience should feel simple and helpful.

How AI Assistants Changed eazyBI

Working with the assistants also pushed us to improve our documentation and even some product features. Here are some of the examples that we improved:

We split long documentation pages into smaller, more focused ones (easier for the assistant and for you).
We added missing topics like issue links and tuple examples, based on real assistant misunderstandings.
We added predefined measures (like issue summaries) to replace overly complex MDX solutions that the assistant had been suggesting.
We reviewed performance tuning examples to make them more accessible to the assistant and to users.
We made hidden dimensions like Worklog visible, so users and assistants could use them more effectively.

In other words, the assistant didn’t just make the product more helpful – it also helped us improve the product.

Lessons Learned Along the Way

Small changes matter – updating just one instruction, example, or documentation tag can dramatically improve the assistant’s responses, and it impacts the report quality of dozens of customers.
Assistants reflect what you give them – they know what you teach them. Nothing more, nothing less. We at eazyBI are still responsible for the AI Assistant answers.
Customer interactions are the best feedback loop – real prompts, real misunderstandings, and real conversations help us make real improvements.
Pattern-based learning works – assistants respond better when your documentation includes relevant examples, clear headings, and consistent tagging.
They still make mistakes – sometimes confidently. Always double-check their answers.
They can’t read your mind – you need to be specific in your prompts. The clearer you are, the better the answer. Though you can use your native language.

And yes, our human support team is still smarter. 😉

What Comes Next?

Initially launched Assistants on eazyBI for Jira Cloud, were expanded to our other products – eazyBI for Jira Data Center, eazyBI for Confluence Cloud and Data Center, eazyBI for monday, Private eazyBI, and eazyBI Cloud. We’ve also built internal assistants to help with support conversations, spam detection, and more. And now we also have a general AI Assistant in eazyBI Home page to answer all types of questions related to the tool.

As we continue to learn, we continue to refine – instructions, documentation, product behavior - but one thing hasn’t changed: assistants are still a work in progress.

We’ve seen what happens when curiosity meets persistence. You don’t need a perfect idea to start. You just need to experiment, improve, and stay open to change.

Whether you're building assistants, learning to prompt better, or simply exploring new tools: Play. Learn. Improve. And don’t be afraid to change things when something better comes along.

Total number of AI conversations until January 2026

Watch the full presentation video recording here.

Learn more about eazyBI AI assistants:

Case Study: AI-Powered Reporting with eazyBI
Blog: Boost Your eazyBI Skills: 3 Ways AI Assistants Can Help
Blog: Introducing AI assistants in eazyBI
eazyBI AI Assistants documentation

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Reliable Linked Issue Reporting on Jira Cloud

Juan Jose Marchal — 2025-12-12T00:00:00Z

This use case story takes us back to eazyBI Community Days 2025, where Juan José Marchal from MyCloudDoor shared this practical, real-world example of what happens when long-established Jira Data Center solutions meet the realities of Jira Cloud – and how eazyBI can step in to fill the gaps.

The case study comes from the context of a financial institution – over 1,000 Jira users, nearly 200 projects, and a Data Center instance full of various apps and customizations. During migration assessment, the team repeatedly found plugins that could be replaced with built-in Jira features or with add-ons that can cover more business requirements / to provide a wider solution. By the time they were ready to migrate to the Cloud, they were down to only four apps – including eazyBI.

The story begins in late 2021, when Juan José was assigned to prepare a migration from Jira Data Center to Jira Cloud. A few months into the migration work, management began requesting project overviews, KPIs, and dashboards – everything you’d expect from a large organization preparing for change.

That’s when he introduced eazyBI, which became part of their journey starting in February 2022, right as the migration planning intensified.

Showing Linked Issue Information Reliably on Jira Cloud

After the migration, the team entered the “transformation” phase: adapting workflows, cleaning up configurations, and navigating Cloud limitations. One topic quickly surfaced – how to display linked issue information, especially across projects.

Deployment teams needed to see key Quality Assurance (QA) fields while preparing releases.
The structure was straightforward:

Project A: QA
Project B: CI/CD
Issues connected via the link: deploys / is deployed by
Deployment teams needed to see the QA status of linked issues while filtering and planning Project B data without opening individual issues.

How It Worked on Data Center

On the Data Center, their solution worked smoothly:

A scripted custom field (from a third-party app) iterated through linked issues and returned the QA status
This field was imported into eazyBI as a custom field
No extra calculations required; everything was reliable

What Went Wrong on Cloud?

After migrating to the Cloud, the script still existed, but the values were wrong.

Why?

In Jira Cloud, scripted fields only update when the issue is opened.

So when users relied on filters or dashboards, the values remained outdated.

For example:

QA issue status: Selected for Development
Scripted field in the CI/CD issue: Backlog
Root cause: the CI/CD issue had never been opened to trigger an update.

This led to confusion and inaccurate deployment planning.

At this point, the team asked the critical question: Do users truly need this data inside the Jira issue? And the answer was no. They needed accurate data in a report, especially for their weekly deployment meetings. This shifted the approach entirely.

New Solution: Delegate the Logic to eazyBI

Instead of relying on a scripted field with inconsistent result in time, the team moved the logic to eazyBI itself:

Use the issue links import option in the eazyBI import settings
Let eazyBI read the actual linked issue statuses directly from Jira
Create simple calculated measures to display human-readable status names
Build a clean, accurate deployment readiness report

This bypassed the Cloud limitation and ensured reliability.

In this scenario, eazyBI was more real-time than Jira, because imports always pulled the newest status, even when the scripted fields in Jira did not.

Lessons Learned

The best solution may require rethinking your approach.
Trying to fix the scripted field wasn’t necessary; the real need was accurate reporting, not in-issue data.
eazyBI is more than a reporting tool.
It can process, transform, and calculate data using:
- issue links,
- custom calculations,
- and dynamic measures.
When in doubt, ask eazyBI support.
If something can be done, they’ll help you find the best path within Cloud’s constraints.

Final Thoughts

Cloud migrations often reveal hidden dependencies or behaviors that once worked flawlessly in the Data Center but might create small – yet critical – gaps in the Cloud. This case shows how rethinking the approach and shifting the logic can lead to a simpler, cleaner, and more reliable solution.

Watch the full presentation video recording here.

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Descriptive, Predictive, Prescriptive Analytics with eazyBI

Dace Kvalberga — 2025-11-11T00:00:00Z

At eazyBI Community Days, Dace Kvalberga from flex.bi shared a forward-looking perspective on dashboard – focused not only on understanding the past, but also on making better decisions for the future.

While many businesses still only focus on historical data analysis, the real value comes when data becomes a tool for planning, improving, and guiding action. That’s where dashboards can evolve – from simply showing what happened to helping teams see what’s coming and decide what to do next.

Helping Visionaries Turn Ideas into Action

Dace works closely with business owners who are often big-picture thinkers – focused on where things are headed. Her role is to translate those abstract goals into practical dashboards that support decisions.

One playful example came from a recent event in Japan, where the flex.bi team created a themed dashboard for a sushi café. This small delivery-only business faced two typical problems:

How to earn more during limited working hours (Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.)?
How to staff more efficiently to keep up with changing demand?

That scenario became a way to explore three levels of analytics – descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive – and how each one contributes to better decision-making.

Descriptive Analytics: What’s Happening Now?

The first step was using descriptive analytics to understand what’s going on:

Sales by location and item type;
Order volume and delivery speed;
Average order value;
Customer breakdown by area.

While simple, this type of dashboard gives everyone a common view of business performance. Even small visual touches – like sushi-type emojis – can make it more intuitive, especially in cultures like Japan’s, where playful design is part of the user experience.

Predictive Analytics: What Might Happen?

Moving beyond the current snapshot, predictive analytics helps estimate what could happen next. For the sushi café, this meant:

Sales forecasts based on current performance;
"What if" scenarios;
Trends by day or item, showing when to promote certain products.

These insights make it easier to plan budgets, set goals, and adjust offerings based on expected demand. Even simple ratios – like revenue per item or delivery efficiency – can help teams focus on what really drives results.

A radar chart was used to visualize sushi type sales across weekdays, making it easy to spot which items performed best on specific days and where targeted promotions might help boost underperforming products.

Prescriptive Analytics: What Should We Do?

The final level, prescriptive analytics, turns insights into actionable suggestions:

Worker shift planning based on order volumes and staff capacity;
Menu optimization to recommend products that should be promoted on specific days;
Inventory recommendations to prepare for demand;
Dynamic pricing ideas based on performance trends.

These types of suggestions aren’t guaranteed to be perfect, but they help teams make informed choices without needing to guess. For example, if Tuesday’s forecast shows low sales for nigiri, the system could recommend offering a discount to boost demand.

Merging All Three for Smarter Dashboards

While each level – descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive – has value on its own, the biggest benefit comes when they’re combined. A well-designed dashboard can layer these ideas together:

Show current results;
Indicate future trends;
Offer small nudges or suggestions based on analysis.

Instead of overwhelming users, the goal is to embed intelligence into everyday views – so that data naturally guides decisions.

Real-World Use Cases

Beyond sushi cafés, this approach fits many business needs. Examples include:

Sales forecasting for B2B or retail;
Inventory demand planning;
Staffing and shift planning;
Machine and resource allocation;
Marketing optimization – like spotting slow-moving products and adjusting promotions.

These use cases show that even without advanced AI or big data infrastructure, teams can gain smarter insights just by using their eazyBI setup more creatively.

Final Thoughts

“We never do our best on the first try.”

That was one of Dace’s key reminders. Business dashboards should evolve – starting with simple overviews and growing into tools that support smarter, faster decisions.

Whether you’re helping a café plan deliveries or guiding strategic business goals, eazyBI offers the building blocks. And with each dashboard iteration, there’s room to go further, ask better questions, and turn insights into action.

Watch the Full Presentation

Sushi café's full presentation video recording is available here.

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Announcing Pricing Update for eazyBI for Jira Cloud

eazyBI — 2025-11-10T00:00:00Z

Effective December 1, 2025, pricing for eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira Cloud on the Atlassian Marketplace will be updated. This adjustment reflects our continued investment in performance, scalability, AI-driven features, and integrations that make eazyBI even more powerful and easier to use.

We’re sharing this information early so customers and partners can plan renewals, updates, and DC to Cloud migrations accordingly.

Updated Per-User Monthly Pricing

The new pricing takes effect on December 1, 2025, with a 60-day grandfathering period through January 30, 2026 for Cloud renewals and updates.

Atlassian uses a progressive tier system for app pricing — smaller tiers are priced higher per user, while the per-user cost decreases as the total number of licensed users increases.

Tier Range	Current Price	New Price (Dec 1, 2025)
1–100 users	$2.50 / user / month	$3.00 / user / month
101–250 users	$0.50 / user / month	$0.60 / user / month
251–1000 users	$0.20 / user / month	$0.25 / user / month
1000+ users	$0.20 / user / month	No change
These prices are based on monthly “per-user, per-month” subscriptions. Annual prices are equal to 10× the total monthly price.

Tier Increase Summary

1–10 users: remains $10 total
<1000 users: Price increases by about 20%
1000–10000: Price increases from 20% – 4.5%*
10000+: Price increase is < 4.5%*

*Note: The List price % increase is gradually decreasing starting from 1000 users.

What’s New in eazyBI Cloud

Over the past 18 months, we’ve delivered dozens of updates and improvements across AI features, integrations, administration, and usability — bringing enterprise-grade analytics to more teams than ever before.

AI & Automation

AI Assistants for building reports, writing MDX calculations, and JavaScript custom fields
New AI assistants: conditional formatting, report optimizer assistants, and recent assistant threads history

Visualization & UI

New Radar Chart (spider/web chart)
New MDX functions for advanced calculations
Gantt chart, dashboard folder, and UI performance improvements

Learning & Enablement

Learning Center: interactive self-paced training directly inside eazyBI

Integrations

New Integrations: Budgety by Deiser, Zephyr Scale
Enhancements: Jira Align, Jira Assets, REST API, usage statistics

Administration & Governance

Audit log for report, dashboard, and account-level changes
Improved permissions and access management for safer collaboration

These updates ensure eazyBI Cloud remains fast, secure, and powerful — ready for both small teams and enterprise-scale environments.

Grandfathering and Renewal Rules

To make the transition smooth, current Cloud customers can renew or update licenses at current pricing through January 30, 2026.

Renewal or update quotes generated during this period are valid for 30 days.
After the grace period, new pricing will automatically apply to all renewals and updates.

DC to Cloud Migration Note

Grandfathering does not apply when migrating between platforms. If you plan to move from Data Center to Cloud, generate the Cloud quote before December 1, 2025 to lock in the current rate (quote valid for 30 days, extendable up to 90 days).

Active Evaluations

All evaluations started before December 1st, 2025 will have the old price at the start of subscription.

Need Assistance?

If you have questions please contact our team at support@eazybi.com or reach out to your eazyBI Partner contact.

Thank you for your continued trust in eazyBI. Your support helps us keep building better analytics and visualization tools.

An Indonesian Bank’s Journey to Better Complaint Handling

Kennie Nugroho — 2025-10-16T00:00:00Z

At eazyBI Community Days, Kennie Nugroho from Progrez, an Atlassian Solution Partner in Indonesia, shared a story about helping a leading Indonesian bank transform the way they manage complaint handling and reporting using eazyBI and Jira Service Management.

Bringing Reports Out of Spreadsheets

This community-focused bank, a subsidiary of a larger, well-known parent company, serves local communities across Indonesia, supporting small businesses and villages throughout the country.

The bank wanted to move away from its old complaint management system and find something that could integrate directly with Jira, which their software teams were already using. Up until then, all complaint handling reports were built manually in Excel.

They weren’t just looking for nicer reports – they needed something more reliable, less manual, and able to deliver automated insights straight from Jira Service Management.

One of the customer team members even sketched out their ideal dashboard. They knew what they wanted – they just needed someone to help them build it.

Building the Solution in Phases

What started as a simple reporting upgrade quickly grew into something much bigger. As the project evolved, the solution rolled out in three key phases.

The first step was moving the bank’s entire complaint handling process into Jira Service Management (JSM) and introducing eazyBI for reporting. This laid the foundation for everything that followed.
The team set up SMS notifications to keep customers updated on the status of their complaints. This wasn’t as simple as plugging in a standard service – the bank used a private SMS server with custom APIs. Working within these controlled, non-public systems made the integration a little more complex, but the team found a way to make it work smoothly.
Jira Service Management was connected with ServiceNow, which the bank used for internal IT service management. Manual Excel data was still in use for certain reports, so this was also integrated into the workflow.

With these systems now working together, software, IT, and infrastructure teams could finally collaborate on complaints that crossed between different departments.

Managing Multiple Data Sources

By the final stage, the team was managing three active data sources—ServiceNow, which was now synchronized with Jira Service Management, manual Excel data still in use, and native Jira Service Management tickets.

The solution needed to handle complex reporting requirements, but the customer had one very specific request: they still wanted the reports to look like the Excel tables they were used to.

"Even though eazyBI has powerful charts, the customer still wanted to see tables – so we made sure we could deliver that too."

This balance between introducing smarter reporting and respecting familiar workflows was key. The team delivered something new without forcing the customer to give up what already worked for them.

Tackling SLA Measurement

One of the most interesting challenges was how the customer measured SLA.

In Jira, SLAs typically count down. But the customer was used to SLAs that count up – measuring elapsed time. At first, they built an elaborate MDX formula to convert the countdown into elapsed time. It worked—but it was complicated.

Eventually, they discovered that eazyBI already had a built-in elapsed time feature, which simplified everything. It was a good reminder to always check what’s available before building something from scratch.

Grouping Results Into Time Buckets

The customer also wanted to track how quickly complaints were resolved, grouped into specific time intervals.

With eazyBI’s interval feature, the team created easy-to-read time buckets: less than one day, one to seven days, eight to fourteen days, and more than fifteen days. Setting this up was simple, and it gave the customer exactly the visibility they wanted.

Results: Faster Insights, Better Decisions

In the end, the bank got what they were looking for:

Better operational insights into complaint handling;
Faster decision-making based on complete reports;
Improved SLA performance with clearer tracking.

What Made the Project Work?

Always Define Metrics Clearly Up Front
Don’t assume. Take the time to connect with the customer and agree on exactly how each metric should be calculated.
“We almost ran into trouble with the SLA definitions – counting up vs. counting down.”
Know Your Data Sources
Clarify your data flow and sources for reporting. In this project, the team used ScriptRunner and Elements Connect to bring external data into Jira without needing direct access to other systems.
Import Only What You Need
Be careful with custom fields; decide whether you need them as measures, dimensions, or properties.
Look for Simpler Solutions
The team initially built a complex formula when eazyBI’s built-in feature would have done the job more easily. Stay curious and explore the standard solutions first.
Always Validate with the Customer
Make sure the reports match what the customer’s trusted sources show. It’s the best way to build confidence in the results.
“You need to validate that the data you loaded is correct and matches what the customer expects.”

Why eazyBI Was the Right Fit

The customer’s software, IT, and complaint handling teams were already working in Jira. Using eazyBI within the same platform made reporting seamless and accessible.

"They loved that they didn’t have to switch between tools – everything was inside Jira."

While other teams at the bank still use Power BI, the Jira teams preferred eazyBI because it integrated directly into their daily workflows. It was easy to use, powerful enough to meet their needs, and, most importantly, it was already where they worked.

Kennie’s presentation shares valuable lessons, practical tips, and a look behind the scenes of a complex but rewarding project. Watch the full story here.

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Until the End of Internet: Our Data Center Commitment

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2025-10-09T00:00:00Z

Atlassian's Data Center EOL doesn't mean the end of our support – here's what you can expect from eazyBI through 2029 and beyond.

Data Center End-Of-Life by 2029

You've probably heard by now: Atlassian recently announced the timeline for Data Center end-of-life (EOL). By March 2029, Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, and Bamboo Data Center (DC) environments will reach full EOL and transition to read-only mode. The milestones are clear: no new DC apps after December 2025, no new customer licenses after March 2026, and no expansions for existing customers after March 2028.

Here's our answer: eazyBI is committed to Data Center – until the end of Internet.

The term "Until the end of the Internet" is a concept from 37signals that we've adapted. It means we'll continue releasing features, updates, bug fixes, and full support for Data Center in full parity with our Cloud platform until our last DC customer. When you're ready to migrate whether that's to Atlassian Cloud or another platform entirely we'll support that journey with tools and incentives. But until then, you can count on us.

Our Philosophy: Partnership Over Transactions

Over the past decade, we've navigated plenty of industry shifts together. This is just one more – and we're not going anywhere.

When I started eazyBI from my home office more than a decade ago, it was because I saw a gap. Jira users needed better reporting, and existing tools often oversimplified or overcomplicated the problem (or sometimes both). Today, we serve thousands of customers across 238 countries, but the principle hasn't changed: we build what our customers need, and we stick with them through transitions.

Our Promise: Feature Parity, Active Development, Zero Abandonment

Let's make it clear what "until the end of Internet" means in practice.

Every feature we release for Cloud will be available for Data Center. This isn't maintenance mode or legacy support – this is active, ongoing development with the same engineering resources, the same product roadmap, and the same commitment to innovation. You'll continue to receive bug fixes, security updates, functional enhancements, and support.

Your reporting infrastructure remains stable and reliable – your reports, charts, dashboards, custom calculations, and portfolio analytics you've built aren't at risk. The workflows your teams depend on won't break. The reports your executives rely on will keep running.

Your governance processes can continue uninterrupted. Whether it's OKR dashboards connecting delivery metrics across divisions, portfolio reports for quarterly board reviews, or compliance tracking for audits – these continue to operate smoothly.

We've served Data Center customers for a decade and will continue to do so. That's not changing.

The Cloud Path: Migration on Your Timeline

Let's talk about migration – because eventually, it may make sense for your organization.

Keep in mind that migration timing is yours to control – but we can't extend Atlassian's March 2029 read-only date. What we can do is ensure eazyBI continues working reliably until then and provide full support for your transition whenever you choose to start it.

When you decide the time is right, we've built the bridge. Our migration tools are designed for seamless transitions. We offer dual licensing so you can run both environments during your transition period. We provide unspent Data Center license credits toward Cloud subscriptions. We maintain the same product on both platforms – so your teams aren't learning something different, they're moving to a familiar environment with the same capabilities.

And if you're thinking about moving beyond Atlassian but want to keep using eazyBI – let us know! We already have integrations with monday.com and YouTrack, and we might be working on yours next. Your migration plans directly inform our development priorities, and we want to continue being your reporting solution wherever your infrastructure evolves.

If you do migrate to Cloud, we understand that moving from the security of on-premises solutions might feel uncertain. We'll ensure eazyBI remains Atlassian's Cloud Fortified, SOC2 Type 2 certified, with data residency options in both the EU and US. Our Cloud infrastructure was built with the same security-first thinking you'd expect from Data Center.

Advanced Reporting: From Simple to Complex

While we're talking about what doesn't change, let's also address what eazyBI offers that makes this commitment meaningful.

For basic reporting needs, we've made it simple. From pre-built Jira-specific report and dashboard templates, to built-in AI report building assistants – users can create cross-project or multi-year reports in minutes. Integrations with third-party apps work out of the box.

For enterprise complexity, we scale with you. Custom calculations for unique business logic, granular import controls for data governance, user access management for security, and support for thousands of users across global organizations.

This range – from simple to advanced – is why organizations choose eazyBI. You get a single tool that serves both: teams building quick status reports and CFO needing cross-divisional portfolio analytics tied to financial outcomes. That flexibility you get in Data Center won't change on Cloud.

We're Here for the Long Term

You may have invested significant time, training, and planning into your eazyBI implementation. We're committed to supporting that investment for as long as you need Data Center, and we're ready to support your migration journey whenever you choose to begin it.

If you have questions about what this means for your specific environment, your compliance requirements, or your migration timeline, reach out. We're here for the conversation.

Until the end of Internet.

Raimonds Simanovskis
CEO, eazyBI

How eazyBI Handles Data Center to Cloud Migrations

Jānis Vītums — 2025-10-09T00:00:00Z

Jānis Vītums, the very first employee of eazyBI, has seen it all – from early server setups to cloud migrations. At eazyBI Community Days, he shared his unique perspective on database migrations. And in true eazyBI fashion, he did it wrapped in a parade of company-branded clothes – each item marking a different era of product evolution.

One eazyBI Behind It All

eazyBI has always maintained the same core functionality across all platforms:

eazybi.com (launched ~2011)
eazyBI for Jira Server (2012)
eazyBI for Jira Cloud (2013, back when it was Atlassian OnDemand)

All versions use the same codebase and core database structure. Whether you're using Jira Data Center, Jira Cloud, Confluence, or any other data source, the engine behind the scenes is always the same. This unified design is what makes migrations not only possible but straightforward.

"Migration doesn’t require transforming your data. You’re just moving it."

Why eazyBI Has Its Own Database

Unlike many Jira apps that store data inside shared Jira tables, eazyBI uses its own dedicated databases. That’s because it needs to manage large volumes of structured analytical data – something standard Jira tables aren't designed for.

This decision proved to be a big win for migration simplicity: since all data and metadata are stored independently, it’s easier to package, move, and restore configurations without relying on Jira internals.

From Full Dumps to Flexible Tools

In the early days, the only migration method was a full database dump and restore. It worked, but there were some limitations:

Couldn’t migrate between different database types (e.g., PostgreSQL → MySQL)
Required DBA-level access and knowledge
Was overkill for many use cases (test environments, sandboxing, etc.)

As the customer base grew, so did the need for something better.

Enter the eazyBI Database Migrator

The eazyBI Database Migrator was developed to address those growing needs. It supports two migration types:

Direct Database Migration
Transfers data directly from the source to the target database. This method is faster for large migrations but requires both systems to be accessible, with proper drivers installed and connectivity between them configured.
File-Based Migration
Packages the migration into a standalone ZIP file that contains all the necessary metadata. This ZIP can be moved and imported into any compatible environment, making it ideal for cases where direct access isn’t possible or environments are isolated.

Behind the scenes, however, both approaches work the same way. Even the direct database method first generates the same ZIP export file internally and then immediately imports it into the target system—making the core logic of both migration types essentially identical.

What Actually Gets Migrated?

One key point was made very clear: no actual data (like issue data or cube values) is migrated.

Instead, the migrator handles:

Metadata (users, accounts, import configurations)
Cube structures (dimensions, calculated members)
Report and dashboard definitions

Because eazyBI imports are repeatable, once the definitions are migrated, you simply re-run the imports on the target system, and you’re back in business.

Data Center to Cloud Migration

Cloud migration follows the same core process: export from the Data Center, import into the Cloud. But the challenge lies in matching Jira data – because internal IDs often differ between Jira Data Center and Jira Cloud.

But here's where it gets tricky – Jira’s internal IDs often change between environments, and that’s where careful handling is needed.

What eazyBI handles:

Re-creates metadata and definitions (accounts, imports, reports, dashboards) on the Cloud
Uses name-based matching (instead of IDs) to link projects, users, and custom fields across environments
Handles most of the matching logic for custom fields, including those used in import definitions, reports, advanced settings, and JavaScript code

What you need to watch out for:

Gadgets and hardcoded links will break
Since internal IDs and domain names change in the Cloud, some Jira dashboard gadgets or direct report links may stop working.
Some reports may require tweaking
Especially if they depend on fields or values that don’t match exactly or weren’t reconnected properly during import.
Testing is essential
To catch any mismatches or broken reports early, run a full test migration before going live. Compare report outputs, re-run imports, and validate data sources.

Cloud to Cloud Migration

As more teams move to Jira Cloud, the need for sandbox environments has grown. That’s where cloud-to-cloud migrations come in.

Use them when:

You need to test changes before applying them to production
You want to clone setups between environments

Limitations:

Jira gadgets must be re-added manually
Cross-cloud type migrations (e.g., Atlassian Gov → Atlassian Commercial Cloud) aren’t supported

So, Should You Fear Migration?

"The whole point of my talk was to show that migration doesn’t have to be scary.”

Once you understand how eazyBI migrations work – what gets moved, what doesn’t, what might break – you gain confidence and control.

There’s no single definition of success. Sometimes, it’s just about making sure the most important reports still run. Or that your imports work reliably. Or that you no longer need to wake up because your on-prem database ran out of disk space.

Whatever your reason, the eazyBI team is ready to support you.

The Most Important Take-Away

Test your migration before running it in production.
Compare reports. Re-run imports. Check the details.
The better you understand your setup, the smoother your transition will be.

As Jānis joked during his presentation, eazyBI is starting to feel more like a clothing company. Check out the presentation recording and see why and how it all connects to database migrations.

Smarter Service Reporting at Worldline Baltics with eazyBI

Valters Paiders — 2025-09-19T00:00:00Z

At eazyBI Community Days, Valters Paiders from Worldline Baltics shared his team’s journey of improving customer service reporting with eazyBI.

Worldline operates in 45 countries, powering payment technology behind everyday transactions—whether you're tapping a card or paying with your phone. Valters works as a Quality and Card Scheme Compliance Manager and also manages the Jira instance for their Baltics teams, supporting 72 different business processes.

This story isn’t about polished best practices—it’s about what worked in real life, the mistakes along the way, and the lessons learned.

It Started with Customer Complaints

In 2012, Worldline Baltics started using Jira to manage customer service tickets. The process was simple—the customer service team logged tickets, solved what they could, and passed the rest to subject matter experts.

Few months later, customers started to complain. There were too many tickets in progress with no visible results. The customer service team knew about it—but most of these tickets were with other departments like IT, sales, or testing. It wasn’t a customer service problem anymore—it was a company-wide one.

To involve other teams, the company tried to align workflows. That quickly led to an idea of
using different issue types for different teams. It sounded reasonable, but caused more problems. People picked the wrong issue types, tickets went down the wrong workflows, and the data became unreliable. Eventually, those errors ended up in reports and influenced management decisions. At that point, no one could fully trust the data.

Finding the Right Starting Point

Valters recalled a talk from the very first eazyBI Community Days back in 2017, titled “Jira First, Reports Second”, where the key takeaway was that, if you want meaningful reports, you have to design Jira to capture the right data during the workflow—either manually or automatically.

At Worldline, this meant going back to basics. Most customer requests could be categorized by two things:

Why did the customer reach out? For example, something isn’t working (an incident), or they need more information (a service request).
How was the issue resolved? Did it involve other teams, cause changes to IT systems, or reveal a root cause?

This basic classification helped standardize the process and ensured they were capturing useful data right from the beginning.

Reporting Needs More Than Just Dashboards

Fixing the Jira workflows was a big step forward, but reporting still needed more. While Jira dashboards were fine for daily tracking, they weren’t enough to identify long-term trends or uncover blind spots.

In 2014, the company started looking for a proper reporting solution. The team explored three options—and chose eazyBI. Despite a learning curve with MDX, eazyBI stood out for its flexibility, powerful ETL features, and excellent support.

Setting Reporting Objectives

When building reports, Valters had an additional expectation – reports shown on dashboards or shared with customers must load in under five seconds.

To meet that goal, the team focused on two things:

Carefully placing custom fields in the Jira workflow;
Moving complex MDX calculations to the ETL stage using JavaScript-calculated custom fields.
Performance mattered, and eazyBI’s built-in usage statistics helped them track it.

What Averages Don’t Tell You

Averages are often used to measure team performance—but they don’t always tell the full story.
Valters shared an example of how relying on averages alone can lead to the wrong conclusions.

They were comparing two support teams with similar sizes, workloads, and ticket types.
On paper, Team 1 resolved tickets in 9.4 days, while Team 2 took 24 days. At first glance, Team 1 seemed far more efficient. But once they added eazyBI’s interval dimension, it turned out both teams resolved most tickets quickly.

The difference was that Team 2 was actively working on long-standing, older tickets, which pushed up their average resolution time. Team 1 wasn’t tackling these tickets at all.

Another report, Issues Due Over Age Interval, showed that Team 2 had worked hard to reduce a large backlog—while Team 1 was heading toward the same issue of unresolved tickets piling up.

Using Customization to Drive Action

Valters also showed how customization helped the team take preventive action. He built a report that flagged customers who may not have received all the information they should. Report combines customer names, time frames, and a custom field. If a zero appeared in the report, it meant follow-up was needed—often before a potential SLA breach.

Sharing Reports the Right Way

One of the biggest wins came from sharing common dashboards across teams.
Everyone saw the same numbers. Management and support teams used the same reports, which built trust and improved consistency.

In some cases, they also shared reports with customers. To do that safely, they created separate eazyBI accounts for each customer and used JavaScript in Jira import options to hide or replace any sensitive data during import.

Customer Service Is a Company-Wide Effort

For Valters, the biggest lesson was clear: Customer service isn’t just the job of the support team—it’s a company-wide responsibility.

What worked for Worldline:

Start by designing Jira workflows that reflect the business process and capture key metadata
Don’t rely on averages alone—time-based reports often give a clearer picture
Use centralized dashboards to align teams and management
When sharing with customers, use separate accounts and define what data stays private

Watch the Full Presentation

Full Worldline case study, with all the visuals and detailed explanations, is available in the presentation recording.

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5 Performance-Management Needs eazyBI Solves in Jira

Amanda Johansson — 2025-09-19T00:00:00Z

In today’s business landscape, where teams are distributed across departments and geographies, performance management and service visibility are critical. For organizations using Atlassian tools, especially Jira, managing SLAs, vendor accountability, and internal KPIs can be challenging without advanced reporting.

While Jira offers native dashboards, they lack the depth needed for cross-project reporting, custom KPIs, and regulatory compliance metrics—all crucial for scaling operations or meeting standards like EU DORA. That’s where eazyBI for Jira becomes essential: a powerful Jira reporting plugin that transforms raw data into actionable business intelligence.

With years of experience implementing BI solutions in Atlassian environments, we have identified 5 core performance and reporting needs that eazyBI helps organizations address directly within their Jira suite.

Business need 1: Clarity and Performance Management Across Distributed Teams

A major banking and financial institution approached Hinto®Group to improve performance management across its diverse internal teams. With multiple branches spread across the country, they found it hard to compare results, understand support issues, and gain a clear, consolidated view of how each team was performing.

They also faced challenges in tracking the profitability of activities across different locations: Was one office slower at resolving issues? Were certain types of tasks consuming more resources than expected? They needed a centralized solution to easily compare outputs, monitor task execution across offices, and make informed decisions about resource allocation—without navigating dozens of fragmented Jira boards.

How eazyBI helped: By integrating data from multiple Jira projects into centralized, customized dashboards, eazyBI enabled clear visibility into team workloads, project delays, and resource needs to maintain efficiency. Custom measures allowed organizations to analyze time logged against tasks, correlate it with cost structures, and detect performance trends. Managers could quickly identify where additional staff were needed, assess which activities required disproportionate time and effort, and determine opportunities for process digitization.

Business need 2: Service Control, Vendor Accountability, and SLA Monitoring

In service-based organizations, both internal teams and external vendors must meet strict SLAs (Service Level Agreements). While working closely with clients in the manufacturing and retail sectors, we found that managers often struggle to detect SLA disruptions—or even breaches—early enough to prevent negative impacts on their teams and KPIs. Missing a deadline can result in financial penalties, while inaccurate estimates of time or deliverables can significantly affect team performance.

How eazyBI helped: By building reports focused on SLA compliance, teams could monitor ticket aging, track vendor response times, and identify delay patterns—before they escalated into penalties. Some companies extended beyond by integrating external suppliers' Jira projects, enabling a comprehensive view of service delivery within a single dashboard.

Business Need 3: Catching and Managing "Out-of-Process" Requests

In complex IT environments, service teams often face difficulties managing "out-of-process" requests and help desk incidents that fall outside of standard workflows. Without a clear system to track and categorize them, these recurrent requests can go unnoticed, leading to inefficiencies, missed opportunities for automation, and reduced service quality. This challenge was particularly evident for a university working with Hinto®Group, where a mix of tools, including asset management platforms and sensors, generated a high volume of tickets lacking a clear structure in the requests.

Similarly, a retail and manufacturing client of ours reportedly had issues with too many issues being escalated to external consultants, driving up costs. Management required further information to be able to understand and identify which kind of problems really required external help, and which ones could be solved internally.

How eazyBI helped: Integrating these tools with Jira and channeling structured incident data into eazyBI, the university was able to gain a comprehensive view of internal tickets and request reports. eazyBI enabled the creation of targeted reports that tracked both standard and non-standard request types across service teams. By tracking helpdesk incidents by type, source, and resolution method, they could identify common patterns. This insight allowed them to train internal teams, create automation, or even deploy knowledge base entries, reducing reliance on external 3 consultants over time. This data-driven visibility helped IT managers identify recurring problems, streamline service operations, and reduce pressure on support teams.

Business Need 4: Incident Reporting and Asset Visibility for DORA Compliance

With the introduction of the EU DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act), financial institutions are under pressure to demonstrate robust incident and asset management capabilities. A client working with Hinto®Group needed to produce incident reports that went beyond help desk tickets, answering key regulatory and operational questions: When did it happen? Why? How fast did we react? Was it resolved correctly? Moreover, these reports needed to be accurate, high-level, and always up to date.

The challenge was rooted in how incidents don’t only originate from Jira. In complex infrastructures, data comes from various sources such as asset management platforms, monitoring tools, and external sensors, making it difficult to assemble a complete and timely view of operational resilience.

How eazyBI helped: Using eazyBI’s external data import capabilities, the institution integrated asset and monitoring data into their reporting dashboards. Combining this with Jira ticket data, they gained a unified, real-time view of service health that connected human incidents with system alerts and performance metrics.

Custom reports featuring timeline analysis, root cause tagging, and resolution ownership enabled the automatic generation of regulatory- and board-level summaries, drastically reducing the manual effort previously required for compliance reporting. This structured, end-to-end visibility also made it significantly easier to meet DORA compliance requirements by ensuring incidents could be tracked, categorized, and reported with full transparency and auditability.

Business Need 5: Tailored Reporting for Diverse Roles and External Stakeholders Accessible Outside of Jira

With many of our clients, the fact that different stakeholders need different insights from the same underlying data has been clearly established. Executives focus on strategic KPIs while Team leads want operational overviews. Service managers, however, monitor SLA adherence, whilst board members and external collaborators may need highly specific, high-level data. Many of these stakeholders, however, rarely have access to Jira. One report doesn’t fit all, and most tools don't support personalized, role-based visibility or external sharing without additional licenses.

How eazyBI helped: eazyBI made it possible to generate personalized, role-specific reports from the same shared data source. Using its flexible report builder, organizations created dashboards tailored to each audience, from executive summaries to team-level task breakdowns, and scheduled delivery on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis, depending on stakeholder needs.

Reports could be embedded directly into customer-facing portals, such as a Work Board, making them easily accessible to the right people in the right context. For highly targeted use cases, small, focused reports could be created to show only specific data sets, visible only to selected groups, proven to be ideal for showing a supplier their SLAs or a department their backlog.

Most importantly, eazyBI helped bypass Jira’s licensing restrictions. With public sharing links, selected reports could be published securely, allowing stakeholders without a Jira license to view the data they needed — without exposing the full Jira environment or increasing licensing costs.

Conclusions

As enterprises grow in size and complexity, their needs for advanced Jira reporting, real-time performance dashboards, and compliance-ready metrics. Whether it’s monitoring SLAs, managing distributed teams, or ensuring DORA compliance for financial institutions, native Jira tools alone aren't enough.

eazyBI bridges this gap by turning Jira into a robust business intelligence platform. It enables organizations to build custom Jira dashboards for team leads, executives, and external stakeholders — all from the same underlying data. With support for external data import, multi-project visibility, and secure dashboard sharing for non-Jira users, eazyBI helps you unlock the full potential of your Atlassian investment.

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How eazyBI Keeps Your Data Safe

Dace Flaumane — 2025-09-19T00:00:00Z

Security has been part of eazyBI’s DNA from day one. As a platform for data analysis and visualization, we’ve always understood the responsibility that comes with handling sensitive customer data, and we’ve taken that responsibility seriously.

Over the years, the cybersecurity landscape has grown more complex, compliance requirements have become stricter, and customer expectations have risen. To meet these challenges, we earned our first SOC 2 certification as early as 2022 and have continued to renew it annually. This was a milestone that has become the backbone of our security program.

We’ve also taken inspiration from partners like Atlassian, where openness and transparency are guiding principles. Following the same path, we built our program on clear communication and backed our statements with evidence.

SOC 2 Type II

Since 2022, eazyBI has completed annual SOC 2 Type II audits – an internationally recognized framework that proves software as a service (SaaS) providers maintain strong security practices. We chose to go all in, covering all five Trust Service Principles: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

Every year, our controls are reviewed and updated, supporting evidence is collected, and independent auditors validate our compliance. For customers, this translates into less time spent filling out vendor assessments and more confidence that their data is handled with care.

Trust Center (Transparency You Can Verify)

We believe in open and straightforward communication—about both the eazyBI app and the way we work. That’s why we’ve published the eazyBI Security Statement to give a clear overview of our security posture.

To further support customers in their vendor assessments, we’ve also created a Trust Center. There, anyone can check the status of our continuously monitored controls and request the security documentation needed for their reviews.

By making this information accessible, we give customers the ability to verify our security posture independently, backed by audited evidence.

Built for Trust

Security has shaped the technical foundation of eazyBI from the very beginning. For example, we chose the Ruby on Rails framework not only for its flexibility but also for its secure-by-default features. Similar care was taken with every component we added. Development practices have been guided by SOC 2 standards, documented, and applied to daily work.

“For me, as a security officer, I’ve seen how these choices influence every day. Security isn’t an afterthought for us, it’s a design principle that continues to guide how we build and maintain eazyBI.”

Welcoming Hackers (the Good Kind)

External validation has always been a cornerstone of our program. Back in 2016, we launched our first bug bounty program on HackerOne, which quickly surfaced valuable findings. When Atlassian introduced the Marketplace Security Bug Bounty Program on Bugcrowd, eazyBI was among the first to join.

Today, we run active programs on both HackerOne and Bugcrowd, backed by regular third-party penetration testing and vulnerability scanning. By inviting the security community to test our platform, we identify issues faster, before it impacts real customer data, and gain the reassurance that independent experts are continuously validating our defenses.

Staying Secure Every Day

With SOC 2, security doesn’t end with an annual audit, it requires continuous compliance. Using Drata, we monitor our controls around the clock, and the Trust Center makes that status visible to everyone.

As the platform evolves, our bug bounty programs provide continuous external testing by security researchers, aiding our efforts to provide a stable and secure solution. This constant cycle of monitoring, testing, and improvement ensures that customers can rely on eazyBI’s security posture, which grows in step with the product itself.

Security isn’t a project we’ve finished, it’s a practice we live by. Trust is something we don’t just earn once, we work to earn it every day.

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How Mercedes-Benz Uses eazyBI for Feature Rollout Planning

Julian Ketterer — 2025-08-13T00:00:00Z

At eazyBI Community Days, Julian Ketterer, data analyst at Mercedes-Benz shared how his team uses eazyBI to improve feature rollout planning. His story takes us inside the scale and complexity of software development at Mercedes-Benz, showing how they’re using eazyBI to bring structure, transparency, and clarity—making it easier for teams to track what’s on track, spot risks early, and quickly find the right person to talk to.

Overcoming Silos in a Century-Old Organization

Mercedes-Benz is renowned for its rich history and technological leadership. However, working in such a large and complex organization comes with challenges—particularly when it comes to collaboration across areas.

Before adopting their current approach, each team at Mercedes-Benz had its own tools, data sources, and processes. There was no unified reporting structure or KPI system, which often led to duplicated efforts, delays, and unaligned priorities.

"Things were often very siloed… each team had their own data sources, their own tools, no traceability of dependencies, and no harmonized KPIs."

Building a Harmonized Way of Working

For too long, reporting was fragmented—different teams, different tools, different update reports. Things simply didn’t line up.

So, they set out to change that. The goal was clear:

Create consistent reporting and KPIs across all areas of car development.
Standardize update processes so teams could work in sync.
Support better decision-making with reliable, company-wide reporting.

By combining the flexibility of eazyBI and Jira, they found a way to move from reactive firefighting to proactive steering—shifting from constant catch-up to a system where teams could see what’s coming and take action in time.

Structuring Work for Full Traceability

First step was standardizing the Jira project setup, making sure that work item structures were aligned across all their different product areas. Take the “Body & Comfort” domain, for example—this includes features you can feel in the car, like heating systems and massage seats.

They also broke work items down into clear, connected layers—from the customer-facing features all the way to system-level sub-functions.
By carefully linking issue types and mapping dependencies, the team built something they hadn’t had before: full end-to-end traceability.

"Now everybody is able to see what sub-feature is contributing to a bigger feature, and we can trace our effect chains from start to finish."

What used to be isolated pieces of information is now part of a connected story—everyone can finally see how their work fits into the bigger picture.

Aligning Processes and Automating the Flow

Standardization didn’t stop at the issue structures, the next steps were:

Harmonized field configurations and workflows across all product areas.
Synchronized update cadences so that every team now works on the same maturity assessment timeline.

This unified setup made it possible to build organization-wide maturity reporting.
Every customer function now has a linked test plan that holds its maturity value, providing a consistent way to measure progress across the board.

To make the reports even richer, the team heavily relies on Jira Assets—pulling in data from multiple source systems to add valuable context to each Jira ticket.

Turning Data Into Decisions with eazyBI

The team brings together data from multiple Jira projects and Asset schemes in eazyBI, where it’s turned into actionable insights.

Reports and dashboards are then shared across entire organization, giving everyone access to the information they need—just at the right level.

Management can easily focus on the high-level progress of customer functions.
Teams can drill down into system functions and specific test plans to track detailed progress and next steps.

This layered setup means the same data can support both strategic decisions and hands-on work, depending on who’s looking at it.

The Reports That Keep Mercedes-Benz Moving

Maturity Overview

One of the most valuable dashboards the team built is the Maturity Overview.
It tracks the readiness of features across different hardware cycles—think of these cycles like software versions, each tied to a specific phase in the car’s development and testing.

In the report, each bar represents a hardware cycle, and the bar’s height shows how many features are progressing within that cycle. The real power comes from the ability to explore the data. Teams can start with a high-level view to see overall progress, then quickly zoom in to individual test plans for detailed status checks.
From there, it’s just one click to jump straight into the corresponding Jira ticket.

"By clicking on a maturity level, users can immediately see which features are green, red, or need attention, and jump straight to the Jira ticket."

This has made it much easier for teams to see what’s on track, what’s at risk, and who they need to talk to—without wasting time hunting for information.

Feature Ramp-Up

The second key report is the Feature Ramp-Up, a go-to tool for forecasting what’s coming next.

This report gives stakeholders a clear view of:

Cumulative feature totals (shown by blue bars) – showing how the number of features builds up over time.

Expected feature completions per cycle (shown by red bars) – highlighting when specific features are planned to reach maturity.
It’s a simple but powerful way to anticipate workloads, plan ahead, and track whether features are on schedule for delivery.

"We use this report to understand what is coming and when specific features need to be ready."

With this overview, teams can keep an eye on upcoming milestones, avoid last-minute surprises, and make sure everyone is aligned on what’s expected—and when.

Breaking Silos, Building Success

By harmonizing their ways of working and fully integrating eazyBI, the Mercedes-Benz team has made a real shift in how they plan and deliver features.

Here’s what they’ve achieved so far:

Consistent reporting and KPIs across all product areas—finally comparing apples to apples, not apples to chocolate pies.
Full traceability of dependencies, making effect chains visible and easy to follow.
Streamlined update processes, with everyone now working on the same schedule and following the same maturity assessment intervals.
Greater transparency across the organization, giving teams, managers, and decision-makers the same source of truth.
Empowered teams and individuals who now see how their work contributes to the bigger picture.

This whole journey has also led to better collaboration and stronger teamwork.

”People now understand why the harmonized processes matter. They’ve moved past just doing their part in isolation—they now see how everything connects.”

The Power of eazyBI for Mercedes-Benz

Julian wrapped his presentation up by sharing why eazyBI is such a good fit for Mercedes-Benz.

Seamless integration with Jira and Assets was a big win.
No need to invest in additional, expensive backend systems to make the reporting work. eazyBI fits right into their existing toolset.
Advanced analytics, custom calculations, or just a quick, visual report—eazyBI can handle it all.
Everyone in the Atlassian ecosystem at Mercedes-Benz can use it. Teams can build their own reports and visualize their own work, without needing extra tools or technical overhead.

"People who are closest to their work know best what they need to visualize, and eazyBI gives them the tools to do exactly that."

Community and reliable support made a difference.

"It’s the community. It’s the eazyBI team. It’s the awesome support that we are heavily using. We’re just glad that eazyBI exists and that we can use it the way we do."

Watch the Full Presentation

Julian's full story, with all the visuals and detailed explanations, is available in the presentation recording here.

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From Overview to Detail: Interactive Xray Reporting in eazyBI

Zane Baranovska — 2025-02-20T00:00:00Z

eazyBI integrates with several testing apps in Jira, but the most popular among eazyBI customers is Xray. Xray is well integrated into Jira and uses issue types and custom fields to manage testing, giving eazyBI more flexibility to gain a different perspective on testing data.

How Xray Data Are Organized in eazyBI

The testing data model itself is tangled and has many-to-many relations. For instance, one Test can cover multiple Stories (requirements) and be executed several times for different application versions, while one Test Execution usually has many Tests in it. To support this, eazyBI creates a separate Xray-specific dimension for each set of issues related to testing: Xray Test, Xray Test Execution, Xray Requirement, Xray Defect, and a few more. These are the same issues you have in the "Issue" dimension but are organized to better suit testing reports.
A Test Run is often abused and mixed with a term execution. When you add a Test to a Test Execution, it creates a single Test Run. It is a unique combination of a Test and Test Execution that always has a status like TO DO, IN PROGRESS, PASS, FAIL, etc. For example, the Test Execution in the picture below has three Tests, which results in three Test runs..
Measure is the treasure! When creating testing reports, use Xray-specific measures and dimensions. The chosen measure would define if the dimensions group data by Test, Test Execution, or Requirement perspective. When in doubt about what the measure does or how it reacts to the filters in your report, please refer to the documentation.

Building Xray Reports in eazyBI

For inexperienced or confused customers, my advice is to start with Sample Xray reports generated by eazyBI during data import. Either use them to see how your testing data resembles those in eazyBI or as a base for a new report–you can modify them and then "Save as" new reports.

However, the true power of the reporting tool lies in its ability to generate reports that support your development and quality process helping you to focus on what truly matters.

1. Requirement Coverage Report

Requirement coverage is one of the most interesting and valuable reports to create, as each customer has a unique development process, organization of work (by Sprints or Version), and criteria of what is considered tested. In eazyBI, issues matching the requirement issue types, like Stories, Features, Improvements, etc. (as configured in your Xray) are imported in the "Xray Requirement" dimension.

You can start with an overview report that shows each Requirement's development status, testing readiness, and overall testing results. The requirements and tests might be in separate Jira projects. Therefore, you should use the "Xray Requirement" dimension on report pages to filter data by requirement project instead of the "Project" dimension. Another benefit is that you can group requirements by the same issues hierarchies, like Epic or Plans (Parent for Data Center), thus getting an overview of bigger features.

A detailed description of how to build such a report is in the documentation.

2. Test Plan burnup

Test plans are a popular approach to planning and organizing the testing process; they allow you to see the testing's total scope and compare it to the actual results across Sprints, Versions, and Projects.

You can make a burndown report to see the total scope of Tests in a Test Plan and how they are gradually executed. The main intention of this report is to see if there are any lags in testing in general, but for detailed testing results, you can make other reports incorporating more aspects, like Test types, found defect statuses, and others.

Detailed description on how to build a test plan burndown report is described in the documentation.

3. Test Plan overview matrix

eazyBI can be used for both detailed and overview analytics. The Test Plan overview matrix provides fundamental information on the Test Plan, the coverage by test types (how much is automated or left to manual testing), and testing progress. The report shows defects identified during testing and groups them by their status—potentially highlighting risks that still need to be addressed. While this is an overview report, users can interact with it and view the specific Tests or Test Executions behind each number using the Drill through option.

Detailed description on how to build a test plan burndown report is described in the documentation.

Useful Features to Know

eazyBI provides predefined Xray measures, making it easy to analyze testing key metrics. From them, you can use different options (Drill through test executions, Drill through Test, Drill through Execution) to view detailed information about individual test runs contributing to the overall numbers.
Create a hierarchical structure for the Requirements, such as organizing them under Epics or Parent issues, to visualize the progress of related stories or see the readiness of a larger epic or feature.
By default, measures shown in testing results are grouped by Test Execution fields (like labels and components). However, some characteristics are added to Tests, not Test Executions. To analyze data by them, you can add custom Test field dimensions, such as Test Components or Test Labels, and use in your reports for grouping or filtering. This feature enables you to break down testing results based on specific field values assigned to the tests.

Additional Resources:

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The Journey From Newbie to Master in eazyBI

Gvido Neilands — 2025-01-20T00:00:00Z

eazyBI is a powerful business intelligence and data visualization tool, and mastering its full potential requires a combination of diverse skills and a structured approach. Whether you're just starting out or looking to deepen your expertise, this guide walks you through the essential steps and tips to elevate your eazyBI knowledge and create impactful dashboards and reports.

Understanding eazyBI: The Learning Journey

Hi, I’m Gvido, and I’ve been working with eazyBI and teaching it for over seven years. In that time, I’ve trained countless customers, helping them navigate from basic dashboard viewing to advanced report creation and automation. Let me share what I’ve learned, so you can make the most of this amazing tool.

Navigating eazyBI can initially feel overwhelming due to the abundance of information available. To streamline your learning, it’s helpful to identify your current level of understanding and set clear goals for progression. Here’s a roadmap:

1. Dashboard Viewer: The Foundation

The simplest way to start with eazyBI is as a dashboard viewer. Viewing dashboards is more than just passively looking at data; it’s about leveraging their functionality:

Combine reports from different colleagues or teams to create a comprehensive dashboard that serves multiple needs. For example, I’ve seen teams where one person tracks created issues and another tracks resolved issues. By collaborating, they built a unified dashboard that benefited everyone.
Apply filters to customize the data for specific users. Filters make dashboards dynamic and tailored to the audience.
Use drilling options. While all users have access to drilling options, many remain unaware simply because no one has demonstrated how to use them effectively.

A few years ago, I trained an admin who’d never visited the dashboard page. Once he saw how interactive and customizable dashboards could be, it completely changed how he approached his reports.

2. Discover the Added Value of Dashboards

Dashboards are not just static displays; they can be interactive tools that:

Allow users to select time periods, toggle views, and explore data.
Provide detailed insights with drill-across and drill-down functionality.
Deliver more value by presenting data in a user-friendly and accessible way.

Tip: Walk your users (managers, colleagues, clients) through the dashboard’s functionalities to ensure they maximize its potential. I’ve found that a quick demo can significantly boost their engagement.

3. Visualization Options: Enhancing Presentation

Effective visualization is key to making data more digestible and actionable. eazyBI offers several options:

Chart Types: Experiment with bar charts, line charts, and others to find the best fit for your data.
Customization: Adjust colors and formats to make visuals clearer and more engaging.
Explore and Experiment: Spend time trying different visualization options to learn what works best.

One time, a customer asked me for a basic report. I transformed it into a bar and line chart combination, and they were thrilled with how much more useful it became. It only took a couple of minutes but made a big difference!

4. Report Creation Basics

Creating reports in eazyBI revolves around three main sections: pages, rows, and columns.

Pages: Use these for filters, such as selecting specific projects.
Rows: Add dimensions like projects or issues here.
Columns: Add measures like numbers or metrics.

Mastering these basics is essential before moving on to more complex features. Familiarize yourself with eazyBI’s terminology, such as dimensions, measures, and properties, to better understand its capabilities.

Tip: When you start creating reports, pay attention to the hints in the interface. Words like “dimensions” and “measures” are not just labels; they’re clues to how eazyBI “thinks”.

5. Automation and Calculated Members

Once you’ve grasped report creation, the next step is learning about calculated members and measures. This involves using MDX (Multidimensional Expressions) to:

Automate repetitive tasks.
Create advanced calculations, such as averages or date differences.
Mimic manual report-building steps programmatically.

Creating an MDX calculation is a process that requires knowledge of multiple topics. It involves understanding report creation to translate report-building steps into MDX, knowledge about data types to find and apply MDX functions correctly, and insight into eazyBI’s MDX syntax to write queries accurately.

6. Building Custom Fields

At this stage, you might know how to build the reports you need, but the required information may not be available in eazyBI. This is where Custom Fields can help to:

Import and define new data dimensions, hierarchies, or properties.
Tailor eazyBI’s functionality to specific business needs.

To master custom fields, start by:

Building your own data cube from scratch.
Debugging and extracting data using JSON to ensure you’re pulling the correct values.

When I train attendees on custom fields, I like to give them a simple exercise: building an issues data cube from scratch. This challenges their understanding of eazyBI’s concepts, provides a hands-on sandbox to quickly learn from mistakes, and offers insights into how eazyBI’s existing issues data cube is built.

Tips for Effective Learning and Practice

Leverage Documentation: eazyBI’s documentation is a treasure trove of insights on functions, hierarchies, and data types.
Practice Regularly: Hands-on experience is crucial for mastering report creation and MDX.
Participate in Trainings: Structured training sessions provide guided learning and practical exercises.

Conclusion

Mastering eazyBI is a step-by-step process that requires patience, exploration, and continuous practice. Whether you’re a dashboard viewer, a report creator, or a custom field builder, there are always new skills to learn and refine. By following this roadmap and utilizing available resources, you can unlock the full potential of eazyBI and deliver meaningful insights to your team or organization.

And remember, don’t be afraid to experiment. Some of the best discoveries I’ve made came from trying things out. Happy learning and reporting!

If you’re more of a video person, feel free to watch the recording of Gvido’s presentation from eazyBI Community Days 2024.

Join us for eazyBI Community Days 2025 in Riga on May 22-23. Two days full of expert talks, product news, case studies, networking and much more. Check out the agenda and register now to secure the best deal on your event pass!

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Elements Connect and eazyBI: Unified Data, Better Decisions

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2024-12-12T00:00:00Z

In today's workplace, teams often collaborate using their own tools, which can sometimes result in scattered information across platforms. This creates challenges when trying to centralize data in dashboards for informed decision-making.

During the Beyond Team 2025 Tour, Elements Connect and eazyBI apps presented a use case to address this issue.

Meet Charlotte and Andy: Tackling Workflow Challenges Together

Imagine a developer, Charlotte, tasked with resolving stories and bugs that rely on data stored outside Jira, such as operating system and application version details.
Andy is Charlotte’s project lead. He needs a dashboard to ensure the project is still on track. So, he needs unified data standards and standardized data not only for consistency but also to expedite decision-making processes and enhance reporting.

Together, they deal with challenges like miscommunication caused by scattered data across different platforms, mistakes from manual data entry, and wasted time due to tools that don’t work well together.

With Elements Connect and eazyBI, they’re working to close these gaps, improve data accuracy, and make their workflow more efficient and scalable.

Breaking Down the Solution: Fetching External Data to Jira with Elements Connect

Elements Connect app automates data integration flow from various data sources and helps align teams' efforts to ensure seamless communication across departments. It enables seamless integration of external data into Jira, using APIs to pull data from sources like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Active Directory.

The real power of Elements Connect is that you can bring several data sources inside Jira—any tool with an API can be used as a data source. Elements Connect can set up the fields and the dependencies between those fields the way you need them, for instance, by building a cascading list where information from the first field is related to the information in the second. It's really based on the context of the issue.

Fetched data can be displayed in the way you need them and the way you want them. Elements Connect custom fields can be set up with the possibility to select options, as well as read-only fields related to them.

Our developer, Charlotte, can go to Jira and work on her ticket. In her ticket, she uses Jira standard information, like priority, issue type, and fix version, together with Elements Connect custom fields containing information from external data sources, like Operating Systems and Application Version.

Breaking Down the Solution: Reporting on Aligned Data in eazyBI

Remember Andy, our project lead? He has two project teams, and each of them works on separate projects. They have slightly different processes, but at the end of the day, Andy wants to see the total results for these projects.
Both teams agreed to focus on similar KPIs so they could compare projects. In reports, they want to see the following:

Issue counts in each release are analyzed based on different issue aspects.
To track that less than three issues are in the backlog ten days before the release date.
Monitor that all the highest-priority issues are resolved before the fixed version's release date.

All reports should show how teams are meeting their KPIs and overall analysis by different issue aspects, including Elements Connect custom fields, which Charlotte and other developers are using in their Jira issues. Andy combined Jira standard and Elements Connect fields to create several reports for his team. In some cases, he used the eazyBI AI assistant to build a report.

He combined all the reports in the eazyBI dashboard for a broader context and published the report in the Jira dashboard and Confluence.

Days Until the Version Release Days

This report shows a gauge visualization of the days remaining until release for unreleased versions. It gives the context of the whole dashboard, for instance, the count of unresolved tickets in each project.

The report shows both projects' unreleased versions. The days until the release date value is color-coded to show it red if the version is close; moreover, the color gets darker the closer the release comes. This helps to see how close the versions are at a glance.

This and the following reports are filtered by the project lead “Andy Admin” to show all his projects. To achieve that, Andy created a separate hierarchy in the Project dimension to group projects by project lead.

Days in Cycles per Version

Andy created a report to show the average time issues spent in different statuses or cycles—in a backlog, in progress, as well as the count of issues in each of them.

This report also has conditional formatting that shows “Issues in backlog” in red if there are more than three issues. Additionally, Andy will receive an alert as soon as this measure is triggered and the critical count is reached.

Andy also added additional filters by Jira standard fields, native custom fields, and Elements Connect custom fields to the report. This allows to focus on a specific release, operation system, or issue type. Each team member can see their tickets, so Charlotte can filter reports and see issues assigned to her.

Issue Counts by Operating Systems and Application Version

Andy also created some reports by operating systems and application versions, based on Elements Connect custom fields, which Charlotte used in her Jira ticket.

This report shows the count of issues with different issue types separated by operating systems in Andy’s projects, thus consolidating information from Jira and data from external sources. For some operating systems, like Android 13, all the issues are bugs, but in some other operating systems, you can see there are stories and tasks.

Another report shows issue distribution by both Elements Connect fields—Application Version and Operating System—used in Andy’s projects.

Total Resolved Issues Progress per Project

For the second KPI—check if there are less than 5 unresolved tickets 10 days prior to the release date—Andy created a gauge chart showing the number of resolved issues compared to the total number of created issues in each release. Together with the report “Days until the release day,” they give a clear answer that this time, the progress is not as good as expected, both release dates are very close, and there are a lot of unresolved issues.

Unresolved Issues by Priority

Finally, to meet the third KPI—no high-priority unresolved issues on project release day—Andy created a report showing unresolved issues by priority for each release.

While the DevSprint release is coming out in 5 days, and the team still has time to resolve the highest priority issues, the AppDev release date is almost here, but three of the highest priority issues are still unresolved. Project lead Andy and the team have to decide what to do with the release.

How to Add Elements Connect Fields to eazyBI Reports

Integration between eazyBI and Elements Connect is smooth because Elements Connect fields have a simple structure in Jira issue JSON representation. Charlotte’s fields that contain external information— Operating system and Application version—are stored as Jira custom fields with a simple structure. As soon as eazyBI knows how to import them, it can import them and use them for reports like any other customer field.
For Jira Data Center, eazyBI automatically recognizes Elements Connect fields and gives you the option to select them in import options. For Jira Cloud, add a definition for those fields in settings, and then eazyBI will give you the option to import these fields as custom fields; more information on this can be read in the eazyBI documentation.

Summary

Elements Connect and eazyBI are powerful tools designed to improve workflow efficiency for developers, product managers, and teams. The key takeaway is that these tools ensure you have the right context and accurate data at your fingertips, minimizing manual effort and communication gaps.

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Choosing the Right Jira Reporting Tool: eazyBI vs. Power BI

Elita Kalāne — 2024-12-11T00:00:00Z

Picking the right tool can make data analysis easier and more effective. For Jira reporting, two popular choices often come up: Power BI and eazyBI. While both are powerful business intelligence tools, they cater to different needs and user skills.

eazyBI support consultant Elita compares both tools based on her hands-on experience and many trials and errors.

My Journey from Spreadsheets to BI Tools

Before diving into the specifics of Power BI and eazyBI, I’d like to share a bit about how I ended up working with both tools. It is worth mentioning that I don’t have a technical background, and my experience with Power BI has been shorter than that with eazyBI, so my insights potentially miss some best practices that are out there.

I started my career with basic Excel skills. Over the years, I became fluent in Excel, managing countless spreadsheets, building pivot tables, and mastering numerous functions. Power Query was a game-changer, automation saved our team hours of manual work. Transitioning to Power BI was empowering, allowing me to visualize data from systems like SAP, but it also brought challenges—managing complex reports, meeting evolving management demands, and maintaining continuity amidst team turnover was exhausting. With great power (BI knowledge) came even greater responsibility.

When I transitioned to eazyBI, I knew nothing about the tool—or even Jira. Moving from Excel and Microsoft tools to something new felt daunting, but during the interview, my soon-to-be colleague Ilze asked me a question that helped me jump into eazyBI with an open mind: “Do you like Excel for what it is, or because it helps you solve problems?” While eazyBI initially seemed deceptively simple, I soon discovered its steep learning curve, much like Power BI. Yet, it stayed true to its promise: “Simple things easy, complex things possible.” The key takeaway? Learning a new tool with an open mindset is key. Advancing it requires patience.

Native Integration Matters: Data Import in eazyBI and Power BI

One of the biggest and most important differences between Power BI and eazyBI for Jira reporting is the data import process. eazyBI offers native integration with Jira, making data import intuitive and straightforward, while Power BI requires purchasing third-party connectors or advanced technical skills. Without a connector, someone with limited Power BI experience or database connection knowledge would struggle to import Jira data effectively and successfully.

In eazyBI, the native integration makes importing data a straightforward, guided process that’s accessible even to non-technical users with no coding experience. If any uncertainties arise, clear instructions are readily available on eazyBI’s documentation page. Additionally, eazyBI uses familiar Jira terminology, so users immediately recognize terms and fields (such as add-ons, custom fields, and sprint data) that match their Jira instance.

eazyBI’s Advantage Over Power BI: Data Mapping

Another key difference between Power BI and eazyBI is the complexity of data mapping without a connector.

In Power BI, users must export Jira data or use the Jira REST API, which provides JSON data that’s challenging to parse and flatten for further reporting, especially with Jira’s nested fields (such as sub-tasks and custom fields). Transforming this data into tables in Power BI requires multiple steps in Power Query and can be difficult for those without prior experience.

In contrast, eazyBI’s native Jira integration simplifies data mapping. Users don’t need to export or transform data themselves; eazyBI pulls in Jira data automatically, structuring it with familiar fields. Standard issue hierarchies or Sprint-related data are imported automatically, plans can be added with just a few clicks, and there are numerous examples of additional hierarchies or specific use cases. This makes data mapping in eazyBI accessible, even to users without a technical background.

Similarities Between eazyBI and Power BI: A Shared Mission to Tell Stories with Data

Both Power BI and eazyBI are powerful business intelligence tools designed to help users analyze data from various perspectives and across multiple dimensions. Their flexibility allows users to adapt the tools to a wide range of needs, making them suitable for everything from high-level summaries to deep dives into complex datasets.

Both tools offer built-in formula editors—DAX in Power BI and MDX in eazyBI—that empower users to create highly customized reports tailored to specific requirements.

Both tools share many similarities, which likely explains why the question of which to use—eazyBI or Power BI—comes up so often. At the end of the day, they both share a common goal: turning data into compelling, understandable stories. They help visualize data, bringing it out of the shadows to ensure it is seen, shared, and used to guide better decisions.

Comparing Resource Availability, Support, and Accessibility

A critical difference between Power BI and eazyBI lies in the availability of a dedicated support team and resources. In my experience with large corporations, Power BI often requires a designated internal person or even a reporting team. This reliance on internal expertise can create a significant risk—if those experts leave, their knowledge and expertise leave with them, leaving teams vulnerable and struggling to maintain reporting continuity.

One might argue that it’s the same case with eazyBI. However, with eazyBI, Jira data analysis is more accessible. Individual users can create their reports with the help of the eazyBI support team, who are experts in Jira data analysis, or specially built eazyBI AI assistants. eazyBI provides a set of ready-made Jira sample reports you can use out of the box, a wide variety of publicly available report and dashboard examples, as well as calculations you can add to your reports right away. User access roles allow for controlled sharing, empowering users to learn and operate independently while reducing dependency on colleagues.

New users can always rely on eazyBI’s robust support team and documentation even if reporting responsibilities shift. With eazyBI, there’s always this “extra colleague” in the form of the eazyBI support team to reach out to for help, which makes it easier for employees to grow and improve their skills. This has also been proved by the feedback the eazyBI team continuously receives on Atlassian Marketplace.

Building Report with eazyBI and Power BI: A Use Case

Here’s a simple example: creating a cumulative sum of issues over time, broken down by status categories, in both tools.

In Power BI, you need to do the following to show created tickets over time.

Create a date table (Time dimension) with time levels (years, quarters, months, etc.).
Make sure that the Created date format matches the format of the Date Table (Time dimension).
Map/create a relation for the resolution date to the above-mentioned date table.
Define calculated measures for cumulatively summing issues created per status categories.

In eazyBI, creating time-based reports is simpler. Select the Time dimension (year, quarter, month, or day) and the “Issues created” measure; both are available by default. To view unresolved issues, select the “Issues due” measure, and the report will instantly show counts by time period based on the due date. No extra relationship creation is needed because it happens in the background as soon as the user selects the Date field to be imported as a measure. It requires two clicks to add cumulative sum, as that is a function that is built into eazyBI by default.

Here is a visual example of Cumulative Sum analysis with both tools. Because I haven't utilized the Power BI tool for a long time (and never with Jira data), it took me longer to build it, and I struggled to switch to the monthly hierarchy; therefore, I ended up staying at the Quarter hierarchy.

Building report with Power BI (2:26)

Building report with eazyBI (0:33)

Final Thoughts

Reflecting on my career in data analysis, I’ve learned that building strong reports requires an open mind, patience, and a commitment to learning, often through many trials and errors. In data analysis, each tool available has its own strengths and can enhance decision-making. The true mastery lies in embracing each tool’s potential to help tell the stories behind data.

Each tool has its unique strengths. Power BI excels at handling a wide variety of data sources and providing extensive options for visual customization. At the same time, eazyBI focuses on simplifying Jira data analysis and making Jira data, reporting, and visualization accessible to non-technical users. eazyBI keeps improving by making complex solutions more accessible with AI assistants, new integrations, and features while ensuring users always have access to the dedicated support team for guidance and advice.

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BeyondTeam24: Fostering Atlassian Partnerships

Svetlana Avene-Aveniņa — 2024-12-10T00:00:00Z

The BeyondTeam24 European Edition Tour was an extraordinary journey of 4 Atlassian Marketplace vendors: eazyBI, Elements, Refined, and Resolution. Together, we traveled across Europe: 6 countries and 13 cities, meeting partners, customers and Atlassian enthusiasts. Right after the Atlassian Team 24 Europe, over 4 weeks, the tour fostered meaningful connections, shared knowledge, and set the stage for future collaborations, showcasing innovative solutions to the Atlassian ecosystem.

Case Studies that Inspired

Enhancing Collaboration and Reporting with Elements Connect and eazyBI

This session showcased how seamless integration facilitates insightful PI planning and reporting within Jira. Attendees discovered the simplicity of visualizing program boards and harnessing data analytics to empower agile journeys. More about integration here. The recording is available to watch here, and for those who prefer reading over watching, here’s a blog post!

Enterprise Support: Internal and External

A collaboration between Refined and Resolution brought to life a powerful case study demonstrating how their solutions harmonize to elevate enterprise service management and customer support. From enhancing agent efficiency to enabling personalized content navigation, this session highlighted the synergy that drives organizational success. The recording is available to watch here.

Our esteemed speakers from Refined, Resolution, Easy Agile, and eazyBI brought diverse expertise and insights, engaging attendees in thought-provoking discussions and valuable networking opportunities. All together we had 3 ACE events, 1 Meetup and met 12 partners: Technofor; WIQU; Adaptavist UK; Eficode UK; Valiantys; Communardo; Adaptavist DE, ex Veniture; Eficode Finland; Scandio; Seibert Media; Code Centric and Catworks. And together, we celebrated collaboration, innovation, 25 years of Catworks, the future of the Atlassian ecosystem, and a heartfelt thank you to our amazing partners for welcoming and hosting us!

Tour Highlights

It was a great experience, but definitely not an easy one to manage. 4 weeks, 12 partners, 3 ACE events, 1 meetup, and a 2-day cruise might seem straightforward but factoring in logistics and unexpected challenges made it much more complex—and all the more rewarding and memorable! Here are some insights and tips for anyone planning a similar trip or tour:

Plan in Advance: Secure meeting schedules and finalize the program well ahead of time.
Double-Check Travel Connections: Flights between cities can save time, especially in countries like Germany where trains, while reliable, can sometimes be delayed or canceled. Always have alternative routes ready.
Allow Travel Buffer Days: Leave at least one day between meetings to account for unforeseen travel issues, like canceled trains or long transit times.
Have a Plan B: Ensure a backup speaker is available in case someone falls ill or cannot attend.
Be Flexible: Adapt your presentations to suit different audiences and user groups, and be prepared for last-minute changes.
React Quickly: Being flexible means acting fast—like renting a car and driving 7 hours from Dresden to Cologne to ensure you don’t miss a morning meeting. I did it. Was it exhausting? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Totally!
Talk About Your Tool: Be ready to share your product’s story multiple times—it’s rewarding but takes energy.
Take Care of Yourself: Get enough sleep, take vitamins, and eat as healthily as possible, even if your only option is pizza.
Recharge When Needed: Decide if you want to spend your weekend relaxing on-site or traveling home to connect with loved ones—it depends on what energizes you most.
Stay Positive: Whatever happens, keep a good attitude—it makes all the difference.
Rely on Your Team: Ensure you have colleagues who can help with travel arrangements, flight bookings, and accommodations.

Navigating challenges like these while keeping the momentum going isn’t easy, but with proper preparation and the right mindset, you can turn it into a memorable and successful journey.

Thank you to the incredible Atlassian Community leaders for their hard work and dedication in organizing the ACE events, which brought together passionate individuals and created an atmosphere of learning and collaboration. A special shoutout to WIQU for hosting the memorable Meetup in London, which provided a fantastic platform for meaningful discussions and connections. Lastly, a big thank you to the broader Atlassian Community for actively participating and making these events truly vibrant and impactful. It was an unforgettable experience filled with knowledge sharing, networking, and a true sense of community spirit!

As we wrap up the BeyondTeam24 European Tour, it’s clear that the experience was nothing short of transformative. From celebrating collaboration with Atlassian partners to sharing innovative solutions with customers and enthusiasts, every city, meeting, and session brought new opportunities to grow, connect, and inspire.

This tour wasn’t just about showcasing tools or presenting case studies—it was about building bridges within the Atlassian ecosystem, strengthening relationships, and sparking ideas that will shape the future of teamwork and innovation.

To our incredible partners, attendees, and hosts across Europe: thank you for your enthusiasm, support, and insights. You made this journey unforgettable. And to those dreaming of your own collaboration tour—let this adventure serve as both an inspiration and a roadmap.

Here’s to the next chapter of collaboration, innovation, and connection! Until then, let’s continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the Atlassian world. Explore all the details and grab your own stylish BeyondTeam24 t-shirt on this beautifully crafted Refined-based website!

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Boost Your eazyBI Skills: 3 Ways AI Assistants Can Help

Gerda Grantiņa — 2024-10-16T00:00:00Z

eazyBI is a powerful tool for turning raw data into insightful reports, and now it’s even better with AI Assistants. Whether you’re building reports, exploring measures, or working with MDX formulas, these AI-powered helpers make it easier to learn, understand, and maximize the value of your data. Ready to take your eazyBI skills to the next level? Let’s explore 3 ways AI Assistants can help you get the most out of eazyBI.

1. Understand Predefined Measures Quickly

What are Predefined Measures?

Predefined measures in eazyBI are ready-made calculations like "Issues created," "Story Points resolved," or "Hours spent." These metrics are essential for generating reports and providing quick insights like counts, sums, and averages. But with so many options, it can sometimes be confusing to understand what each measure counts and how it’s calculated.

How the AI Assistant Helps

With the AI assistant, you can easily select any predefined measure and ask for a detailed explanation. The AI will break down what the measure counts, how it’s calculated, and how it connects with other dimensions like Time, Projects, or Assignees.

For example, when using the "Issues resolved" measure, the AI assistant can explain where the data comes from and how you can link it with other dimensions. This instant understanding allows you to use predefined measures more effectively.

2. Easily Break Down Complex Reports

Understanding eazyBI Reports

eazyBI reports can range from simple summaries to highly complex, multi-dimensional analysis. Even when a report looks valid, figuring out exactly how the data is organized or what each element represents can be tricky. This is where the AI Assistant comes in to make everything more straightforward.

How the AI Assistant Helps

The AI Assistant can explain the structure of any report, giving you a clear understanding of each measure, calculated field, and dimension in use. It breaks down the components of the report, showing how they interact and helping you interpret the data even in complex reports.

For instance, in a "Story points commitment completion" report, the AI assistant can explain how commitment vs. completion rates are calculated, how story points relate to sprints, and which filters or fields are used.

3. Master MDX Formulas the Easy Way

What is MDX and Why is it Important?

MDX (Multidimensional Expressions) is a powerful query language in eazyBI that lets you create custom calculations and measures. While it's flexible and robust, MDX can also be tricky to master, especially for new users or those who only use it occasionally. Mastering MDX is key to ensuring accurate data representation when fine-tuning reports or building new calculated measures.

How the AI Assistant Helps

The AI assistant simplifies working with MDX by breaking down complex formulas into easy-to-understand steps and offering clear definitions for functions. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, it explains simple and complex formulas, guiding you through each part.

For example, when working on a complex MDX formula, you can select specific parts and ask the AI assistant for a step-by-step breakdown. The AI will explain each function and how they interact, making it feel like you have a personal MDX tutor.

Conclusion

With eazyBI’s AI Assistants, you don’t just get reports—you get understanding. Whether you’re just starting or an eazyBI pro, these tools help you unlock the full potential of your data.

Get a clearer understanding of predefined measures.
Break down and explain complex reports with ease.
Receive real-time help with MDX formulas and functions.

To learn more about how these AI assistants work, check out the official documentation here: eazyBI AI Assistants Documentation.

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Tracking SAFe Progress with Easy Agile and eazyBI

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2024-10-16T00:00:00Z

A program increment dashboard for product managers, release engineers, and teams working in SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) is essential to plan, track, and analyze their work.

Easy Agile is an Australian company that helps organizations adopt SAFe practices more easily. Data from Easy Agile app Programs, a tool designed to help with planning and tracking work in an Agile way, can be used together with eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira to create easy-to-access, interactive dashboards for SAFe.

What is Easy Agile Programs?

Easy Agile Programs is an app that helps teams plan and manage their work more effectively, especially for those following the SAFe method. It’s built directly into Jira, making it easy for teams to use without needing to switch between different tools.

Here’s how Easy Agile Programs works, broken down into three main views:

Roadmap view: get a high-level overview of your work, dependencies, and timelines. This is great for keeping stakeholders informed and aligning teams around what needs to be done.

Program board: this is where detailed planning takes place. It helps you organize work for upcoming releases, resolve dependencies, and adjust plans as needed.
Team planning: teams can plan and adjust their tasks collaboratively, all while keeping everything synced in Jira, so everyone stays on the same page.

Keeping Track of Progress

For release train engineers and product managers, data from the Easy Agile Programs app can be integrated with the eazyBI Reports and Charts app to create a dashboard for Program Increment (PI). This dashboard helps answer important questions like “Are we on track?” “What capacity do we have?” or “How do we move things around?” and is useful for weekly meetings or progress reports for stakeholders.

Data Collection and Integration

eazyBI integrates seamlessly not only with Jira, but also with various Marketplace apps, making it easy to gather the data you need to track your team’s progress. It allows to pull data from apps like Easy Agile Program.

In Jira, Easy Agile Program app creates two custom fields: "Program Increment", which is multi-value field, and "Program". These fields can later be used as filters on your dashboard, enabling better segmentation and a more granular view of the reports.

To prepare these custom fields for analysis, you need to configure them in eazyBI’s advanced settings so the tool knows how to treat them—as dimensions, in this case.

Once that’s done, these fields can be used in various reports and filters on your dashboard.

Another crucial aspect of PI reporting is limiting the reports to reflect the accurate timeframe, from the start of the first sprint to the end of the last sprint in the Program Increment. For this, you can leverage the REST API to import start and end dates for each Program Increment based on sprint dates.

The data import from the Program app can be set up and defined once; the changes will be imported incrementally and automatically, so your dashboard is always up to date.

The PI Dashboard Setup

The Program Increment dashboard will consist of several key reports that give a comprehensive overview of progress across your Agile initiatives.

Program and Program Increment, as well as Sprints, are set as filters in this dashboard; for instance, when selecting a specific Program Increment, data about this PI is displayed instantly.

Program Increment Overview contains several key performance indicators as bare numbers (using the Gauge chart option).

Scope tracks the total number of issues in the Program Increment. Delivery reflects the number of resolved issues, giving a sense of how much work has been completed. Total progress is a ratio that compares delivery versus the total scope, giving you a high-level view of the overall completion percentage. A small, automatically generated chart shows delivery trends over time. The added PI timeframe allows to display Start and End Dates of the PI. Days until PI ends is a countdown of how much time is left until the PI ends so you can focus more when the release date is approaching.
Program Increment Burn-up and Burn-down reports provide a day-by-day breakdown of scope and delivery. They highlight the current date to give a real-time view of where you stand versus your planned milestones. PI timeframes allow you to display guidelines, and these charts can show whether you’re on track or lagging behind schedule.
Epic Progress Reports show issue counts as a percentage, broken down by epics and status categories. The same epic data is also presented in a table format for a detailed view.

Managing Dependencies and Linked Issues

Another important aspect of Agile planning is managing dependencies. In the Program app, those dependencies are represented by lines between issues, meanwhile, in Jira, they are stored as linked issues.

eazyBI allows you to import linked issues, so you can track these dependencies visually in the reports.

When imported, linked issues can be included in your epic report table as dependant issues to epics, formatted as hyperlinks using markdown, so you can seamlessly click on them and switch back to the Jira ticket for more details.

Sharing the Dashboard with Your Team

Once your Program Increment dashboard is ready, you can easily share it with the rest of your team by adding this eazyBI dashboard to your Jira dashboard. This ensures that everyone has access to dynamically updated data in Jira. Users can interact with the dashboard, filtering reports by selecting specific Program Increments or other criteria, making it easier for teams to stay aligned with the PI’s goals and progress.

Technical Details and Support

The eazyBI community provides comprehensive documentation for those looking for more detailed technical instructions on how to set up this dashboard. Whether you’re configuring custom fields, integrating with the Easy Agile Program app, or importing data through the REST API, you can find all the guidance you need there.

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eazyBI Community Days: What to Expect?

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2024-09-10T00:00:00Z

eazyBI Community Days 2024 in Berlin was a remarkable event for our customers and us, the eazyBI team. This annual event is a win-win for both parties: we can share our knowledge and gather instant feedback, and customers can learn from the source and shape the product’s future. Now, let’s wrap up the major aspects of the past event and see what is coming next!

Here are the top six highlights from the last gathering, which we promise to keep for the next year as well:

Real use cases where customers shared their practical experiences, highlighting their hacks, struggles, gains, and decision-making processes.
News updates from direct sources when Raimonds (eazyBI founder and CEO) and the team introduced eazyBI AI Assistants and new features like restoring deleted cubes.
Training sessions where eazyBI experts provided training for report builders and data admins.
Panel discussion about life within the Atlassian ecosystem and lively hallway track.
Support bar, where experts offer on-the-spot solutions and report creation.
Sightseeing morning run and walk where participants enjoyed fitness activities in good company.

1. Real Use Cases

This year, attendees were treated to a series of presentations showcasing our customer use cases from technical as well as business perspectives. Our customers did not hold back, sharing their genuine experiences, including both struggles and successes. From our partners and customers, we learned how to build control reports to ensure data trustworthiness, listened to the experience of implementing report-based decision-making processes within a team, and were reminded about simple yet underused features to enhance teamwork, among many more.

This is our community event, and every user can have their say there. We and other attendees were amazed at how eazyBI can be used in real life. We believe that each eazyBI user’s experience is valid and can help others. This customer use case section is definitely a keeper for the next year! We are waiting for your story here as well!

2. News Updates from Direct Sources

As per tradition, Raimonds, the founder and main developer of eazyBI, kicked off the event with news. Since the eazyBI event is a point of reference for our team, all juicy news is kept (or finalized) for this hour-long presentation!

This year’s standout announcement was the introduction of eazyBI AI Assistants to help create BI reports and calculations, and we hope they fill the gap between the first steps in eazyBI and mastering reports. Additionally, the newly introduced “Snapshot Session: Pro Tips and Feature Highlights” showcased newly invented features like instant restoration of deleted cubes and organizing folders in dashboards in 5-7 minute long (and funny) talks. In the same manner, eazyBI experts showed tricky ways how to do things in eazyBI: for instance, create summaries that can be converted into detailed reports with just a few clicks or import additional data for users.

We loved our customers' immediate reaction to eazyBI news and features, the honest feedback they gave us, and the light in their eyes, when they understood how this demonstrated feature would help them tremendously! Are you asking us if we will continue that? Of course!

3. Training Sessions

As usual, eazyBI consultants delivered several informative talks to equip users with the skills needed to maximize their use of eazyBI or reveal what is behind the scenes (i.e., what happens when you open the report and retrieve the results). Each year, we experiment with the best ways and topics of how to conduct training sessions. This year, we had two dedicated training session tracks: one focused on report builders, offering step-by-step guidance on crafting different reports, while another aimed at data admins, providing deeper insights into data pre-calculations and adjustments.

We understand that educational presentations and training sessions are the core of eazyBI community days, and we will tirelessly continue to figure out the best possible ways to help customers understand the tool. Keeper? Definitely yes.

4. Lively Discussions

This year, discussions played a crucial role in the event. The very first panel discussion we organized was on life in the Atlassian ecosystem. Starting with our panelists' experiences on the benefits of collaboration between Atlassian and various apps, debates concluded on the future of AI and its implications for data reporting and impact on communication within the community. The panelists were from Atlassian, solution partners, and our founder, so they looked at the situation from different viewpoints.

You may wonder why, during eazyBI Community days, we always use round tables in the ballroom. The answer is to ease communication whenever possible. The informal hallway track also provides invaluable insights, allowing for spontaneous, in-depth conversations among attendees during the breaks or while the next speaker sets up. We will definitely continue that!

5. Support Bar

This year, Support Bar was a constant hub of activity, instead of cocktails serving immediate solutions to attendees' challenges. Staffed by eazyBI experts from the support and development teams, this bar’s menu provided:

On-the-spot report creation;
Writing of calculation formulas;
Coding bug-fixes.

We love that this once-in-a-year support model ensures that attendees leave with practical solutions and new skills. eazyBI community days are the only public event where all the eazyBI team members are available, so you can be sure the solution will be found in the support bar!

6. Sightseeing Morning Run and Walk

An old eazyBI tradition is morning runs and walks whenever we are together, and we love to share this experience with our community. Participants explored the historical part of Berlin, Brandenburger Tor, and Tiergarten, combining fitness with sightseeing and good companionship. This tradition will continue next year in Riga, offering another unique way to experience the host city.

These highlights made eazyBI Community Days 2024 an unforgettable event packed with learning, networking, and fun. Now, we have started planning the next event and making it even more memorable.

We look forward to welcoming you to eazyBI Community Days 2025 in Riga on May 22-23. Register now to secure the best deal on your event pass.

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Control Reports: Building Trust in Data

Stefan Krooshof — 2024-09-09T00:00:00Z

During eazyBI Community Days 2024, Stefan Krooshof, a passionate Atlassian expert from Prepend with eight years of using eazyBI, shared his experience building and using various control charts to ensure data integrity and reliability.

What are control reports?

Let's dive into the topic of control reporting. You might wonder, "Aren't all reports about control?" In a way, yes, but control reporting has a specific focus that sets it apart from other types of reports.

To clarify, let's break down reports into three categories:

Current State Reports: These tell the company where it stands right now. They provide a snapshot of current performance and metrics.
Forecasting Reports: These predict where the company is heading, assess whether it's on target, and what to expect in the future.
Control Reports: This is where control reporting comes in. These reports focus on the integrity of the data. They check whether the data is complete, identify duplicates, and highlight exceptions and outliers.

Purpose of Control Reporting

Control reports serve a specific purpose. They ensure the data's accuracy and reliability, which is crucial for making informed business decisions. This focus on data integrity helps organizations maintain trust in their information systems and processes.

Think about how important it is to have accurate data. Control reports help you identify any discrepancies or issues, ensuring that decisions are based on solid information. Consider the purpose of these reports and how they can benefit your organization.

Why are Control Reports Important?

Beyond just believing in the accuracy of our data, we need to explore how we can ensure that the data we rely on is truly correct.

Control reports are not the most frequently accessed reports, but their role is crucial. They enhance trust in the primary reports that users are most interested in. Control reports increase confidence in the main reports by validating data accuracy and highlighting any discrepancies.

Let’s dive into three use cases. Each one will focus on a different type of control report, and each one will show a different technique used to get through such a control report. All those reports are about time registration or, in Jira language, registration of hours or time spent.

Use Case #1: Data Integrity

In this first use case, we'll explore how to allocate hours to a specific budget and ensure data integrity.

We use a method called "none-checks" or "empty checks." A customer wanted to track which hours belong to which budget, categorizing them as capital or operational expenditures. They noticed that 60% of their budget went to capital expenditures, but the real picture was incomplete, with missing data.

To address this, we examined the underlying data, which includes a custom field called the “IT number”. Many customers use a custom field in Jira issues to label which budget time spent on an issue belongs to. Our focus was on issues with missing values (indicated as "none" in the system).

By identifying these "none" values, users can pinpoint issues lacking budget allocation data, correct them in Jira, and enhance data accuracy.

Once we identified missing values, we generated a report showing issues both with and without values. For that, a simple custom calculation grouped all other values (or all except “none” values).

This overview helped the customer understand changes over time. Notably, around November, they switched from using the "Subproject" field to the "IT number" field, formalizing this transition

To streamline the process, we combined the “IT number” and “Subproject” fields into a single custom field using JavaScript. This improved performance and simplified reporting. Now, customers can quickly identify issues without budget allocation by clicking on the relevant sections in the report.

Through this process, the customer learned several key lessons:

Some issues lacked budget allocation due to external partners not using the correct field.
Projects closed with the old field were not updated to the new system, leading to gaps in data.
Organizational changes affected data allocation.

By using control reports to ensure data integrity, the customer could confidently make informed decisions and accurately track budget allocations.

Use Case #2: Handling Exceptions in Data

In the second use case, we focus on identifying exceptions in data, specifically regarding how employees log their hours. The task was to prevent employees from logging hours on projects or issues in Jira that were already closed. While it seems straightforward to implement a rule in Jira to prevent time logging on closed issues, the reality is more complex.

The workflow uses about 51 different statuses, but none of them are explicitly labeled as "closed." Instead, various terms like "Done," "Deployed," "Implemented," and even misspelled ones like "Canceled" are used.

To tackle this, we used eazyBI and the concept of "tuples." A tuple allows you to quickly slice through your dataset by identifying where two dimensions intersect, focusing on the relevant data. Here, we used the "Transition status” category “Done" to find issues considered closed in the workflow.

We created a report for February 2024, listing Jira issues where time was logged after they reached a closed status. We added a column to show the resolution date to highlight discrepancies between the logging date and the issue's closure date.

To make the report more user-friendly, we mapped the resolution timeframe with simple language interpretations, using MDX custom calculations. Displaying results in “human language” made it easier for users to understand at a glance. Adding colors helped key information stand out.

The client appreciated the clear overview and no longer needed to enforce strict rules in Jira to prevent logging time on closed issues. This approach effectively managed exceptions without complicating the workflow, providing a practical solution to a common problem.

Use Case #3: Deviations

In the final use case, let's tackle deviations in time registration, specifically focusing on leave registration. This scenario is complex because it involves data from multiple sources, including Jira, legacy systems, and external data sources for contract hours. We combine data from these different sources to get a comprehensive view of leave registration.

The report for end users shows the amount of leave each employee has for the year, how much has been spent, how much is planned, and the remaining balance. This helps employees track their leave usage throughout the year.

For HR managers, the challenge is to monitor leave balances for potentially hundreds of employees, each with different agreements and leave balances. Some employees plan meticulously, while others might be more spontaneous. This variability makes it difficult to assess the overall situation at a glance.

To simplify this process, we use averages and standard deviations to highlight outliers in the dataset.

An additional column with human-readable language provides immediate context, indicating whether leave balances are above or below the expected baseline.

One key feature of this report is its ability to evolve over time. As averages and standard deviations change throughout the year, the report updates automatically, providing a real-time view of leave balances.

In addition to this report, HR managers have access to a comprehensive dashboard combining various reports. This allows them to quickly identify action points, such as updating leave balances for the current year or entering contract hours for new employees.

The goal is to make the reporting process intuitive and effective, even for those hesitant to use new tools. By providing clear insights and actionable data, HR managers can better manage leave registration and promptly address discrepancies.

Summary and Key Takeaways

While control reports use different techniques, the underlying concepts are straightforward. The focus is on adding context to reports, making them more understandable. Simple actions, like indicating whether a result is positive or negative, help users quickly grasp the information. Using colors can further enhance clarity, preventing users from feeling overwhelmed by numbers.

From these experiences, we've learned that reality is often messy, and control can seem elusive. However, by zooming in on the chaos and explaining it clearly, we can achieve a sense of control and peace of mind and regain trust in the data. Control reporting plays a crucial role in this process, helping to clarify and manage data and representing our complex realities in an understandable and meaningful way.

If you’re more of a video person, feel free to watch the recording of Stefan's presentation from eazyBI Community Days 2024.

Join us for eazyBI Community Days 2025 in Riga on May 22-23. Two days full of expert talks, product news, case studies, networking and much more. Register now to secure the best deal on your event pass!

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BeyondTeam24: Coast-to-Coast Marketplace Mission

Svetlana Avene Avenina — 2024-06-10T00:00:00Z

The BeyondTeam24 tour has been an incredible adventure, uniting some of the brightest minds in the Atlassian ecosystem. Over two weeks, four independent Atlassian Marketplace vendors journeyed across two countries, the United States of America and Canada, visiting five vibrant cities: Austin, St. Louis, Toronto, Chicago, and New York. Our mission was simple: to connect, share, and grow with our partners and the wider Atlassian community.

We were honored to be joined by four exceptional Atlassian Marketplace vendors on this tour: eazyBI, easyAgile, Refined, and Resolution. We, as partners, brought our unique insights, innovative solutions, and a wealth of knowledge to every stop on our tour. Our tour took us to four major Atlassian community events in Austin, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Toronto, Ontario; and Chicago, Illinois. Each city welcomed us with open arms, and the enthusiasm of the Atlassian community was palpable. We had the opportunity to engage with hundreds of attendees, sharing stories, experiences, and insights.

The Highlights

Case Studies

We presented two compelling case studies that showcased the power of collaboration and innovation within the Atlassian ecosystem:

easyAgile with eazyBI

eazyBI and Easy Agile collaborated to deliver the insightful case study "Easy PI Planning and Reporting." We demonstrated how seamless integration between their tools can enhance PI planning and reporting within Jira. The session showcased their expertise in visualizing simple yet informative program boards, providing attendees with practical examples of how to streamline their agile processes. Additionally, we explored how to leverage data analytics to empower teams on their agile journeys, making a case for how these tools can drive more effective and informed decision-making. You can learn more about the case study by watching a video from Chicago ACE.

Refined with Resolution

In a collaborative effort, Atlassian partners Refined and Resolution presented the case study "Enterprise Support: Internal and External." They explained how to elevate enterprise service management and customer support into intuitive, efficient experiences. The session highlighted ways to enhance agent efficiency and enable personalized content navigation. By demonstrating the synergies between their solutions, they showcased how these integrations can drive organizational success and improve overall support operations. You can learn more about the case study by watching a video from Chicago ACE.

Panel Discussion

The BeyondTeam24 tour featured engaging panel discussions that delved into the most standout moments of Team24. The discussions began with light-hearted topics like favorite ice cream flavors and pizza toppings and culminated in critical insights into Atlassian's latest announcements. Here's a summary of the key points discussed:

Atlassian Guard and Cloud Security: Panelists discussed the timely introduction of Guard, Atlassian’s new security offering. They agreed it would be well-received by clients concerned about cloud data breaches, although some may question the necessity if they feel their current security is sufficient.
Unification of Jira Software and Jira Work Management: The decision to merge these products into a single Jira was seen as a strategic move towards simplification. Panelists believed users would benefit from a more cohesive project management experience despite potential concerns about the transition process.
Asset Data Manager in Jira: This new tool generated excitement for its potential to improve asset tracking and data management. However, there were discussions about the challenges of adapting existing processes and training teams to use it effectively.
Introducing Atlassian Rovo: The introduction of Rovo, a new feature from Atlassian, was met with positive feedback. Partners expressed optimism about its potential to enhance collaboration and streamline workflows, anticipating strong adoption among users.
Standardized Templates for JSM: Atlassian's release of standardized templates for Jira Service Management (JSM) was discussed. Panelists saw this as a valuable tool, especially for non-technical teams, to help with scalable processes. However, they also acknowledged the potential challenges in maintaining these templates over time.
Atlassian University Introduction: The introduction of Atlassian University was highlighted as a great resource for non-technical teams to learn and improve their skills. This initiative was praised for its potential to make Atlassian tools more accessible to a broader audience.

These discussions provided valuable insights into the future of Atlassian tools and their impact on the community, showcasing the dynamic and evolving nature of the Atlassian ecosystem.

Networking

Solution Partners: We had the pleasure of meeting six Atlassian solution partners, each bringing their unique perspective and expertise: Praecipio, Adaptavist, Contegix, Valiantys, ISOS Technologies, and e-core.

Atlassian People and Community Leaders: One of the most rewarding aspects of the tour was meeting so many passionate Atlassian employees and Atlassian Community leaders. Their dedication and enthusiasm are truly inspiring and reaffirm the strength of the Atlassian ecosystem.

Reflections

Looking back, the BeyondTeam24 tour was more than just a series of events; it was a celebration of collaboration, innovation, and community. We shared knowledge, learned from each other, and forged stronger connections. The energy and enthusiasm of the Atlassian community have left a lasting impression on all of us.

As we wrap up this incredible journey, we extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it possible: our amazing partners: easyAgile, Refined and Resolution, the vibrant communities in each city, Atlassian, Atlassian community leaders, Atlassian Solution partners and all the Atlassian enthusiasts and customers who came out to engage with us. The BeyondTeam24 tour may be over, but the relationships and insights we gained will continue to inspire us as we move forward.

Here’s to many more adventures, collaborations, and innovations in the future!

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Introducing AI Assistants in eazyBI

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2024-04-29T00:00:00Z

As our name suggests, we are a BI (Business Intelligence) solution. But nowadays, everyone is talking about a different letter combination AI that is a different type of intelligence. Many are using AI to get investor money or to get their stock valuation higher. We do not have such pressure at eazyBI, and therefore, we thought about what could be useful and practical applications of new AI technologies for our users.

The current AI technologies primarily use LLMs (large language models), which have been trained on a lot of text from the internet and now can read and write similar texts quickly. Therefore, the most popular AI usage is for text generation from a prompt, summarization, or rewriting of texts. In most cases, the output should not be exactly “precise” or “correct”: it just should sound human-like. We can say the same about image generation from prompts — the generated images should look approximately related to the prompt we used; however, we are not “compiling” and “executing” them to validate the results.

From user questions to data queries

In BI reports and charts, we have a more challenging goal. If a user asks a question about their business data, we do not want to give just some report or chart that “looks” nice. We want to return the correct results, and we want the user to be able to validate that it is what was asked.

In this area, there are many examples of how LLMs can translate user questions about data to SQL queries. For example, a user might ask:

Show created vs resolved issues by month in last 12 months

and might get the following generated SQL query and the corresponding chart of created and resolved issues by month:

If the user doesn’t understand SQL, they might trust the results. But if we understand SQL, we can see that it probably is not what we expected—it groups all issues by their creation date and then shows how many of them are currently unresolved or resolved. However, the user most probably expected that the resolved issue count would be shown by the resolution date.

These examples of SQL generation—sometimes correct and sometimes wrong—inspired us to think about how we could do something similar in eazyBI. In our case, we already have a multi-dimensional data model of measures and dimensions that better match business questions about data and hide technical implementation in SQL queries.

Report builder assistant

As a first task, we started with a report builder assistant in the Analyze tab. We already have many sample reports and charts that users can explore, find the one that most closely matches their needs, and customize them. When you want to create your first custom report from scratch, you might be challenged with the “blank page”—there are so many measures and dimensions that you can select; how should I start? Now, you can open the report builder assistant panel (see the new Assistant button on the top right corner) and try either sample prompts or write the question that you would like to be answered.

Let’s try the same query about created and resolved issues by month.

This question was correctly translated to eazyBI measures “Issues created” and “Issues resolved”, and the correct Time dimension level and page filter were applied. You can continue the chat with the assistant and ask to modify the created report or chart. You can also ask to explain the measures that are available to understand better what each of them will return.

MDX formula assistant

Our eazyBI slogan is “Simple things easy, complex things possible”. Creating reports and charts is typically easy by using drag-and-drop and clicking through options. Later, you can start using calculated members with custom MDX (multi-dimensional expression) formulas that make more complex reporting requirements possible.

We have an extensive documentation site about how to write MDX formulas and descriptions of all available MDX functions. Sometimes, finding the right documentation page to solve your specific calculation needs can be challenging. Therefore, we are introducing the MDX formula assistant sidebar in the calculated member definition dialog. You can ask the assistant what formula you would like to write, and they will get back the suggested MDX code and, in addition, links to the corresponding documentation pages with more details.

If the generated formula matches your needs, you can copy and use it in your calculation. If not, you can try to regenerate the response, which might suggest alternative solutions. Or even better, continue the chat and explain in more detail how you would like to improve the calculation.

Just like with the generated SQL example, you should still learn to read and understand the generated MDX code to understand how it works. Assistants can help with that, too—select the code you would like to understand and ask the assistant to explain it!

Calculated custom field assistant

Instead of doing complex calculations in MDX every time when the report is executed, you can precalculate additional custom field measures or dimensions during the data import. You can use custom JavaScript code to extract the necessary data from the Jira issue JSON representation, do the calculations, and return the required result. This is also the “complex things possible” side of eazyBI. Therefore, to make it easier, we are adding custom field JavaScript code assistants as well.

Explain to the assistant what data you would like to extract from the issue, copy the generated JavaScript code, and test it with some issues. Now, this is much easier, isn’t it?

How does it work?

As you might guess we are using LLMs (large language models) to get responses to user questions. But if you would ask the same questions to, for example, ChatGPT you would not get the same good answers. We are helping LLMs with additional knowledge and examples to make the responses relevant to each specific eazyBI use case.

When we receive the user question, we first classify it. For instance, we determine whether it is a request to build a report, to explain a measure, or a general question about eazyBI functionality.

Based on the type of question, we search for documentation examples, standard measures, and dimensions that are available, as well as sample report definitions, which we should include in the context to get better answers from LLM. We use vector-based semantic search to find similar examples by their semantic meaning and not just use the exact words from the user prompt.

Then, based on the question classification, the corresponding LLM instructions template will be used, including the context data with examples from the previous step. Instructions also describe in detail, how eazyBI report definitions look or the structure of Jira issue JSON representation.

We have implemented interfaces with several leading LLM providers so that we can test and select which currently provide the best results for our needs. As we are using the Google Cloud Platform for eazyBI Cloud, we have chosen Google Cloud Vertex AI APIs, which provide access to the latest Gemini model by Google and the Claude 3 model by Anthropic.

After receiving the response from LLM, we check and fix the known errors in the generated eazyBI report definitions. LLMs can still make mistakes, and we want to reduce cases when we present invalid report definitions that fail to load.

It is important to note that customer data imported into eazyBI are never sent to LLMs and are not exposed to any external services. Only user prompts and metadata about measures and dimensions are used in instructions, but the generated report definition is executed the same way as any other report created by users.

What assistants can do, and what they can’t?

First, keep in mind that assistants, like any other current AI technology, can make mistakes and you should validate generated reports and formulas. They can make you more productive, but you still need to understand your data and validate report results.

Assistants (and we as we build them) are still learning. We start with the initial set of questions that we imagine users might ask. As we are now launching them to a broader audience, there may be many questions where provided answers are not as good as expected. We will review the usage, identify new sets of common questions, and improve the knowledge that we are feeding to assistants and the instructions we provide.

You can rate the answers you receive with thumbs up and down and provide additional comments. Please use it to provide feedback, as it will help us continue improving the assistants.

Please remember that assistants can’t read your mind, so tell them exactly what you want. If you provide limited details, they will try their best to answer using the known examples, but it might not match your needs.

And finally—assistants are available 24x7 and are ready to help you any time. But our support is still more intelligent and eager to help you when you have more challenging reporting requirements. Please do not hesitate to ask for additional help from our support when the assistant can’t give you the right advice.

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One More Year in eazyBI's Journey on Cloud

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2024-03-08T00:00:00Z

In March, we celebrate the eazyBI anniversary (it is the 13th), and birthdays are usually a suitable time to look back and see how far we have come during the year. In the Atlassian ecosystem, this year marked the end of Server products, concluding the transition of the past few years toward a Cloud-first approach. eazyBI app has always been on Cloud—eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira was the first Atlassian Connect app to launch in September 2013, and this year only reinforced the focus on Cloud solutions. Here's a look at eazyBI's journey throughout the year, its approach to the Cloud, continuous innovations, and customer-focused growth.

Cloud-First Approach and Customer Migrations

From the very beginning, eazyBI introduced new features to Cloud customers first, before rolling them out to Server and Data Center users. In such a way, eazyBI for Jira on Cloud has always been an up-to-date version, providing new features for Cloud customers even months before customers on-premises. Not only once customers' fast feedback help to shape a feature or improvement before it was launched in the server version.

The core functionality of eazyBI has been identical across all deployment options—Cloud, Server, and Data Center. This consistency made eazyBI migration from Server or Data Center to Cloud easy for customers. We launched the eazyBI database migrator to provide self-service migration of all eazyBI accounts, reports, and dashboards. Together with the Atlassian ecosystem transition to Cloud products, it resulted in the rapid growth of eazyBI Cloud customers during 2023—the number of active Cloud customer accounts increased by 36%.

To support the expansion of Cloud customers and ensure that their reports and charts are always accessible and imports run as scheduled, we needed to upgrade the eazyBI system infrastructure. We implemented a new scalable deployment solution to ensure that eazyBI for Cloud is always accessible and runs smoothly. As a result, eazyBI's availability exceeded 99.9%, with no critical availability incidents reported in 2023.

Innovations and Integrations

Apart from focusing on migrations to the Cloud, eazyBI released several new features. Recognizing that too much information might be as helpful as no information, we delivered features to access essential data when and where it is most needed, such as conditional report alerts and customizable dashboard email subscriptions. Another group of improvements helped to group and re-group data in reports using custom hierarchies, building them in the Time and several test management dimensions. To help our customer keep track of what’s new in their reporting app, we reorganized the news feed within the app and added a new section in the documentation about the latest features on Cloud.

Conditional Alerts: essential information at your fingertips

Moreover, eazyBI expanded its ecosystem by integrating with other apps—DevOps data import from Bitbucket Cloud and GitHub, data from Time to SLA app, and improved integrations with Xray and Zephyr test management apps.

A fun addition was the Comic Style mode, introduced on April Fools' Day, designed to lighten the mood at status meetings. Additionally, a dark theme was introduced around Halloween at the end of October, offering a seasonal twist. Last year, we introduced the world with our four-legged colleagues, and they inspired us to bring to life two eazyBI cats—Di and Ray—and their journey in the eazyBI world.

Di and Ray enjoying the eazyBI Comic Style report

Focus on Security and Data Residency

eazyBI has also focused on enhancing its security measures, recognizing the importance of data security and privacy for Cloud services. We completed the SOC 2 Type 2 re-certification audit and launched a trust center page. This page, accessible through eazyBI Security on the Drata platform, allows customers to view the status of our compliance monitoring tests and request access to our SOC 2 report and policies.

In 2023, eazyBI introduced a data residency solution, adding the US region alongside the default EU region. New regions will be added based on customer needs in the coming years. Data residency options are available on our Atlassian Marketplace page Security & Privacy tab.

Exceptional Support and Community Engagement

eazyBI's commitment to customer support remained unchanged, earning high ratings and positive reviews that reflect the outstanding quality of our service.

As previously, the team actively engaged with the community through partner events all around the world and had countless chats with new and existing customers during Atlassian Team 2023 in Las Vegas, the USA. Those events were about sharing our insights and knowledge and learning from users and partners alike.

One of our credos has always been “Sharing is caring”. During the Atlassian Marketplace partner event AtlasCamp 2023, eazyBI's CEO Raimonds Simanovskis shared lessons learned throughout eazyBI’s journey in scaling, processing large data sets, enhancing security, and implementing data residency solutions.

We welcomed data analytic aficionados to the annual eazyBI Community Days in Riga, which was two days full of reporting-related stories and training; this year, we are expanding the tradition and bringing eazyBI Community Days to Berlin.

eazyBI Community Days 2023 in Riga

Since November, eazyBI customers can get eazyBI monthly news in their email, spotlight what is going on within the team, explore use cases and features and get glimpses of the vast knowledge shared on the eazyBI community platform.

What’s Next?

As eazyBI continues to evolve, it remains dedicated to providing its users with top-notch analytics solutions and support. With a focus on innovation, scalability, and customer satisfaction, eazyBI is poised for even greater achievements in the years to come.

Stay tuned, come to eazyBI Community Days in Berlin, and be first to know what eazyBI’s future brings!

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eazyBI Backlog Grooming: The Data-Driven Approach

Lauma Cīrule — 2024-03-04T00:00:00Z

eazyBI app is constantly evolving, and every release brings improvements to our customers. To decide our near future focus, we perform this delicate dance between understanding customer needs, prioritizing development, and analyzing the data that fuels it all. The goal is always to ensure the product stays relevant and valuable for you—the eazyBI user. Let's peek behind the curtain and see how we at eazyBI analyze the backlog using our favorite data analysis tool—eazyBI!

Why measure backlog health at all?

First things first: why measure? It's simple—by deciding on key metrics and following their changes, we can understand what issues are nice-to-have desires and which are critical for a significant number of our customers. With our customers in mind, we most often prioritize the latter.

eazyBI uses a Kanban methodology in the development process. This approach helps us grow the product without getting overwhelmed while working in a remote and self-organized environment. Each team member can choose tasks and focus on their assignments one at a time rather than working simultaneously on many tasks. From the broad list of ideas and to-do items, we intentionally construct a concise list of “Selected for Development” issues to choose from. In this way, we promote a sustainable and productive work environment.

Our issue tracker is Jira. This subsequently means we organize our tasks on a Jira Kanban board that helps to track issues as they move from “Ideas” to “Selected for Development” and finally to “Done” and “Closed” statuses. And we use eazyBI to analyze it!

How do issues get to the “Selected for Development”? Firstly, we keep our hand on the pulse during regular weekly meetings where the support team and developers look at the new issues registered during the week and decide what goes into “Selected for Development”. While bugs and easy-to-fix issues get prioritized quickly, new features and improvements undergo a more nuanced process we will look at shortly.

Ensure a healthy backlog balance

We always take care that there is a balance between bug fixes and new features. While fixing those sneaking-in bugs is crucial for us and the customers, we also wish always to be working on new features. We try to keep this balance in the "Selected for Development” status.

For this, we use a simple pie chart where the “Issues created” measure is combined with the Issue type dimension and filtered by status “Selected for Development”. The pie chart is a good choice in this case as we do not focus on exact numbers. Instead, we wish to see how the issues distribute over types and if the goal to work on various tasks matches the reality of what we have selected.

Prioritize features based on customer feedback

When planning our next release, we look at the backlog and decide what new features could come in the “Selected for Development” in addition to bugs and essential improvements from the weekly meetings.

Customer feedback is crucial in shaping eazyBI's broader roadmap for new features. During everyday work, the support team actively listens to user concerns and requests received through conversations or eazyBI community posts. These conversations are then linked to relevant Jira feature requests, bugs, or improvements.

The customer conversation links help us prioritize features based on actual customer demand. To represent this in a report, we created a calculated custom field with JavaScript to count the linked conversations for each issue in the backlog during the data import. In this way, we can add conversation count as a measure in the backlog feature list in eazyBI, ordering them by most voted, and then choosing which tasks have earned their place ‘under the sun’.

To be fair, not only do the customer requests impact this choice—some issues stay in waiting because of technical or other external limitations. We also take care that “Selected for Development” consists of various complexity tasks in front-end and back-end development, as well as improvements and fixes for a range of eazyBI app components.

Avoiding stale issues in the "Selected for Development" list

There is no issue assigning processes in the eazyBI development team. We trust developers to choose from the “Selected for Development” list of issues.

During our team monthly meetings, we track the “Selected for Development” list by looking at various metrics like issue types, waiting times, and, most importantly, the number of linked customer conversations combined in a growing bubble chart.

The scatter chart shows the relation between issues demanded by customers and time spent in “Selected for Development” and very well visualizes if any critical tasks are waiting too long to be picked up by a developer. The number of linked customer conversations grows the bubble as the time in status increases: we multiply the days the issue has been waiting for development with its linked conversations. In such a way, we emphasize the issue’s importance—the more customer conversations and time in the status, the bigger the bubble, helping the team identify the feature priorities based on customer demand.

We also regularly return to the bubbles that keep growing in time and size. If no one has chosen the task, it might signal that it is either unclear and needs a more detailed description or splitting into smaller tasks.

What we've learned from optimizing the product backlog

The key to maintaining a healthy backlog is understanding customer needs and prioritizing development through data analysis.

In the eazyBI product Kanban development process, we use metrics and reports in the eazyBI app to analyze the issue backlog. By selecting a curated list that balances different issue types, components, and complexity levels, we ensure everyone on the team can jump in and contribute effectively. This kind of near-future roadmap holds our focus on the right tasks while keeping everyone's workload manageable.

Regular meetings and clear communication ensure we take timely action on critical issues or issues that have encountered roadblocks.

Share your thoughts, questions, and suggestions with us! We're always happy to hear from our customers. Remember—your voice shapes eazyBI!

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eazyBI Spotlights Business Intelligence at Atlassian Team '24

Svetlana Avene-Aveniņa — 2024-02-02T00:00:00Z

We're thrilled to announce that eazyBI is a proud sponsor at the Atlassian Team '24 event in Las Vegas! This premier gathering of the Atlassian community is shaping up to be an unforgettable celebration of collaboration, innovation, and the immense power of teamwork.

Save the Date: April 30 - May 2, 2024
Location: The Venetian Resort, Las Vegas, and digitally
Discover more event details here

Why eazyBI at Atlassian Team '24?

The leading business intelligence solution for Atlassian products, eazyBI, 10 years in a row, is honored to be a sponsor at this fantastic event. Atlassian Team '24 provides the ideal platform for us to connect with like-minded professionals, share insights, and demonstrate how eazyBI can elevate your Atlassian experience to unprecedented heights.

Discover eazyBI's Powerful Analytics for Jira

Drop by our booth to explore the boundless possibilities of eazyBI's analytics capabilities. Whether you aim to optimize Jira reporting, enhance Confluence data visualization, or unlock the full potential of your Atlassian tools, our team of experts will guide you through our cutting-edge solution.

Engage with eazyBI Experts

Don't miss the opportunity to connect with our team members, who will be available for live demonstrations, answering questions, and providing personalized insights tailored to your organization's unique needs.

Exclusive Giveaways and Prizes

Join the excitement at our booth and participate in engaging activities for a chance to win exclusive eazyBI swag and exciting prizes. We've got surprises in store that you won't want to miss!

Networking Opportunities

Forge connections with industry professionals, Atlassian experts, and fellow enthusiasts during networking sessions and social events. Atlassian Team '24 isn't just about learning; it's about building lasting connections within the vibrant Atlassian ecosystem.

Join us in Shaping the Future of Collaboration

More than an event, Atlassian Team '24 is a collective effort to shape the future of collaboration. As a proud sponsor, eazyBI looks forward to contributing to this dynamic community and being part of the conversations that will drive innovation in the years to come.

Stay Connected

Follow us on social media for event updates, sneak peeks, and behind-the-scenes content leading up to Atlassian Team '24. Check out our blog to learn about eazyBI features, or subscribe to a monthly newsletter to avoid missing updates.

eazyBI: Simple Things Easy, Complex Things Possible.

We can't wait to meet you at Atlassian Team '24 in Las Vegas and embark on this transformative journey together. See you there!

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Top 10 Benefits of Joining Forces with eazyBI Partners

Svetlana Avene-Aveniņa — 2024-02-01T00:00:00Z

eazyBI is a scalable, powerful, and enterprise-ready business intelligence tool, for small businesses and large enterprises. Unlock its full potential with eazyBI partners' expertise. Explore the Top 10 benefits for customers leveraging these services.

1. Tailored Solutions for Unique Business Needs

eazyBI partners bring a wealth of experience in Agile, ITSM, test or asset management, and other solutions to meet your unique organizational requirements. Customers can ensure that eazyBI is finely tuned to address specific business needs, providing tailored solutions beyond out-of-the-box functionalities that eazyBI partners can consult on.

2. Accelerated Implementation and Onboarding

eazyBI partners possess the expertise to expedite the implementation and onboarding process, ensuring a smooth transition for customers in today's fast-paced business environment. Their in-depth knowledge allows for a quicker realization of ROI, enabling organizations to derive value from their data at an accelerated pace.

3. Access to Training

Partners offer eazyBI training, equipping customers with advanced skills and insights to fully exploit eazyBI's capabilities. It enhances internal teams' proficiency, ensuring a self-sustaining and continuously improving analytics environment.

4. Integrations and Data Sources

Partners can assist in setting up and aligning eazyBI with other Atlassian Marketplace apps for Jira or external data sources, ensuring comprehensive reporting that reflects the complete picture.

5. License Management

Partners help to manage eazyBI licenses, ensuring customers have tailored license tiers to meet their organizational needs. By closely assessing the organization's current requirements and future growth potential, partners provide flexibility and scalability in licensing.

6. In-person, On-site Guidance

eazyBI partners offer direct, in-person consultancy, facilitating better communication, faster problem resolution, and tailored solutions. This personalized and responsive service fits client-specific workflows, timeframes, and needs.

7. Bridge Language and Cultural Barriers

Local partners play a crucial role in facilitating seamless integration of eazyBI into businesses. Their proficiency in the native language and understanding of the local business culture enables effective support and training for customers. This results in a more straightforward adoption process, leading to increased user engagement and smoother implementation.

8. Additional Support Services

eazyBI partners offer additional support services, including on-site meetings and Zoom consultations, to ensure customers receive ongoing assistance. It contributes to a more seamless experience, enhancing the client's ability to navigate challenges and optimize their use of eazyBI.

9. Expert Guidance and Best Practices

Customers benefit from the technical expertise of eazyBI partners, along with their knowledge of optimal workflows and reporting structures. By leveraging the guidance of eazyBI partners, customers can streamline analytics processes and make informed decisions based on industry-proven methodologies.

10. Strategic Planning and Roadmap Development

eazyBI partners play a crucial role in helping customers formulate strategic plans and roadmaps for their analytics journey. Understanding organizational goals and challenges, partners provide valuable insights, ensuring eazyBI aligns with broader business objectives and fostering long-term success and growth.

Choosing eazyBI partners is a strategic decision that goes beyond simple implementation—it's an investment in unlocking the full potential of eazyBI. Customers benefit from tailored solutions, accelerated onboarding, expert guidance, specialized training, strategic planning, and active community engagement. By partnering with eazyBI experts, organizations can confidently navigate the complexities of data analytics, maximizing the value they derive from their eazyBI investment.

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Top 8 Conferences We Love to Attend

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2023-12-14T00:00:00Z

Amidst morning routines and the first sips of coffee, a familiar ping signals a new message in the company's Slack channel.

—“Hey, greetings from the airport; I'm going to the RailsWorld 2023!” A picture in the Slack channel shows Jānis B. with a wide grin. A selfie from the Riga airport (or bus station) is a tradition of the eazyBI team whenever someone goes on a business trip.
—“Oh, pity, you are going alone!” Ilze believes the parallel “discussion track” among team members who also attend the conference is as important as the official agenda.
—“From time to time, it is good to be alone at a conference,” eazyBI founder Raimonds adds his opinion on the channel.
—“Yes, it is cool! You can experience the conference better!” Jānis V is known for his habit of attending events alone or in very small groups to have a better chance of meeting with other attendees worldwide.
—“No, it is not cool,” Jānis J, as always, keeps his thoughts short, and his answer ends the discussion.

This casual discussion was not groundbreaking; it was a relaxed chat among colleagues about things they were well used to. We are past the discussions about whether it is worth going to conferences; now, we just do it. Developers, support consultants, designers, marketing managers, or administrative assistants—everyone is encouraged to attend events regularly to absorb new ideas, shape their knowledge, and then share and discuss what they learned with others. Sometimes, we organize "watch parties" for online conferences and comment on those sessions live.

Sure, attending conferences involves costs—travel expenses, time away from regular work, conference fees, and more, especially when a part of the team goes together. However, looking back, we can see that many events and presentations helped to structure and formulate our working principles and approaches. Of course, conference talks are not textbooks. Instead, you can find a lot of inspiration and ideas. Sometimes, a catchy phrase or meme helps you formulate the thoughts that have been circulating within the team. Later, when discussed with colleagues, those ideas might become a guideline or principle we all adopt and follow. For example, one of eazyBI principles is celebrating team success over individual achievement because “The team is the unicorn”. A unicorn theme from one presentation interlocked with our belief that no flying heroes can beat a hard-working team.

To encourage you to go out and meet like-minded people all around the world and get inspired, here is a list of eight conferences and seminars we have loved and most probably would attend again (or already have been there several times). See you there?

1. RailsConf

eazyBI is built on the Ruby on Rails framework. We maintain and constantly develop the code base created ten years ago. We’re proud to be able to keep it up-to-date with the newest versions. RailsConf is one of the conferences that let us keep up with the framework and language development, stay in touch with the community, and meet the Rails and Ruby core team and creators.

“This is the largest Ruby on Rails conference. From time to time, it’s great to get this huge community feeling. I like to watch recordings from recent years, so it’s good to have them available.” Jānis Baiža, eazyBI software developer

2. ElevateCX

Customer support conference that almost all eazyBI support members have attended. It helps to reaffirm our existing practices and build eazyBI support excellence. It highlights customer support's crucial and significant role in maintaining the company’s client base. It’s also pleasant that the conference is relatively small and very friendly.

“My primary goal was to engage with other industry professionals, hear about their customer-centric experiences, learn about the tools contributing to their success, and I found exactly what I sought. The workshops inspired me to view myself not only as a customer support specialist but also as an individual passionate about my work and the fulfillment it brings. It also gave me assurance that the eazyBI support team is on the right track when it comes to our customers!” Elita Kalāne, eazyBI customer support

eazyBI support team at ElevateCX conferences throughout the years

3. SmashingConf

The most-loved conference by our front-end developers and designers. There is great content throughout, excellent workshops, the latest trends, and a lot of examples, tips, and tricks on how to impact product usability. The key person of the conference is Vitaly Friedman, the SmashingConf founder, who has unimaginable knowledge and examples to answer almost all audience questions. Even with vast experience in the field, you can always learn many shocking news. Also, the conference starts with a 5k morning run, which we love to do as a team.

“I saw Vitaly in UX Riga conference 8 years ago. And since then I’ve been following his apperances on various conferences. I would consider the chance to listen to his speeches all over again. He knows how to maintain audience interest and engagement and there is always something new and exciting to take away.” Jānis Celms, eazyBI designer

4. RubyKaigi

RubyKaigi is one of the top Ruby programming conferences. Ruby programming language was created by Japanese developer Yukihiro Matsumoto (also known as Matz), and the conference is held in various cities across Japan. The conference is all about Ruby. There are no soft talks like in many other similar events. This is a technical conference; thus, the audience is mainly Ruby developers. Usually, there are also some presentations about JRuby, which we are very much interested in as eazyBI is running using JRuby.

“RubyKaigi is a very special conference. It’s held in Ruby homeland—Japan and is always opened by Ruby language author Matz. There is a pannel discussion for a Ruby language board, where they look through the issue list. Besides the latest news announcements, you can witness how the decisions of language’s further development are taken. It’s a developers world there. A great mingle of the Ruby developers around the world that nowhere else could be experienced.” Gatis Tomsons, eazyBI software developer

An additional bonus: if you fit a bicycle in your luggage, you can be your own driver from the airport to the conference venue and get to know Japanese culture and people closer.

Jānis Vītums and Gatis Tomsons on the way to RubyKaigi 2023

5. Refresh

Refresh is a relatively new conference organized by our neighbors in Estonia. Focused on product development and UX design, it has inspirational keynotes, presentations, and practical workshops. It had only one onsite gathering in Tallinn before the pandemic; now, it is back in Tartu, hosted in the splendid Estonian National Museum. The conference has a Scandinavian vibe—smooth organization, attention to aesthetic details, and great speakers from well-known companies.

“I attended the only event right before COVID and was afraid that it won’t be back (but it is!). It is one of rare events where the focus is on overall IT product design, from human experience to UX-design to technical solution, trying to answer both questions why? and how?” Ilze Leite-Apine, eazyBI customer support

6. EuRuKo

EuRuKo is Europe's longest-running and biggest Ruby conference, connecting the Ruby community from Europe and beyond. The conference is organized every year in a different European city. The audience decides the next year’s location on the last day of the conference. In 2024, EuRuKo is heading to Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time.

“Like-minded people. The conference format allows for more up-and-coming and less-established speakers. The single track keeps everyone on the same page.” Jānis Vanags, eazyBI software developer

eazyBI dev team attending EuRuKo 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania

7. Write the Docs

Write the Docs is a community that cares about user manuals and documentation. Those are people who love documentation and care to make it user-friendly, understandable, and, most importantly, valuable for users. Apart from conferences on three continents, there is also a community Slack channel and local meet-ups.

“You can read in the books all theories on how to create documentation. However, our readers are real people and their behaviour differ, therefore, shared use cases are an important addition to the theory. The insights unveil the ideas for further improvements—would it work in our case; what adjustments are needed to make it work for us; what results would it bring?” Zane Baranovska, eazyBI customer support

8. Runas Skola

At eayzBI, we do our presentations ourselves, in our not-that-perfect-english and without completely staged speeches. There is not just one spokesperson, but the majority of eazyBI employees (19 out of 30) have taken the stage at our own or partner events. As we do it on top of the main duties, we’ve discovered the wide range of “Runas Skola” (“Speech School”) training and workshops for enhancing public speaking skills. It must be admitted here: it is held in our native Latvian language.

“In early 2020, I attended the Runas Skola Storytelling workshop to prepare for my first presentation at the eazyBI Community Days. This workshop is fantastic because it’s not related to the IT industry and teaches general storytelling methods and practices. As I was in the beginning of preparing my presentation, my challenge was to make a technical story engaging for an audience unfamiliar with IT and eazyBI. The workshop provided me with key insights on how to structure my stories with an introduction, development, some surprise elements and not to forget about conclusion.” Gerda Grantiņa, eazyBI cusotmer support

This, of course, is not the ultimate list of all conferences the eazyBI team attends. We are open to new experiences and communities where all aspects of building a product, a happy team, and thriving relationships with customers are in focus. Tell us about the events that excite you! Who knows—maybe we'll run into each other there!

Preserving Sun for Long Northern Nights

Jānis Baiža — 2023-12-11T00:00:00Z

During summer, lots of Latvians prepare jams and winter stock to last through the winter. Jānis Baiža, one of the most experienced eazyBI developers, takes it a step further by saving solar energy with solar panels to use in the darker seasons. Read his story on how eazyBI helps to answer the main question: Is it worth it?

Installing Solar Panels: Questions Behind Strategic Investment

A few years back, I thought about using greener electricity and decided to get solar panels for my home. The main question was: how long would it take for the investments to pay off? My initial calculations did not match the promised timeframe of 6 to 8 years, so I did more accurate computations. Using my Ruby programming skills, I analyzed my household electricity bills based on hourly market prices. I found out that it might take 15 to 25 years to pay off, depending on the provider and investment. With some additional encouragement from the seller, we decided to invest and embrace a greener approach to our energy consumption.

As with every investment, you would like to know the actual gain and the time it takes to repay the initial investments. To get more accurate data, we added an intelligent meter to our system to see instant energy generation/consumption and get data snapshots every five minutes. I combined those data with the hourly electricity market price from Nord Pool to convert power kWh (kilowatt-hours) to actual costs.
Additionally, I needed to calculate how much the same amount of consumed electricity would cost without panels installed.

Preparing data

You can try to calculate and interpret a few lines manually, which I did the first few months. It got more challenging as months passed, so I did the most obvious thing for the eazyBI employee—I decided to use eazyBI.

Before importing data into eazyBI, I used the Phyton programming language to prepare data for further analysis, as merging those two sources (i.e., data from the Solar Panel and market prices) was challenging.

In my app, I tracked how much power we generated, consumed, and sent back to the grid. I also retrieved data on electricity I bought from the market and combined this information with the electricity hourly market prices. Based on that, I calculated the total amount paid and the amount I would pay if I did not have my own solar energy. Looking back, I might have skipped the precalculations and used eazyBI to import data directly, but as they say, "If it works, do not touch it!". I learned firsthand that preparing and mapping data are usually the most complex steps in reporting.

I created a custom eazyBI data import from my Python app via REST API, initially only in my local development environment. Later, to share my insights with my colleagues, I moved it to the eazyBI Cloud public account; creating and using the eazyBI Cloud public plan is completely free for everyone!

As you can see from the import mapping screen, I imported all numbers as Measures tied to the Time dimension and invented the Hours dimension, as all electricity rates were hourly based.

Data mapping is a trial-and-error process; for instance, I do not use some of the imported measures in my reports. However, the documentation has a guide on how to do it.

How long can I live with my solar energy?

When I had data for a more extended period, one question I tried to answer using eazyBI reports was: What is the generated and consumed electricity ratio? Or, in other words, how long can I live using Solar Panel energy?

Here, let me explain how we "store" solar energy in Latvia. One way is to accumulate the energy in the power grid. In reality, it means that the generated but unused electricity is pushed into the network and later taken back from the network when we need additional electricity, for example, during night hours. We only pay to transfer the electricity back from the grid. Once I have used my generated and accumulated energy, I start buying it from the market. The tricky part is that the accumulated amount is zeroed on the 1st of March (previously—1st of April), and then counting begins from zero.

So, I created a report comparing two primary measures: daily generated and consumed electricity.

I needed a way to tell eazyBI to start new cumulative calculations every April (now March). The eazyBI founder Raimonds suggested using a Time dimension Fiscal hierarchy, and it worked.

First, I plotted both measures on the timeline across my "fiscal" year to see when my consumed electricity (dark blue line in the chart below) exceeds the generated amount (red line). Also, I used the standard calculation option “Time ago” to compare data with the previous year (light blue and pink lines in the chart).

The results were not a surprise for me—by mid-September when the daylight gets shorter and electricity is also needed for heating, my household consumes more energy than solar panels generate. It was the same last year.

Using another standard calculation—"Cumulative sum"—I compared the cumulative generated (light blue dotted line) and consumed energy (pink dotted line) to see when I had to start buying power from the market.

Last year, it was at the end of December; the same seems to be the case this year as well. So, using the option to preserve sunlight in the electricity grid, I can rely on my own electricity for almost three more months.

Household energy-consuming pattern

eazyBI reports also gave me insight into the electricity usage in my household throughout the year. I compared generated (dark blue columns in the chart below) and bought power (yellow columns) with actual consumption (red line).

As you can see, the peak of consumed energy is during the winter months. That’s when our heating system (a heat pump) uses the most power, aside from lights and home appliances. Even though solar panels are ineffective in autumn and winter, I depend entirely on the market energy only during January. In December, stored energy is still used; in February, the sun slowly gets back. Looking at the chart, I am mentally prepared for higher electricity bills for four upcoming months, but I will be fully back on my solar energy in April!

Unveiling the Payback Period

Let's revisit the main question: How long will it take to repay my solar panel system?

For that, I made another report that shows just numbers. I used a Gauge chart with the "Values only" option.

I created a custom calculation for the payback period. It is based on the initial investment divided by the difference between the amount paid for the energy and the potential costs incurred without solar panels. All prices include not only the electricity rates but also additional fees that are specific to our country's legislation. If you want to retract my exact calculations, please get in touch with support@eazybi.com!

Right now, it looks like it'll take about ten years to pay back. It is impacted by many factors, from how much sun we get in a particular year to the electricity prices in the market. More sun means more electricity generated; higher electricity price means more money saved using electricity generated by Solar Panels.

My Takeaway

There are no fast returns on Solar Panel investment; however, even knowing the numbers before installing them, I would go for it again. First of all, solar panels are a way for individuals to decrease the use of non-renewable energy.

My main goal was to become more independent from external factors regarding energy in my household. When I started the project, the war in Ukraine had not begun, and thus, the following fluctuations in the energy market. Knowing all that, I would have invested even more and installed Solar Panels with all the allowed capacity.

Regarding eazyBI reporting, it helps me track the energy generation and consumption ratio and forecast my investment payback. Reports also give me better insight into household electricity usage; I am mentally more prepared when winter comes.

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A Decade With eazyBI: Meet Jānis Vītums

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2023-11-10T00:00:00Z

Two years ago, eazyBI celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Jānis Vītums, the first employee who joined eazyBI founder Raimonds, recently marked his 10th year at the company.

In 2013, Jānis, a full stack Ruby on Rails developer, switched his career from a large IT corporation to work in the then one-man company—eazyBI.

The main benefit of this change was the opportunity for remote work that Jānis was actively looking for. Remote work was not so self-evident then as it is now, after the pandemic. In the beginning, together with Raimonds, they did everything themselves: wrote code, tested the product, and supported customers.

Since this summer, Jānis has taken on a new challenge. Being a developer for decades, he now works as a full-time eazyBI technical support, where his product knowledge, experience, and empathy are priceless.

Jānis during the eazyBI adventures in 2021 and 2023. He loves outdoor activities—cycling, kayaking— and often involves colleagues in them

While he enjoys working from home, cultural fit with the company’s values is the main reason why he is still here—no bullshit, open communication, and transparency. Actually, Jānis himself is a part of eazyBI culture and a lot of things we now consider as a norm were invented (or strongly backed) by him.

Developers rotation in customer support. When the eazyBI team grew, the need for all developers to participate in regular customer support decreased. To stay in line with customers, Jānis encouraged the “all hands support” approach and suggested regular 2-week-long developer shifts in eazyBI customer support (idea inspired by 37signals). While not all developers are as enthusiastic about the support shifts as Jānis, this habit has become integral to our work routine. Now that Jānis has entirely switched to technical support, the regular support shifts for developers are shorter; it seems to be a win-win solution for customers and some programmers.

Jānis (in the middle) supporting eazyBI customers during eazyBI Community Days 2023 in Riga

Active knowledge-share. During the team retrospective, several colleagues mentioned that they eagerly awaited Jānis's insights from Uncle Bob’s book “Clean Code” during the weekly developer meetings, as it always led to great discussions. Jānis advocates for going to conferences, challenging ideas, and teaching and mentoring as an essential part of the profession. A few years ago, he was one of the first eazyBI volunteers (as a part of the Pledge 1% foundation) in the Learn IT community to teach programming skills to Latvian school teachers; today, other developers are also participating in this program. Jānis is taking it further by being a part of the Riga TechGirls mentorship program.

Jānis at the StartIT teacher mentoring program in 2020

MDX formula editor auto-complete function. As Jānis was active in customer support, he noticed how embarrassing and error-prone it was to write custom calculation formulas. Spelling typos and remembering exact measure names to use in formulas was a pain for customers and also for his support colleagues. While the backlog was crowded with potential features at the time, during the internal hackathon, he (together with another developer, Jānis Justaments) built and demonstrated the first prototype of an improved editor, and soon, nobody could imagine how we even survived without the auto-complete!

eazyBI morning 5k runs started when only Jānis and Raimonds were in eazyBI. Now we do various morning activities—run, walk, do yoga or gym sessions—whenever we are together in Latvia or abroad. We even invite our customers to join our morning run during eazyBI Community Days!

Jānis with the eazyBI team after running 5k in the Riga Marathon in 2019. On the same day, he had already completed 21k, which is why he got two medals

The phrase “Be the change you seek” is the one we know Jānis by, and sometimes, it may sound nagging. However, we know that Jānis always is the first to follow this rule.

Jānis during eazyBI Community Days 2023 in Riga

Roommate Rumble: Navigating Decisions with Data and Heart

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2023-11-06T00:00:00Z

Nowadays, data-driven decision-making isn't just a buzzword; it's a fundamental driving force behind the success of businesses, projects, and teams. Navigating business decisions can be as tricky as choosing a new, unpredictable roommate. Meet Ray and Di, our eazyBi comic-style cats, who have embarked on a mission to find a new roommate. Their decision-making process is strictly data-driven; however, when it comes to the decision itself, your heart has a say. Through Ray and Di’s adventures, you'll discover the power of data analysis and learn how to use it.

The Art of Asking Questions

In a world saturated with information, the art of asking the right questions is key to getting valuable insights. There is no set of universal questions that can cover all bases. Yes, industry best practices can lead you there, yet leave those general questions from textbooks aside for a moment.

Cat Di had to admit to her friend Ray that she was planning kittens, and the economic factor was also important when choosing the essential traits for the new roommate. Be introspective and ask yourself from all your heart, "What challenges does my team face now, and what are the true goals we have to meet?" Look for down-to-earth questions, honestly observing what matters in your team: start with finding bottlenecks or communication gaps leading to poorly tested releases or what is behind the burnout of team members, and set goals to overcome that before moving forward.

Also, think what would be the best place where you would look for proofs and records to find insights on those questions. Jira and Confluence are excellent tools to track your work, and, most probably, the answers you are looking for are hiding within Jira issues. However, could it be that there is a humble Excel or Google sheet file where crucial pieces of information are stored (even against the company’s standards)? Often, it's the unconventional questions, backed by specific data, that lead to breakthroughs.

Data, Reports, and Your Intuition

Reports are your allies in the quest for data-driven decisions. They provide a clear snapshot of the situation, showcasing bottlenecks, trends, and progress. However, they can not say how exactly to deal with the situation they represent or how to achieve the forecasted progress. Di had to choose between the best matches the report advised; your human responsibility is to decide what to do next.

Steve Jobs once said, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward”, adding that you have to trust yourself–your professionalism, instincts, and beliefs–to deal with the situation when making decisions for the future. Past experiences, essentially data, can inform you about what has happened; reports perfectly show the consequences of all previous decisions. Still, the responsibility to take the next bold step is only yours.

Reports as Compass in Decision-Making

You may wonder why reports and data analytics still matter if they don't prevent you from making questionable decisions or taking ineffective steps. Instead, they give you fast feedback on where you have got, and, as a compass, they show you possible paths. The good and bad news: you will never know if another decision would be better, as you can never travel the road not taken. Yet you can be sure you will always know where you are if you ask for answers from your trustful reporting system. Ultimately, eazyBI is built firmly believing in the “measure, do not guess!” approach.

Di chose her roommate based on data and following her heart; watch the video to find out her decision! And stay tuned for Di and Ray’s further adventures!

We were inspired by Eric Rowell and his Dog Breed Chart; he also shared open-source data of the chart. We transferred data to the eazyBI app to add functionality to the original chart. To learn more about how we did that, watch our colleague Gerda Grantiņa presenting "All Paws on Deck: Discover Data Mapping".

Join eazyBI at Partner Events This Autumn

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2023-09-11T00:00:00Z

Hey there, data enthusiasts! 📊

We hope you are excited about the upcoming autumn season. At eazyBI, we're thrilled to announce that we'll be participating in several Atlassian ecosystem events this autumn, organized by our partners, and we just couldn't wait to share our enthusiasm with you.

5 Reasons You Shouldn't Miss Out!

So, why should you attend these events (besides all obvious business reasons) and seize the opportunity to meet us there? Well, here are five compelling reasons:

1. Real Stories, Real Knowledge

At eazyBI, we're all about sharing real stories. We don't just promote our products; we dive deep into the world of data analysis and reporting based on our own experiences and those of our customers. We try to keep our presentations practical, with useful insights into how you can make the most of the eazyBI reporting app. You won't hear marketing jargon; you'll get valuable, applicable knowledge from eazyBI experts.

2. Direct Access to Our Experts

Wondering why something isn't working as expected? Do you have a burning question about the eazyBI reporting app? Well, here's the opportunity to get answers directly from the source! Our customer support and development team representatives will be available to assist you. While we can't guarantee instant solutions for everything, a real-life conversation can often provide the spark needed to move forward.

3. Connect with Real People

Behind the "customer" label are real humans with unique interests, challenges, passions, and needs. We love connecting with you on a personal level and getting to know the faces behind the data. After all, real people create our product, and we're eager to show you the human side of eazyBI! Just come along to stop by and say “Hi!” to us!

4. Have a Say in Our Products

Your voice matters! Many of the features and improvements in our reporting tool were born out of conversations at events just like these. So, attending gives you a real chance to shape the future of eazyBI. We genuinely look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas.

5. Get Inspired

Even if you're not looking for a new reporting app, you're welcome to join us to discuss Jira data analysis and reporting. We're data analysis fans at heart and believe meaningful connections and conversations can lead to groundbreaking ideas.

Meet Our Team at the Events

Now that you know why our team is so excited about these upcoming events, let's give you the details:

ACA Team Up 2023 (September 12, Antwerp, Belgium). Zane and Gerda from eazyBI customer support will be there and share how to stay on track and ensure timely completion of version readiness using eazyBI reporting and dashboards.
ProgrezCon 2023 (September 20, Jakarta, Indonesia). Raimonds, CEO of eazyBI, and Nauris from customer support will be in this Atlassian Jira Service Management-related event and showcase how to bridge gaps in data to deliver great end-to-end service using eazyBI reports and dashboards.
Deviniti Jira Day '23 (October 17-18, Krakow, Poland). In this two-day event, one of the most experienced eazyBI support consultants, Mārtiņš, will share how important communication is between customer and team to deliver excellent service and how to use eazyBI reports and charts as a foundation for clear conversation. Meanwhile, Oskars, also an eazyBI support consultant, will demonstrate how to explore data and find surprising discoveries.
Trundl JiraCon23 (October 4, online). This 3rd annual Atlassian Community virtual event allows you to connect from all around the globe. Zane, Ilze, and Elita from the support team will be in the virtual eazyBI booth to chat with you, and Ilze will share reporting needs and solutions with eazyBI regarding Jira Works Management.
Nimble Evolution Experience 2023 (November 29 - December 1, Sao Paulo, Brazil). Right before the Holiday season, Ilze and Mārtiņš from support and Lauma from the dev team will be open to talk about reporting in this 3-day event. While we usually speak with customers in English, Lauma can showcase tips and tricks for using eazyBI reporting in Portuguese!
Atlas Camp (December 04-05 Copenhagen, Denmark) is back! We’re excited that Atlassian’s flagship developer event has returned. With the main theme Mission: Accelerate, it is an event to bring the developer community together and explore new ways of building apps for today’s Marketplace. Look closely at the agenda and find out what Raimonds (eazyBI founder and CEO) is going to share with the community!
Atlassian Presents: Unleash (December 11-12, Amsterdam, Netherlands). eazyBI team —Daina (development), Svetlana (marketing), Raimonds (founder and CEO), and Roberts (support)—are going to be part of this biggest DevOps and Agile event of the year. Come to our booth for insightful reporting discussions, expert tips, and advice!

Don't miss these fantastic opportunities to connect, learn, and grow with us this autumn. Mark your calendars, pack your enthusiasm, and prepare for some unforgettable experiences in the world of data analysis and reporting.

See you there!

Discover eazyBI 7.0: Empowering Analytics and Fun

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2023-07-20T00:00:00Z

Welcome to the world of eazyBI 7.0, where our motto, "Simple things easy, complex things possible," shines through. New measures, conditional alerts, or chart option markers offer more simplicity for everyday tasks, while powerful capabilities such as custom Time hierarchies tackle complex data analysis challenges. The integration of ClickHouse ensures improved performance even with large amounts of data, while the comic style adds a touch of excitement to your data exploration. Let's dive into the key features that make eazyBI 7.0 special!

If you are an eazyBI user on Jira Cloud, you have already seen and, hopefully, tried those new things. Share your experience on how you use them within the eazyBI community!

Information in the Right Place and the Right Time

In the latest eazyBI version, we shifted a focus on essential data accessible when and where it is most needed. Trustable, structured, and concentrated information is the basis of data-driven decision-making, regardless of your role in the team and the tools you use for day-to-day tasks. Email is always with you on your phone or laptop, and timely eazyBI reports directly in your inbox give you crucial insight even without opening the eazyBI app.

Conditional Alerts: Essential Information at Your Fingertips

Gone are the days of manually monitoring reports for important updates. With eazyBI 7.0, users can set up conditional alerts to receive essential information when and where they need it. Conditional formatting has long been a valuable tool in eazyBI, allowing users to highlight data based on predefined rules. With Conditional Alerts, we've taken this feature to the next level. Now, you can easily set up alerts that trigger based on specific conditions, ensuring that you receive notifications in your inbox whether it's a critical metric crossing a threshold, or a specific condition being met.

eazyBI is a non-real-time reporting tool that pushes alerts after data refresh; still, you can stay ahead of the game with notifications delivered straight to your inbox!

Dashboard Email Subscription in Admins Hands

One of the new features often asked by our customers is the ability to set up eazyBI dashboard email subscriptions on behalf of other account users or user groups, extending the reach of essential information beyond individual eazyBI users. Now, administrators have the power to configure email subscriptions for the CEO, entire teams, or specific groups. Thus structured and concentrated information reaches decision-makers directly in their inbox, even if their main responsibilities are far from creating reports and using analytical tools like eazyBI.

The Power of Seamless Information Flow

Those two powerful features combined allow you to create a well-balanced information network throughout your team or organization. Stay in tune with regular and less frequent updates, conveniently delivered through dashboard email subscriptions, and receive timely alerts for critical insights. And all this information is in your inbox! Say goodbye to information overload and ensure you never miss out on what truly matters.

Unlocking New Productivity Metrics with "Days Assigned" and “Workdays Assigned”

Measuring productivity and finding bottlenecks has always been one of the main tasks for project reporting. eazyBI 7.0 introduces a few new measures - "Days Assigned" and “Workdays Assigned”. These powerful metrics can help you calculate how long each person took to finish their part of the task, measured in days or workdays.

Use them alone or with other eazyBI metrics to gain valuable insights into the performance of team members and optimize resource allocation. Armed with this data, you can make data-driven decisions to boost productivity and streamline your workflow.

Master Your Own Time with the Custom Time Hierarchies

eazyBI 7.0 revolutionizes timeline reporting for seasoned data analysts by introducing a Time dimension custom hierarchy feature. Build your Time hierarchy that meets the unique needs of how you want to do reporting over time. Whether it's analyzing data by days, weeks, months, and quarters in the same report (did you notice that weeks and months now can be used in the same hierarchical structure that was not available before?) or starting each period on the 15th day of the month, eazyBI empowers you to do the reporting based on the temporal patterns or date formats used in your company or region.

Custom Time hierarchies are from the “complex things possible” part of eazyBI, and some scripting skills will be needed to define your customized hierarchies. However, do it once and enable it for everyone across your company’s reporting. As always, eazyBI support will help you with that!

Improved Performance for Large Data Volumes with ClickHouse OLAP DWH Database

eazyBI 7.0 takes performance to new heights by integrating the ClickHouse OLAP DWH database. ClickHouse is a leading open-source analytical database that significantly improves analytical SQL query performance from DWH tables. This integration allows you to analyze vast amounts of data without compromising the speed or quality of your analysis.

We have always recommended splitting data into smaller accounts for large Jira instances to maintain fast and smooth reporting. While creating smaller accounts is still our suggestion for organizing team-level reporting, now eazyBI can handle company-wide reporting, which requires importing all data into one account. When using ClickHouse as an OLAP DWH database, additional data synchronization to the ClickHouse database is performed to improve query performance after importing source data in the account DWH tables. The seamless integration with ClickHouse empowers eazyBI to ensure fast response times and smoother user experiences in large accounts. We already use this solution in eazyBI Cloud for larger accounts, and it has proven its value! Read how to set this solution for your eazyBI database!

Chart Option Markers: Smooth Report Maintenance

Small changes can improve the whole report building and maintenance experience. While wide customization options allow creating supersmart-looking charts, maintaining them becomes increasingly complex. Chart option markers allow you to see at a glance which options are used to build this chart, helping you to maintain it or reuse this nice-looking view in other reports.

Finding Answers is Exciting: Have Fun with Comic Style

eazyBI believes that building reports and finding answers to questions should be an exciting and engaging experience. Initially, we introduced this playful comic style for our internal fun and then shared it with Jira Cloud users as a Fool’s Day surprise. After positive customer feedback, we included it as a permanent feature in eazyBI 7.0 to add a touch of creativity and enjoyment to your data exploration journey.

Learn more about all the new features and bug fixes in the eazyBI 7.0 changelog.

Why Attend eazyBI Community Days 2023?

Svetlana Avene-Avenina — 2023-05-10T00:00:00Z

eazyBI Community Days - the place for our customers, partners, and community members to come together and get involved with inspirational and educational content, industry-shaping news, and innovative practices from eazyBI experts.

This year, we are returning to offline format and encourage you and your team to join us for eazyBI Community Days 2023, on May 18-19, 2023, in Riga, Latvia, for engaging keynotes, customer use cases, hands-on webinars, and networking.

This is your chance to learn more about eazyBI's capabilities and future plans, including features such as issue cycles, custom fields, data mapping, MDX queries, smart reports, reporting in multi-dimensional data cubes, and much more. Get a glimpse of what's in store for eazyBI and discover where we've been, where we're headed, and what you can expect from eazyBI in the near future. Check out the Agenda for eCD23!

Why Attending eazyBI Community Days 2023 Would Benefit You?

Attendees, customers, and partners gain the best eazyBI knowledge in the industry through:

Innovative sessions and workshops that cover various topics and different skill levels, including both high-level roadmaps and deep-dive technical sessions.
Exciting stories from eazyBI customers and partners who will share their challenges and successes using eazyBI.
Hands-on training and workshops will equip you with new knowledge and practical skills.
Direct access to eazyBI experts to help answer any questions you have.
A fun staff program that is perfect for both individual attendees and teams, allowing you to plan, bond, share learnings, and collaborate together.
Riga sightseeing tours, walk through the old town, and morning runs down the riverside, combining your conference experience with healthy lifestyle activities that will take your experience to the next level.

Networking

During the event, you can use our dedicated Slack virtual discussion chat to share your thoughts with other attendees. You can also ask your questions out loud or use Slido to ask them. During the networking sessions and coffee breaks, you'll have the opportunity to exchange ideas with other eazyBI enthusiasts and ask your questions to eazyBI experts.

Fun Stuff

We're hosting a river cruise complete with snacks, drinks and entertainment. During the cruise, you'll take in views of Riga's Old Town, the National Library of Latvia, the Riga Central Market, and other iconic landmarks along the riverbanks. It is fun and relaxing way to spend an evening in beautiful Riga.

We invite you to join us for a morning run down the beautiful Daugava riverside and enjoy the breathtaking scenery. Running in the morning offers a unique experience, providing a fresh start to the day and an opportunity to invigorate both the body and mind.

If running isn't for you, you can join us for a walk through Riga's Old Town. The Old Town is a charming and historic neighborhood and walking tours of the area are a popular way to explore its winding streets and beautiful architecture.

Join The eazybi Community Days 2023 - Remote And Discover The Latest Features From Anywhere!

If you are unable to attend the eazyBI Community Days 2023 in person to learn, collaborate, and engage in our various onsite activities, you can still enjoy a similar experience by exploring the latest eazyBI features and user case studies online at eazyBI Community Day 2023 - Remote while sipping on your favorite coffee in a comfortable location. Take your time, check the agenda, and register!

Follow #eCD23 On Social Media

One of the best ways to keep up to date with all eazyBI Community Days 2023 offer is by using #eCD23 on your favourite social media channels. Join the conversation or just follow along to see what's happening throughout the event. Don’t forget to share your experience with others by using the #eCD23 and posting picture to your social media page.

If you needed any extra motivation to register for eazyBI Community Days 2023, this should be it!

The agenda is available so you can start planning your experience.

Join eazyBI Community Days 2023 or eazyBI Community Days 2023 - Remote to experience all the exciting things we have planned for you!

eazyBI Four-Legged Co-workers: How to Choose Your Ideal Dog

Gerda Grantiņa — 2022-12-12T00:00:00Z

Working in a remote company (like eazyBI) is excellent! I do not need to spend morning hours in traffic; instead, I get to give extra hugs to my pets. Pets are great entertainers who can help to reduce stress, relax the mind and increase productivity. Also, they can be very patient listeners and keep good company, so you never feel lonely at home. In eazyBI, we call our pets our 'four-legged co-workers.' Sometimes, they participate in our team's virtual calls and amuse other colleagues.

In eazyBI, we like to import not-job-related information into our eazyBI app to analyze data just for fun. And yes, if you are still wondering, we have gathered information about our pets.

Meet eazyBI Four-Legged Co-workers

Let's introduce you to our four-legged back office!

We have noticed our colleagues' cats and dogs freely participating in our team calls. But when the data was gathered, we were surprised as it turned out there are also two guinea pigs in the back office. And we have not only fluffy co-workers but also one fish and one edgy hedgehog. Isn't she cute?

We are a company of 26 employees, with 26 pet co-workers – the same number as eazyBI human employees.

More than half of our pets are cats. From the data, you could assume that eazyBI is more of a cat-lover company, but no, we like dogs too. We have seven dogs, and eazyBI CEO Raimonds has two of them – Beta (yes, like a beta version for apps) and Elsa (The Falling Star).

A surprise was discovered when we checked our pet's age. The oldest cat 'Murcis' was born approximately in 1997, and he was inherited from the granny. He is 25 years old! The cat owner is joking about passing the cat to his children.

During the last two years, we have had nine new pet co-workers. “Pandemic?” you might ask. But I say we are animal lovers! And also some new humans joined bringing their four-legged colleagues with them.

We can look at names when we look at more detailed information about eazyBI pets.

An adorable pair of guinea pigs have names like my favorite cocktail – 'Gin & Tonic' (Džins & Toniks). And there are two Storms (Vētra) in the company. Only they are very opposite – one is a friendly black dog, and the second is a do-not-touch-me white cat with a judgemental look.

How to Choose Your Ideal Dog?

As The Little Prince (by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) said:

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

So it is a serious decision to have a four-legged co-worker. And if you would like to have one, we have something to help you make a responsible and conscious decision.

When it comes to dogs, there are so many breeds to choose from. Each dog breed has different characteristics – size, friendliness, intelligence, etc. And wouldn't it be easier to select various possible dog features that are important to you and see the best match?

This chart created by Eric Rowell inspired us. He also has shared the open-source data of his chart. To add a little bit more functionality to the original chart, we transferred it to the eazyBI app. So we imported the data and developed a Choose Your Ideal Dog Report to help you find your best-matching dog breed. You can filter the breeds by the features you find important.

You can see a picture of the dog breed and read more about it if you select a name and option <Go to source>, which will lead to a related Wikipedia page (if there is any).

Another option to pick the best matching breed is to use this report. Please open it and drag and drop the features in the table header based on your preference. The Ranking is calculated by summing up the first five features in the table so place your top 5 features in the beginning. The report is ordered by this rank and is displaying the top 10 values.

While playing around with this data, an interesting observation was made. If you check dog size and friendliness, then there seems to be a correlation that bigger dogs are friendlier. Though we all know that correlation does not represent all real-life cases.

Create Reports Based on Your Data

If you are inspired to create your own reports based on your four-legged colleague's data, favorite cocktails, or other data, install the eazyBI app and upload your data source, create reports and share them with your team or us.

In my use case, I used Google Sheets to gather information as it allows everyone in the team to update the data source easily when a new co-worker joins. After the information was gathered I added Google Sheets as a source to import data into eazyBI.

eazyBI allows importing data from various data sources: Jira, Confluence, Monday, Google Sheets, REST API (this I used to import data about dog breeds), CSV files, and other data sources as well. While there are native integrations where eazyBI understands the data model of the application and creates the cube with its relations automatically, eazyBI also allows creating your own data model by mapping data columns to eazyBI data cube.

Have you used eazyBI in ingenious ways to analyze data? Share your story with the eazyBI community.

Greetings from the eazyBI Four-Legged Back Office!

Our Secure Road to SOC 2 Certification

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2022-11-07T00:00:00Z

Software and Internet security have been my personal interests since the early days of web development thirty years ago. I explored and tested web server vulnerabilities, code injection, brute force attacks, and secure encryption solutions. I once “hacked” a company's network before applying there as an employee. I got the job, including being responsible for security. This was the first “bug bounty” for me.

Later I also learned about IT security governance and audit practices as a member of the ISACA organization and completed a CISA certification. However, I still preferred practical secure software development instead of just performing compliance auditing.

Many years later, when starting eazyBI, security was one of our key priorities. One of the reasons why I like and use the Ruby on Rails framework is that it provides many secure-by-default choices. Security was one of the main criteria for selecting other components for building eazyBI. Using open-source software as your building blocks helps with security as well as anyone can always investigate how it works and if there are any potential vulnerabilities.

Six years ago, in 2016, eazyBI started a bug bounty program at HackerOne. Since my early “white hacker” experience, I have known that there are many different vulnerability types that you might not be aware of. Security researchers specialized in specific areas can help you discover these tricky vulnerabilities in your code. During the first years, we detected several high-priority security bugs thanks to this bug bounty program, and we could fix them before any customers were affected. Later, when Atlassian launched the Marketplace Security Bug Bounty Program on the Bugcrowd platform, we were one of the first participants as we already had the experience and knew the benefits.

Last year Atlassian introduced the Cloud Fortified program for Marketplace apps, and again we were among the first participants. The Cloud Fortified program makes it easier for customers to identify enterprise-ready cloud apps with additional security, reliability, and support requirements. While implementing Cloud Fortified requirements, we introduced new production system availability monitoring and integrity testing solutions. Recently, thanks to these production monitoring checks, we quickly identified a bug in the Atlassian app authentication changes and prevented downtime for all customer instances.

eazyBI has been a cloud-first solution since the beginning. Initially, the majority of our customers were using our server products. In recent years, more customers have been migrating to eazyBI Cloud (or starting on Cloud), and now the Cloud is our primary business. When customers use eazyBI as their business intelligence service, trust their data and rely on eazyBI availability, they want to be sure that we are a trusted partner. A blog post like this is not enough to achieve trust.

SOC 2 has become a “de facto” standard for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers to demonstrate their compliance with security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy best practices. It was a frequent question that customers asked if we were SOC 2 certified. It was a natural next step in our security journey to become a SOC 2 compliant organization.

Traditionally, achieving a security or quality system certification required a lot of time, effort, and “paperwork” and therefore was done just by larger organizations with dedicated quality and security teams that did all the “paperwork”. We didn’t want to get the SOC 2 “badge” as something extra that we do. We wanted to integrate SOC 2 recommended practices in the way how we naturally do everyday business – without doing activities where we do not see any value.

The modern approach to SOC 2 compliance is to use a specialized tool for tracking all policies and controls and automating evidence collection and compliance monitoring. We evaluated several providers and selected Drata as our SOC 2 implementation platform. Drata also helps with guidance on how to proceed with the SOC 2 implementation and audit.

The next major step was to describe all our policies according to SOC 2 requirements. We already were doing the majority of required tasks, but not always they were described in the corresponding policies. This helped us to validate what are our agreed practices as well as identify some gaps that we were not yet doing. I would like to thank my colleague Jānis Plūme, who made most of the effort and coordinated others involved in the process. Janis still performs both Customer Support Consultant and Security Officer duties – we want to integrate security practices into our everyday work and do not want to create a separate security team “behind the locked doors”.

The final step is SOC 2 audit, and we chose Prescient Assurance as our auditors. SOC 2 audit also is more efficient when using a platform like Drata, where access to all necessary data is granted to auditors. Our SOC 2 Type II audit included 3 months monitoring period. You cannot “fake” your compliance just at one moment; you must demonstrate for several months that what you have described in policies is how you work.

The active phase of SOC 2 implementation for us lasted 5 months and 3 months of the audit. Our road to certification was completed on October 26 when we received SOC 2 Type II Report on controls relevant to security, confidentiality, availability, processing integrity, and privacy. If you want to learn more, visit our security page or contact us.

The road to security is never complete, and there might be dangerous turns in the future. Good security practices and controls will help us to steer in the right direction.

Jira Sprint Reports: How to Create Agile Reports in Jira

Janis Gulbis — 2022-10-17T00:00:00Z

Sprint reports are an essential part of any development process. You can identify areas where they need to focus more attention, track progress, identify issues early on, and make quick decisions based on the data. Jira sprint reports are a great way to keep everyone on track and ensure that you complete projects on time.

Jira sprint reports typically come up in review meetings — progress checks and retrospectives. For the former, they help identify challenges that get in the way of achieving set goals. Team members can see where there are lags and address them while the sprint is still ongoing. Regarding retrospective meetings, sprint reports contribute insight that can help improve a team’s approach to subsequent projects.

What Are Jira Sprint Reports?

Jira sprint reports visually represent issues within a sprint (a fixed time period in which teams tackle a set amount of work). To break this down further, issues are pieces of work that undergo workflows until the completion of the full scope of work. Each issue can have subtasks, and each subtask can be assigned to different team members. As time goes by, teams can track parent issues and the subtasks under them for assessment purposes.

With this in mind, it’s important to note that Jira sprint reports only apply to Scrum boards.

Why Do You Need Jira Sprint Reports?

Now that we know how sprint reports work, the next thing to address is the importance of sprint reports for Agile teams.

Enhanced Project Ownership

Jira sprint reports are a significant part of teamwide project ownership and collaboration among individual contributors. They foster collective success by showing how each team member’s work fits into the larger vision.

Better Management of Responsibilities

Sprint charts help teams develop an overview of everyone’s role by indicating issues that require attention. Tasks are assigned with regard to each team member’s area of expertise. As a result, there’s clarity on individual responsibilities to get tasks done in the early stages of a given project.

Improved Workflows and Processes

Jira sprint reports typically come up in review meetings, be they progress checks or retrospectives. For the former, they help identify challenges that get in the way of achieving set goals. Team members can see where there are lags and address them while the sprint is still ongoing. Regarding retrospective meetings, sprint reports contribute insight that can help improve a team’s approach to subsequent projects.

Types of Jira Reports for Sprint Analysis

There are many types of Jira reports for sprint analysis. Reports can include issues, tasks, defects, risks, and issues with dependencies. Let's review some of the most popular Jira sprint report types:

Sprint burndown reports
Sprint velocity reports
Sprint control charts
Cumulative flow charts

Sprint Burndown Charts

To measure the success of a sprint, it is important to track the progress made. A sprint burndown report is a great way to do this.

A sprint burndown chart illustrates all the tasks completed during the sprint and how much time was spent on each one. This information allows team members to see where their time was spent and whether or not they are on track to complete their assigned tasks.

Sprint burndown charts are characterized by a slope that declines over the sprint’s duration (x-axis) with story points on the vertical (y-axis).

By tracking the progress made daily, teams can ensure that they are making maximum use of their time and are moving forward towards their burndown goals.

Sprint Velocity Reports

The sprint velocity chart displays the average amount of work a scrum team completes during a sprint. It comes in handy when deciding how much time to allocate for work in the future based on past indicators of work completed over multiple sprints. Generally, more sprints offer better forecasts, as there’s more data to go by.

Sprint velocity charts are easy to read and understand. Each pair of gray and green bars on the x-axis represent previous sprints completed by the team. The gray bar shows committed story points in the sprint when it begins. The green bar shows the total completed story point when the sprint ends. Any changes made after the sprint has started will not be added to the gray “Story points committed” column but will be included in the green “Story points completed” column.

Sprint Control Charts

A Control Chart helps you identify whether data from the current sprint can be used to determine future performance. The less variance in the cycle time of an issue, the higher the confidence in using the mean (or median) as an indication of future performance.

The Control Chart shows the Cycle Time (or the Lead Time) for your product, version, or sprint. It takes the time spent by each issue in a particular status (or statuses), and maps it over a specified period of time. For each date the chart shows the average (red line), rolling average (blue line), and standard deviation (the grey area).

Cumulative Flow Diagram

The cumulative flow diagram shows the statuses of issues over time in an area chart. This helps you identify potential bottlenecks that need to be investigated. The bottlenecks are can be spotted if the area in the flow diagram starts to widen over time.

The horizontal x-axis in a cumulative flow diagram indicates time, and the vertical y-axis indicates issues. Each colored area of the chart equates to a workflow status.

How to create sprint reports in Jira

First, remember that sprint reports are specific to boards and will, therefore, only capture issues as defined by the saved filters in use within a given board.

Sprint reports are inherently two-dimensional graphs. The vertical (y) axis will display story points. Think of these as subjective units of measurement showing the effort needed to complete a task compared to other tasks in the sprint. You can choose to view hours rather than story points if you like.

On the other hand, the horizontal(x) axis indicates the time in days, weeks, or months.

Issues can either be marked as “Done” or “To Do.” For an issue to be considered still in progress, it will be mapped to the leftmost board column. To be considered done, it will be mapped to the column on the farthest right side of the board.

Now, to create a sprint report:

Go to the board you want to analyze;
Click on Reports, and select Sprint Report;
Select the required sprint from the sprint drop-down.

Limitations of Jira Reports and Dashboards

Jira provides a set of built-in customizable reports to give you an overview of your work. Having some of these standard reports at your fingertips is convenient. If you’ve tried to use Jira reports, you probably already know that the built-in report configuration and customization options are very limited. Essentially you can only change or select one board, choose the time period, and select or unselect certain issue statuses or issue types depending on a chart. This leaves something to be desired.

What if you need more?

More report customization;
Ability to change colors or labels;
Change a chart type;
Compare time periods or sprint side by side;
Analyze team or user workloads;
Calculate average velocity over all projects and teams;
Share your reports outside Jira and Confluence;
Filter report and dashboard data on the fly;
Or add your own calculations...

This is where Jira reporting apps like eazyBI came in.

Advanced Sprint Reports With eazyBI

eazyBI for Jira removes all reporting limits and enables you to analyze any data that Jira can provide. It brings new dimensions, metrics, charts, calculations, and unlimited customization options for Jira analysis and beyond. And all that within Jira, without needing any other external tools.

eazyBI is an extremely flexible and useful app. It certainly takes your Jira reporting to an advanced level. Anything from lowest details to a high profile interactive executive dashboards can be built seamlessly. On top of this, you will be able to perform any calculations and derive any insights not only from literally every Jira field, but also combine and map them to multiple sources of data. Their support is top-notch!

~ Alex Surkov, Deloitte

Sprint Story Point Balance

With the sprint story point balance report you can have an overview of the overall "discipline" within a sprint. Some of the details you can capture include:

Sprint Story Points committed. This displays the total story points from issues assigned in the selected sprint when it was started. Story points are counted from issues, whether or not they were completed at the start of the sprint.
Sprint Story Points added, and Sprint Story Points removed. These measures indicate that the sprint's scope was changed after the sprint started.
Sprint Story Points change. This measure indicates the changes in story points after they were added to a sprint when it was already active.
Sprint Story Points completed. This measure indicates all the story points completed when the sprint was closed. Completed issues are those whose status is marked as done.
Sprint Story Points not completed. This measure shows the total story points that were not yet completed when the sprint ended.
Sprint Story Points commitment changes indicate the change in story point commitment. If commitments often change during the sprint, you should look for a cause.

Story Point Burn-Down Chart

Track the total work remaining and predict the likelihood of achieving the sprint goal based on your current velocity. The report shows the current trend, optimal burndown guideline, and resolved and remaining story points per selected sprint.

Sprint Issue Burn-Down Chart

Sometimes, instead of using Story Points, you might use the number of issues to evaluate the sprint progress. The sprint issue burn-down chart tracks the total work completed and remaining in a particular sprint.

Sprint Time Tracking With Remaining Estimate

The sprint time tracking estimate report is based on hours spent and remaining estimated hours. This gives an overview of the initial estimation at the beginning of the sprint and changes over time when logging hours or when estimates are updated.

In the chart:

Sprint Remaining Estimates committed: Remaining estimated hours for issues committed to a sprint when it was started.
Sprint Remaining Estimates added: Remaining estimated hours for issues moved to a sprint while it was active.
Sprint Remaining Estimates change: Remaining estimated hours changed for issues in a sprint while it was active.
Sprint Remaining Estimates removed: Remaining estimated hours for issues removed from a sprint when it was active.
Sprint Remaining Estimates at closing: Remaining estimated hours at the moment when a sprint was closed; how much work is not completed during a sprint.

Sprint velocity chart

With a sprint velocity chart, you can track the amount of work committed and completed from sprint to sprint per selected project over boards. The report shows only closed sprints with committed story points. Vertical version release guidelines provide an additional reference and context to your sprint reports.

How to Build Sprint Reports With eazyBI

If you'd like to dig in and learn more about building advanced custom sprint reports with eazyBI, check out this "Sprint reports in eazyBI" webinar recording. You'll learn about:

Building blocks in eazyBI report building
Sprint scope metrics and reports
Differences between Jira reports and eazyBI reports
How to build advanced Sprint reports

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Jira Gantt Charts: How to Create a Gantt Chart in Jira

Janis Gulbis — 2022-10-10T00:00:00Z

Gantt charts have been around since the 1890s. It was the first formal project management technique and is still widely used today. The Gantt chart is popular because it is easy to understand, helps people work together, and shows the big picture. It’s a visual tool for keeping track of a project’s tasks, deadlines, and dependencies.

Let’s examine Gantt charts in more detail, including their origins, uses, benefits, and deployment in Atlassian Jira.

What Is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt chart illustrates project progress and overview at a glance. The chart presents activities in a bar chart where separate bars represent each activity. A bar’s length and positioning on the chart indicate when the activity began, its duration, and its planned completion date.

The Origin of the Gantt Chart

Karol Adamiecki originally devised the idea of a “project flow chart” in 1896. He called it a harmonogram. Henry Gantt came up with his own version 15 years later. Gantt charts became very popular in the early 20th century and later became known as the “Gantt chart”.

Gantt charts have been around for a long time, but before the 1980s, they were made by hand. This tedious process got even more complicated when revisions had to be made.

However, Gantt charts became much more popular in the 1980s with the rise of computers. And even today, they are still one of the most popular project management tools.

The Benefits of The Gantt Chart

While there’s no shortage of project management tools available, what is the benefit of Gantt charts compared to other project management tools?

Gantt Charts Are Great for Project Management and Overview

Gantt chart is an indispensable project management tool that illustrates a project breakdown structure. You can map out a project’s workflow more effectively from start to end.

This is useful for project managers when walking teams through the different aspects of a project. A broad outline shows all the main ideas, tasks, and requirements. This can be adapted as the project develops, for example, if new requirements arise or certain milestones need to be emphasized.

Gantt Charts Help to Improve Focus

With Gantt charts, you can narrow projects down to individual sprints and establish how different tasks affect one another and the entire project. This view of task dependencies can be applied to ensure a certain task can only start once a necessary prior one is completed. As such, teams can direct their time, attention, and efforts to the most urgent matter. This is referred to as the waterfall project planning method.

Gantt Charts Offer Improved Deliverability

Gantt charts are excellent at helping to manage deadlines. Today’s work environment is often demanding, with teams having more complex obligations to fulfill.

Gantt charts provide a way for teams to see the most efficient path to reaching their goals. With Gantt charts, essential tasks are easy to identify well in advance, and project management software with Gantt chart capabilities typically makes it easier to track shifting deadlines. This way, teams are better positioned to deliver on time and within budget.

Gantt Charts in Project Management

The main idea of a Gantt chart is to map out which tasks can be done in parallel and which require a sequential approach. As a result, project managers can assess the scope of work, dependencies, resource allocation, and timescales that affect the project’s end date.

In project management, Gantt charts are used for:

Creating an initial project schedule—this makes individual responsibilities clear while helping determine how long it will take to get the project done
Determining interdependencies by defining the relationships between multiple tasks and visualizing the order to follow in executing them.
Project workflow overview by offering a clear sequence of tasks that have to be done in sequence and those that can be done in parallel
Resource allocation to ensure everyone is on the same page
Making necessary adjustments over the duration of the project as things change
Monitoring and reporting progress at an individual and collective level to prevent the project from going off course
Managing and communicating the project schedule to participants and stakeholders
Keeping track of key milestones and achievements
Identifying and addressing issues thanks to its visual nature: It’s easy to pinpoint what’s falling behind schedule and take the necessary steps to keep the project on track

Gantt Charts for Agile

Gantt charts are not typically used in agile software development. Agile methods favor flexibility over strict planning. However, some agile teams do use Gantt charts to help track their progress and visualize their work. Sprints often contain some task dependencies. Gantt charts can help map those dependencies during sprint planning.

Sprint planning and Gantt charts together can get you the best of both worlds. Agile projects are fluid, flexible, and adaptable, while Gantt charts provide information on deadlines, dependencies, and resource allocation.

Gantt Charts vs Waterfall vs Roadmaps

At first glance, the Gantt Chart, the waterfall chart, and the project roadmap appear to be the same thing. The main differences between Gantt Charts, Waterfall charts, and Project Roadmaps are the purpose and the scope.

Waterfall Project Management

Waterfall charts are often used for large infrastructure projects such as bridges, tunnels, construction, and manufacturing.

The waterfall project management methodology is essentially a high-level planning tool. It is a sequential process that starts with the concept of an idea and ends with the delivery of a product or service. The main advantage of the waterfall planning approach is its linearity, which makes it easy to understand and follow costs and schedules. However, this can also be seen as a disadvantage, as it does not allow for much flexibility and can lead to missed deadlines.

Gantt Charts vs Waterfall Charts

The Gantt Chart is more like a project tracking tool. It allows for more detail, flexibility, and adaptability throughout the project. For example, one can track project progress, internal dependencies, and deadlines. You can also have parallel "swimlanes". Having multiple concurrent tasks can save time, maximize and optimize resource allocation, and keep the project going.

Gantt Charts vs Project Roadmaps

Roadmaps and Gantt charts are two essential tools for project management. A project roadmap is typically used to communicate the high-level goals of a project to stakeholders. On the other hand, project managers use the Gantt chart as a more detailed planning tool to track progress and ensure tasks are completed on time. Both tools are important for keeping projects on track and meeting all deadlines.

The roadmap defines the "why" behind the project. The Gantt chart establishes the "how".

How to Use Gantt Charts in Jira?

While Atlassian Jira offers the Roadmaps feature, it doesn’t offer a Gantt chart view out of the box. To create a Gantt chart in Jira, you must install Jira Gantt chart plugins (a.k.a. add-ons or apps) from the Atlassian Marketplace.

Jira offers two types of Gantt chart visualizations using Jira Roadmaps. The first of these is the project-specific modern Gantt chart. Typically, a project-specific Gantt chart displays time tracking for different tasks and a collapsible task structure and resource management breakdown for Jira projects. This type of Gantt chart is commonly used at a team or department level.

The second type of Jira Gantt chart roadmap is the high-level organization chart. This advanced roadmap helps teams plan, manage, and track intensive projects that require much work. Moreover, advanced Jira Gantt chart roadmaps facilitate cross-team workflows.

Before creating a Gantt chart, you first need to establish the individual tasks to be completed over the course of the project cycle.

Next, determine how long each task will take and the interdependencies between different tasks. This will help you determine a realistic completion timeline.

Jira enhances the Gantt chart with additional features such as collapsible task structures and visualizations of dependencies between tasks.

eazyBI takes this further with room for customization and filtering of different views.

How to Create a Gantt Chart in eazyBI

Project teams deal with more than enough complexity in their work on any given day. eazyBI offers an easier way to make the most of Gantt charts. You can create Gantt charts from Issues, Sprints, or Fix versions. The main attributes of any Gantt chart are the start and end dates. You can use any date fields (properties) for your Gantt charts as long as you add them to the first two table columns.

Here are a few more advanced Gantt chart examples you can build in eazyBI.

eazyBI Issue Epic Gantt Chart

You can check out the Issue Epic Gantt Chart in the eazyBI demo account. This report shows open epics and issues highlighting key metrics such as hours spent on issues within a given epic. Additionally, the issue epic Gantt chart report indicates story points for issues, the completion percentage, and the issue priority in the selected epic.

eazyBI Sprint Gantt Chart

This report indicates the progress of a given sprint within an eazyBI project. It uses custom sprint dimensions on rows and sprint-related measures and properties on columns. The "Sprint Story Points Completed %" measure shows you a completion percentage as a number in a cell, but it is also displayed as a green progress bar in the chart.

Make the Most of Jira with eazyBI

You can finally get the insights you need to ensure visibility & transparency with teams, management, and customers. eazyBI is the leading Jira reporting tool that gives you all the company's KPIs in one place - including data from external sources like Google Sheets, SQL databases, CSV, and more.

Creating Gantt charts is just one of the many capabilities that eazyBI offers. Thanks to the seamless integration, with eazyBI Jira reports and charts, you can visualize, analyze, and explore all your data. Build custom reports and project dashboards with a drag-and-drop simplicity without ever leaving Jira.

There’s a lot more you can do. Start a 30-day free trial to explore how eazyBI can improve the reporting side of your organization.

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Jira Reports: Ultimate Guide to Agile Reports in Jira

Janis Gulbis — 2022-10-03T00:00:00Z

Jira is an indispensable workflow management tool helping with planning and tracking, but Jira can also be extensive. How can you unlock its full potential? This article provides a comprehensive overview of Jira reporting. Advantages, disadvantages, and best practices on using built-in and external Jira reporting solutions.

This is a lengthy article, so feel free to jump to the section that interests you most:

Why do you need reports in jira?
Different scopes of Jira reports
Types of reports in Jira
Available built-In Jira Reports
Built-in Jira reporting vs Jira reporting apps
Which jira reporting solution is right for you?
Custom reports & dashboards with eazyBI

Project Reports
Jira Agile Reports
Sprint & Status Reports
Forecast and Management Reports
Workload & Time Reports for Scrum Teams

Why Do You Need Reports in Jira

The core value of Jira lies in the vast amount of project data it's built to store. This information enhances collaboration in project teams while keeping decision-making and activity transparent. However, this data can prove overwhelming as it increases in scope over time. The silver lining is that managers and teams can keep track of projects at a high level without losing sight of the details. All this historical information then becomes an essential asset. In addition, project teams can use historical data to find valuable insights.

Critical Insight into Your Jira Projects

In any organizational context, insight is a vital resource. Imagine being in a position to recover almost 100% of revenue lost due to sudden disruption. Project management in Jira provides a wealth of data that can be used to identify trends and patterns and improve processes over time.

Improved Data-Driven Decisions

According to a Gartner survey, 65% of business decisions have become more complex, involving more choices and relevant parties. We can expect that the complexity level will increase over time. The way to manage this is by leveraging the known to make sense of the unknown.

Jira can provide valuable insights based on historical data. Past trends can serve as indicators of future performance to plan a more feasible project timeframe. With the proper insight, it's easier to pinpoint areas that need improvement.

Better Collaboration Among Team Members

When team members come together to engage with and learn from one another, this improves how the team works together. As a result, fostering cooperation improves the team's capacity to solve problems, innovate, and achieve goals. But tension can become part of a team dynamic more often than anyone would like.

Jira helps teams achieve positive collaboration outcomes by clarifying the work, the stakeholders involved, and their responsibilities. This doesn't just apply to internal teams. When collaborating with external stakeholders, Jira enhances visibility. As such, you can tell where your project falls on the external team's workload, putting you in a better position to minimize any friction that could arise.

Enhanced Transparency

The range of available Jira custom reports improves the visibility of tasks, individual roles, and responsibilities. As a result, everyone involved in a project has clarity on what needs to be done and when.

Improved Work Efficiency

Another benefit to teams using Jira is improved efficiency. Regardless of the nature of your work, utilizing resources to bring about the best possible result with the least amount of waste is essential. With Jira, you can tell which project parts are taking longer, establish the cause, and continuously adjust performance for maximum output.

Scopes (or Levels) of Jira Reports

Different Jira reports have varying scopes and, as such, serve various purposes. The different types are as follows:

Individual Reports

Jira enables you to access individual reports that offer insight into a specific area of focus. Individual user activity can be assessed to better understand team members' responsibilities, assigned tasks, and progress. This goes a long way in improving time management.

Time Reports

Time can be captured in individual reports as well as team-centric reports. They help to better gauge time usage at a project or issue level. Continuous assessment makes it possible to understand how the team spends its time and whether actual performance aligns with the established time and budget allocations. Consequently, teams can better manage their time and resources while addressing deviations in good time.

Team Reports

For team managers, specific Jira reports provide insight into a team's workload. It helps with proper task assignments, considering how much the team can take on. As a result, these reports result in a better working relationship, improved productivity estimation, and a cohesive working environment.

Project Reports

Jira reporting capabilities allow for better project management. They enhance the tracking and monitoring of project progress, provide overviews of backlogs, and enable better estimation of future project completion. As a result, teams can assess where they are and make the requisite iterations to complete projects successfully. These reports are useful for timely and on-budget project planning, management, and delivery.

Cross-Project Management Reports

In cases where it's necessary to assess multiple projects against set targets, Jira reporting and search capabilities provide high-level overviews of interrelated projects or those that bring together multiple teams. This ensures that all stakeholders know key objectives and progress and that they're better positioned to forecast and draw up budgets.

Jira Service Management Reports

For service teams, Jira provides reports that can help to manage incidents or customer issues. Jira Service Desk apps provide an end-to-end issue management framework across different company channels. Project administrators can then generate reports that offer a closer look at issue management. This serves as a basis for improvements in service management. Jira Service Management reports include SLA reports, Created vs. Resolved, Recently Opened and Closed, and Currently Open incidents.

Test Reports

Reports that present data at the testing level are especially useful for product development teams. They present crucial data about test requirements, coverage, and execution. Insights in these reports inform the entire software testing process, allowing issues to be addressed in advance. This then leads to more stable and higher quality software upon release.

Types of Reports in Jira

Having gone over the different levels of Jira reporting capabilities, let's explore the various types of reports users can create.

Issue Reports

For projects in Jira, users can generate several kinds of issue reports:

Recently Created Issues Report: Indicates the rate at which new issues are being created within a project.
Created vs. Resolved Issues Report: Contrasts the number of issues created with those resolved at the time of report generation.
Time Since Issues Report: This shows how many issues have been created or updated within a specific period.

These reports help spot trends and gain an overview of project issues.

Agile Reports

Agile Reports offer teams better visibility. They indicate efforts, show progress, aid planning processes, and help teams stay on track. Agile reporting can be done at an individual, team, project, or cross-project level. Examples include:

Sprint Report: Showing a list of all issues completed while the sprint was in progress.
Burndown Chart: This shows the estimated amount of work to be done and the actual work done.
Velocity Chart: Indicates how well targets are being met, helping predict how much work can be done in future sprints.

Forecast and Management Reports

These reports offer higher-level overviews useful for time tracking and workload management. An example is time reports, which offer insight into how much time a user has spent on an issue basis, highlighting deviation from budget and time allocation estimates. To make the most out of Forecast and Management Reports, it's essential to use native Jira time tracking.

Available Built-In Jira Reports

There's a host of natively built-in reports available in Jira. This section examines them in greater detail.

Jira Sprint Report

A Jira Sprint Report shows all the issues within a given sprint. It comes in handy when monitoring actual start dates compared to those initially anticipated. Sprint Reports in Jira offer several benefits, such as enhanced teamwide project ownership and better management of individual roles within teams; they lead to improved workflow when insights are used to improve processes.

Jira Velocity Chart

Velocity in Jira refers to what a team can deliver within a sprint. This can be measured as issues, hours, or story points. With continuous analysis, Jira velocity charts help to establish the average amount of work the team can complete in subsequent sprints. In this regard, managers can assign achievable amounts of work within reasonable timelines.

The y-axis displays the estimation "unit" used for estimating stories. Usually, estimates are based on: story points, time (minutes, hours, days, or weeks), number of issues, or points.
Gray bars show the committed work for each sprint – a total estimate of all issues in the sprint when it begins. Committed issues won't change after the sprint has started.
Green bars show the completed work during the sprint and when the sprint ends.
The x-axis displays the last 7 sprints completed by the team. This data is used to calculate velocity.

Jira Risk Report

Risk management is an increasingly key concern for any organization in a world characterized by constant disruption. Data is a key tool in mitigating and managing risk, and Jira Align's risk reporting meets this need.

Jira Align Risk Status Reports help teams and managers track impediments to their project progress. The report can be configured to show all risks/impediments, only active ones, risks by the probability of occurrence, and contingency plans to address them. You can assess the insights daily or during review meetings.

Jira Version Report

This is one of the most essential Jira project reports that product development teams need to stay on track. Version Workload Reports can be generated for teams whose administrators have enabled time tracking. They offer insight into all the unresolved issues in a given version, individual user allocations of pending issues, the users' workload, and how much work is pending for the complete version.

Cumulative Flow Diagrams

Cumulative Flow Diagrams are a source of advanced analytics. For example, it's essential to keep track of different project components to ensure timely delivery. Cumulative flow diagrams fulfill this need by showing key metrics to help you gauge the stability of your workflow, highlighting focus areas for enhanced predictability.

Resolution Time and Average Age Report

One of the incredible things about Jira as a whole is the ability it offers to narrow down to specific insights. A perfect example of this is the Average Age Report. This report indicates the number of days an issue has remained unsolved. This is important as it helps prioritize work allocations, ensuring deliverables aren't overlooked.

Created vs. Resolved Reports

Another key source of data on productivity is the Created vs. Resolved Report which shows the issues that have been resolved within a certain period. The report contrasts issue creation and resolution. Periods when more issues were resolved than created are colored green, while times when more issues went unresolved, are red. Teams can stay on track, ensuring issues are addressed promptly.

Jira Burndown and Burnup Charts

The burndown chart in Jira displays the amount of work completed in relation to the remaining time before a sprint ends. The vertical or y-axis indicates issues, whereas the horizontal offers an indication of time. Burndown charts help to project the possibility of completing work on schedule. This makes it easier to manage team progress and make necessary changes to stay on track.

On the other hand, burnup charts show completed work in relation to a project's scope. When there are deviations from the planned progress, they offer alerts allowing for timely project completion.

How to Create Reports in Jira

Now that you're more familiar with the different kinds of reports in Jira, let's examine how to create the ones you need.

Step 1: Choose What Type of Report You'd Like to Create

Start by determining what data you want to visualize and analyze. Go to the project you want to analyze and click on Reports. Select the report you want to create.

Step 2: Select Your Report Parameters

For most reports you can select the project and a specific date range in intervals (days, weeks, months, quarters).

Parameters are report-specific – some reports have a different set of settings. For example the pie chart report shows issues grouped by a particular field (Project, Asignee, Status, Priority, etc.) for a filter you select.

Keep in mind that you cannot save these project reports. Every time you want to check the stats from the Reports section, you'll need to provide report parameters again.

Unless you add these Jira reports to Jira dashboards...

Step 3: Add Jira Reports to Jira Dashboard

Probably the best way to use built-in Jira reports is by adding them to Jira dashboards. Create a new dashboard or edit an existing one, and chose the "Charts" category in the Gadget search to access all available charts. Once added to a dashboard, these reports will be always available in the dashboards section.

Built-in Jira Reporting vs Reporting Apps for Jira

Let's examine the different Jira reporting solutions available, their uses, and their drawbacks to help you select the most suitable option.

Option 1: Use Built-In Jira Reports

Built-in reports come with Jira, are easy to use, and capture commonly used data metrics. The range of reports available in Jira is beneficial for successful project completion. These out-of-the-box offerings enable teams to keep track of issues—from when they are created and how fast they're resolved to workload at a user-specific or collective level.

Even with these helpful features, native Jira reports have several limitations. For example, there aren't many options for customization beyond applying filters. Advanced users who prefer more in-depth data analysis can't really do that.

Though ideal for more straightforward data analysis and smaller teams or projects, there are instances where you could find yourself in need of more flexibility to meet all of your reporting needs. As a result, numerous third-party reporting tools are available on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Option 2: Export and Analyze Data in Excel or Google Spreadsheets

As noted above, you have the option to export Jira data to Excel in the form of spreadsheets. Once exported, tou can create pie charts, graphs, and other visualizations as needed. To reduce performance issues on Jira, exports are limited to first 1000 records.

The downside to this approach is its time-consuming, slow, painstaking nature. You'd need to filter the data to capture only what you need, and once you've downloaded the spreadsheet file, you can't subsequently include additional information. Any future updates can't be captured without downloading spreadsheet files every time. Ultimately, data collation and visualization using this method can only be done manually. This significantly increases the risk of errors in the process.

There are some 3rd party Jira to Excel exporting apps that offer a lot more functionaly.

Option 3: Connect to External Reporting Tools

Another reporting option is using external reporting tools. This entails integrating Jira with business analytics tools such as Microsoft Power BI or Tableau, among others available on the Atlassian Marketplace. These tools connect via the Jira REST API interface, which has many limitations.

One limitation with the Rest API connectors is the need to manually define the Jira data model (imported data set). There is also a very limited support for custom fields. You can't use Jira gadgets. And, because most REST API-based Jira apps don't support incremental data imports, importing data from Jira could take a long time and impact Jira performance, especially when working with large data sets.

Option 4: Use Integrated Jira Reporting Apps

Dedicated reporting apps that integrate with Jira are the best solution for more advanced custom Jira analysis. They provide the most options and benefits enabling report customizations way beyond the capabilities of built-in reports. These apps give you more control, allowing for automation, sharing, accessibility, and customization.

Which Jira Reporting Solution is Right for You?

If your reporting needs aren't overly comprehensive, then native Jira reporting will do.
For smaller teams of 10 or fewer people looking for more detailed analysis at less frequent intervals (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly) and who don't need to share or export data, exporting reports to Excel could suffice.
Suppose your company already uses external BI tools for other purposes. In that case, connecting them to your Jira instance makes sense if you can accept limitations and performance issues associated with connector apps.
If you are serious about up-to-date reports right within Jira, you should consider special reporting apps available on Atlassian Marketplace.

eazyBI – the Reporting Powerhouse for Jira

eazyBI for Jira combines the features and benefits of other reporting solutions, making it highly capable for advanced reporting and custom analysis while maintaining ease of use for simple reporting needs. eazyBI for Jira is:

Built for Jira: As a trusted Atlassian Platinum Vendor Partner, eazyBI works seamlessly within Jira. eazyBI greatly extends the power of Jira, by providing a complete data model with custom fields, measures, formulas, dimensions, calculations, reports and gadgets for Jira, as well as support for third-party apps and data sources.
Simple: Building simple custom reports is as easy as it gets. Use dozens of report templates out of the box. Modify, adapt, and build additional reports with the built-in drag-and-drop report builder.
Powerful: eazyBI is a fully featured business intelligence tool (like external BI tools) that can analyze data from Jira, SQL databases, REST APIs, spreadsheets, and other tools—all from within Jira. Advanced custom calculations provide tools for adding new measures and calculations for your ever-growing reporting needs.
Flexible: eazyBI for Jira features fully customizable pivot reports and charts similar to using Excel. You can build virtually any report based on connected data sources.
Automated: Once you set it up, all data updates are automatic. No more manual data exports and report updates. All your reports are up-to-date everywhere.
Shareable: You can easily share your charts and reports as jira gadgets in Jira dashboards. You can publish your Jira reports both in Jira and Confluence. Or, you can even embed your reports in iframes outside Jira or export them to XLSX, PDF, or CSV.
Optimized for performance: eazyBI supports incremental data updates and online analytical processing (OLAP) technology, allowing for concurrent data analysis from various database systems. This makes it especially ideal for working with huge data sets and generating complex reports.
Portable: The core of eazyBI is the same for all platforms: Jira Server, Jira Cloud, or Jira Data Center. This means you can start using eazyBI on one platform and migrate to another at any time without losing your report library.

Custom Project Reports & Dashboards With eazyBI

Project Overview report

There are different reports you can build with eazyBI. A good example is the Project Overview report. As the name suggests, it shows the number of issues created and resolved throughout the project timeline. You can customize it in several ways, such as filtering date ranges or specifying assignees.

Project Progress Report

The Project Progress Report indicates the issues to be done, how many are complete, and how many are pending. Project progress can be expressed as a percentage, and you can choose whether to view it for a single project or compare multiple ones.

Total Resolved Issues

The Total Resolved Issues From Created Report is a quick and easy way to check the resolution rate for issues. It's best used for high-level overviews.

Created vs. Resolved Issues

For a more in-depth analysis of issue completion over time, the Created vs. Resolved Issues Over Time Report captures the number of issues created, issues resolved, the average number of days spent, and how many issues are still open. Analyzing this report can aid the process of mapping out trends around issue resolution. There's also the added functionality to filter the report by issue type, priority, and assignee.

Custom Jira Agile Reports

Sprint Overview Report

The Sprint and Story Point Overview presents key metrics for project sprints. With a quick glance, you can tell the number of completed sprints, the velocity for the most recent sprints, and the predicted number of sprints left until completion.

Sprint Timeline Chart

The Sprint Timeline shows changes in the scope of a sprint. For instance, if issues were added after a sprint had already started, you can distinguish between the planned start and completion timeline and the actual completion time.

Active Sprints Story Points Burndown Report

The Active Sprints Story Points Burndown Report (for multiple sprints) is useful in cases where work gets done in parallel sprints. It tracks the resolution of story points across the different relevant sprints factoring in all start and end dates. That way, regardless of when a sprint began, it's still trackable within the report.

Sprint Progress and Velocity Chart by Epic

The Story Points Progress and Velocity by Sprints in Epic Report is used to analyze the level of progress made across teams, epics, assignees, or other project components. Based on current velocity, the report improves the predictability of completing tasks, as captured in the "Predicted Sprints to Complete" column.

Custom Sprint & Status Reports

If you are using agile methodologies, you can create a set of charts and reports for jira to overview all your sprint performance indicators quickly. These are reports like velocity charts, burndown charts, cycle time reports, or version reports, to name a few.

Sprint Velocity Chart

For example, this is the Sprint Velocity Chart, which is useful in tracking work committed and work completed.

Sprint Story Points Burndown

Another Sprint Report example is the Story Points Burndown in Sprint Chart. It helps track the remaining work and predict the likelihood of achieving the set sprint goals.

Sprint Issues Burndown Report

The Issues Burndown in Sprint Report tracks both completed and remaining work totals for a specific sprint. This report is used when progress is evaluated based on the number of issues rather than story points, making it an essential asset in trend mapping and analysis.

Sprint Issue Transition Dates Report

In situations that call for a closer look at issue handling down to the sprint level, the Sprint Issue Transition Dates Report helps keep tabs on when a given issue moved from one status to another—e.g., from In Progress to Done. You can filter the report by issue type (standard or all), assignee, or other filters while viewing a timebox for the selected sprint from its start date to completion.

Forecast and Management Reports

Project Prediction Report

The Project Prediction Report indicates the average issue resolution rate between the start date and the creation date. This makes it easier to establish if you're on track to resolve all issues within the project end date. eazyBI makes it easy to create a report in Jira.

Version Reports

Version Reports are ideal for unreleased versions. They are best deployed when story points have both resolved and unresolved issues, showing resolved story points against the predicted completion time.

Predicted Completion Date

The Predicted Completion Date Report is great for quick project completion date estimates. It factors in the number of currently open issues from Jira and the progress made in the past year to provide a projected release date on a rolling basis.

Open Issues Trend

With the Open Issues Trend Report, it's easy to identify patterns in the current number of open issues. The report can be filtered by issue priority levels and enables users to gauge how many issues are likely to still be open in the future in relation to the end date.

Workload & Time Reports for Scrum Teams

Hours Spent by Issue Type and User

The Weekly Hours Spent by Issue Type and User Report is a particularly useful type of time-tracking visualization in eazyBI, providing timely insight for scrum teams. It shows how much time is spent per user and per issue within a given period. It comes in handy when evaluating performance.

Estimated and Logged Hours Report

The Estimated and Logged Hours in Version Report makes it easier to compare how much time was initially allocated to work on a particular version with how much has actually been spent. As such, any overestimated time is accounted for.

Sprint Time Tracking Burndown Report

The Time Tracking Burndown in Selected Sprint Report offers a trend map of current time usage. You can quickly see if your work is falling behind by assessing hours spent. The report estimates how much additional time the selected sprint will require until completion.

Logged Hours by User

For advanced time tracking and management, eazyBI offers a Logged Hours by User on Assigned and Unassigned Issues Report. This specific report shows user-agnostic time usage, and user-specific logged hours for issues in general or the specific issues assigned to a user across projects.

Better Project Management With Powerful Jira Reporting

Overall, reporting in Jira benefits organizations looking to harness the power of data. Numerous options regarding report types and scope levels lead to better reporting. These reports can be created and assessed at different scopes at an individual, team, project, or cross-project level.

Furthermore, Jira reports can be narrowed down to specific focus areas such as sprints, team velocity, or product versions, offering an end-to-end work overview.

With this advanced level of reporting, teams are equipped to plan better for future endeavors and improve their tracking of project components and deliverables. Over time, teams benefit from improved project execution.

The work environment continues to evolve and become more complex. Teams need advanced data analysis and reporting to achieve better outcomes. With eazyBI, you can easily:

Create custom reports based on your needs
Analyze Jira metrics and make better, data-driven decisions
Measure and analyze your KPI performance
Keep teams involved at every stage of a project

If you're looking to make the most of the capabilities that come with Jira reports, choose eazyBI for Jira. Get started with a free 30-day trial.

Start 30-Day Free Trial

It’s Here - The Long Awaited eazyBI 6.5

Lauma Cirule — 2022-07-08T00:00:00Z

At eazyBI, we have the principle of deploying new features as soon as possible. Cloud customers have already enjoyed some of the recent greatness, and finally, we released it in eazyBI version 6.5.

Issue Cycles

Frequently our customers ask about the time between two statuses. For example, when did issues go into the progress or testing phase? When did the phase end? How long was the development, and when did it end? And how many days or workdays did it take?

While there are options for getting days spent in statuses, complexity grows when a phase or a cycle includes time spent in several statuses. Considering the vast difference in workflows of eazyBI customers, we have developed an option to define Issue cycles. During data import, you can set which statuses are part of Analyze, Development, or Test phase. You can set as many custom cycles as your workflow requires. After data import, you will get a bunch of pre-calculated measures for each cycle and a hierarchy in Status dimensions.

We have already seen how often defined issue cycles simplify analysis. So we encourage you to try them out! Some cycle sample reports are available out of the box to get you started.

DevOps Metrics From Jenkins

When we initially released DevOps metrics, we promised that there would be more. eazyBI integration with Jenkins was one of the most awaited from the DevOps community; finally, it is here!

You only need to configure Jenkins data import. Next, you will get the DevOps metrics described in an earlier post Analyze DevOps Metrics With eazyBI.

Tempo Integration Improvements

The Tempo apps have many resource planning and tracking options. Combined with eazyBI reports, it gives you ample options to track your plan execution. You can read more about this in the designated blog post Custom Tempo Reports in Jira Using eazyBI.

Taking it a step further, we are adding the option to import the Tempo required or available hours in this version. eazyBI imports the workload defined by the workload schemas for each user to analyze the users' capacity vs. planned or logged hours.

There are also new Tempo data-enhanced sample reports in the "Sample reports for time tracking" folder. Find and use reports for planned vs. spent or required hours over time, versions, and teams.

More Power to Custom Data Mapping

One of the most powerful eazyBI features is merging data from multiple sources. Custom source data mapping allows you to create new data cubes or import extra data to the Jira issues cube.

We have made some significant enhancements to this operation:

if you do not have a count measure, you can now add it with one click
you can clone a column to import it both as a dimension and a property
create a new source data column with new content based on values in the originating data source columns

When ready to try out the simplified custom data mapping, read more about the new features on the eazyBI documentation page.

News in Measures and Custom Calculations

If you follow Agile and use Jira Software to track Sprints and commitments, you will most likely analyze Sprint scope changes. While all this is possible in eazyBI, a popular metric called for complex MDX calculation: how many of the committed story points were completed during the sprint.

We hear you! We have added a background calculation for Sprint Story Points completed of committed to get story point and issue count measure out of the box. Additionally, a predefined measure calculates Sprint Story Points committed completion %.

Also, new MDX functions make your calculations simpler and faster. You can read more about them in the eazyBI documentation. Here is a short sneak peek:

DateDiffWorkHours - get the duration between two dates not only as workdays but also as work hours between two date-time fields!
PreviousRowValue will be helpful if you need to get a value from one row "above". For example, determine how long it took between resolving the previous issue and creating this one.
CumulativeSum function is already used in Standard calculations, and you can use it in custom measures. The function will be a good performance improvement if you wish to add the current row value to the sum of all previous values.

Time Dimension Improvements

By default, eazyBI is adding members to the Time dimension only if there is some activity in Jira on that date. Thus, future dates are added if there are planned dates in Jira (Due date, Sprint end date).

This can be limiting if you wish to analyze future projections in the report. Therefore we added an option to specify the date range in the Time dimension import options and import all missing dates within the range. During each import, eazyBI will check the dates in the range and fill the Time gaps in the specified period.

Additionally, there is good news about the Time dimension for those analyzing Insight data in eazyBI. Now you can set the time zone also for the Insight cube Time dimension.

Page Selection in Analyze Tab and Dashboards

In the eazyBI report builder, you use Rows for splitting the data while Pages - for filtering. For rows, you could already turn on the nonempty option to show only rows having actual values. In the Page area, you always got complete lists of dimension members, which was sometimes confusing. For example, if you have Projects and Issue Type dimensions on pages, you wish to see only issue types for the selected Project. This is what the new NonEmpty option in pages offers! You can now select a value in the left dimension, e.g., Project, and the values in the dimensions to the right, e.g., Issue Type, will display only relevant members.

This option is also added in the eazyBI dashboard for the common dashboard pages. You can also hide common page dimensions from reports for a cleaner dashboard look.

Performance Improvements and More

And yes, there are a lot of performance improvements in the eazyBI background. For example, we have modified how reports with many page dimensions and multiple page member selections get results. Also, we have improved formulas of the Standard calculations that you can add to the reports. All this will make your reports load significantly faster.

There are improvements for the data import as well. While many changes are in the background, you might notice that now eazyBI skips an issue if it has some issue-level data problems. You will get a warning for the data that needs fixing, but the import will continue with other issues.

Another performance enhancement can be utilized by users upfront. It is now possible to publish eazyBI reports in a collapsed format in eazyBI dashboards and Jira dashboard items. Collapsed report loads result once user expands it. Go ahead and reconsider if there are reports that do not need to be loaded every time users access the dashboard. Maybe you wish them to be accessible, but only for later?

And finally, eazyBI is now compatible with Jira 9.0.

Learn all about the eazyBI 6.5 in the change log.

eazyBI 6.4 – Hierarchies & Conditional Chart Formatting

Gerda Zandersone — 2021-12-03T00:00:00Z

eazyBI version 6.4 is released. From small user-interface improvements to conditional chart formatting. New Sprint and Issue type hierarchies, and the ability to create your own custom hierarchies from Jira custom fields. We are happy to share with you what's new.

Sometimes the smallest changes can make the biggest impact. Customers asked, and we listened. Now there are two separate buttons for saving reports: "Save" and "Save As." It is handy if you want to create your own report based on a sample or a template report. Also, we included the option to transform report-specific measures into user-defined measures. It allows to play around with different calculations and formulas, and when something powerful (and tested!) is created, it can be quickly made to be available for others.

Conditional formatting was recently improved for table views. Now it is available in full glory also for different charts to make them easier to read and, well, to look nicer. You can be both — a data analyst and an artist!

Starting from this version, we expanded the possibility to create custom hierarchies. Why does it matter? Custom hierarchies enable grouping data in the most suitable way for your use case. They are easier to maintain compared to calculated members and reports are faster as well. Custom hierarchies are now available for dimensions that are imported from Jira custom fields. In addition, there are a few new default hierarchies in the Sprint and Issue type dimensions.

For a quick overview of the main new features, check out the recording from the release webinar.

For a quick overview, please read on.

Use Conditional Formatting in Charts

Earlier this year, in eazyBI version 6.2, we introduced improved conditional cell formatting. That received our customer appreciation. Now we are happy to announce that conditional formatting is also available for charts! Straight away, you can explore your charts in more detail – see outliers and highlight outstanding data in bar, line, or timeline charts for column, range, scatter, or bubble chart types.

Highlight Ranges, Exact Values, Top & Bottom Values

Conditional chart formatting can highlight issues from specific groups, the top and bottom values in the chart, and more. The configuration is very similar to the table's cell formatting: use range, exact values, regular expression, or top/bottom values. The rules can be applied to a measure directly or you can explore options with the Custom formula.

Color the top and bottom values in different charts with Top/bottom conditional formatting.

Custom Chart Conditional Formatting

Use a custom formula for more advanced highlighting rules. For example, highlight "Highest" and "High" priority issues by name:

Get inspired on how to use different conditional options to make reports visually outstanding in the eazyBI demo dashboard "Customized Charts". Explore and learn how to become an artist with your data!

New Hierarchies for Sprint and Issue Type Dimensions

Use new hierarchies in Sprint and Issue Type dimensions to regroup dimension members using member properties.

Group Your Sprints by Status

Filter all closed sprints for the board much faster by using the "By status" hierarchy in the Sprint dimension.

Group Your Issue Type by Type

Use the new "By type" hierarchy in the Issue Type dimension to quickly filter all standard types excluding sub-tasks for your reports.

Add Custom Hierarchies from Jira Custom Fields

Use single-select Jira custom fields (numeric or string) to create new custom hierarchies. You can also regroup custom field dimension members using additional imported properties.

Learn more about all the new features and bug fixes in the eazyBI 6.4 changelog.

SLA: Jira Service Management using eazyBI Reporting

Rina Nir — 2021-09-30T00:00:00Z

At RadBee, we help many Jira Service Management clients to create valuable eazyBI reports for monitoring the performance of their customer service teams and generate specific and targeted analysis toward their goals.

Built-in Jira Service Management reports often do not bring you the perspective you are looking for. What if you need to track each workgroup's performance separately and measure the ticket status and assignment to a specific workgroup while excluding time when tickets are in the waiting for customer status.

In this use case, we’ll review quite a complicated client support management flow and the solution of data import configuration we came across with a help of the eazyBI fantastic support team. You can apply the logic or use the code snippets in case of a similar situation.

What is SLA?

A service level agreement (SLA), is a written understanding between a service provider and their client (internal or external) that outlines the services that will be provided, the expected level of responsiveness, and how the performance will be measured. The SLA will include details like the amount of time that the service will be available and the time required for customer support to respond. Furthermore, the agreement also sets out what happens if the service provider fails to meet the requirements of the agreement.

Can I measure the performance of several service teams?

The customer support team consists of several teams, which we’ll call workgroups. A support ticket can be transferred from one workgroup to another several times. We want to measure the performance of each workgroup throughout the lifecycle of the ticket.

The ticket status can be paused during the support ticket lifespan while waiting for a customer response. During these on-hold periods, we don’t want the time to be counted.

The customer support uses Jira Service Management (“JSM”). We have added the custom field “Workgroup” in Jira, of the type “Group Picker (single group)”. This field indicates the group which is currently assigned to the issue.

Jira Service Management alone cannot provide a granular level of detail within a support ticket lifespan. JSM’s native SLA is on the issue lifespan and cannot be configured to account per each workgroup.

How to track each workgroup's performance separately with eazyBI?

You can extend Jira Service Management reporting capability by using the eazyBI for Jira. It’s possible to import custom fields from the Jira history file in eazyBI. For many standard custom fields, data import requires simply ticking a box. To import calculated custom fields, add JavaScript code to the custom field definition in eazyBI advanced settings. However, we faced a bit more complex situation.

In our case, “Workgroup” is a “Group Picker (single group)” type of field. With the right definition, this field can be imported as a dimension into the eazyBI data cube along with the field history. Together with historical measures, the changes can be analyzed for this field.

When tickets are passed between workgroups during the ticket lifespan, various situations appear. Out-of-the-box eazyBI calculates the total elapsed time between the timestamp when the “Workgroup” value was first entered and the timestamp when the same “Workgroup” value was changed for the last time. Without custom fields, eazyBI cannot take into account the time elapsed while a ticket is in each individual workgroup.

So, we need to track to which “Workgroup” the issue is assigned at a given time. There may be zero, one, or multiple time periods that need to be aggregated for each workgroup. Also, a ticket may come back to the same workgroup more than once. It means that a ticket could be assigned to the same workgroup more than once.

We also want to identify whether the issue has “Active” status–not paused while waiting for customer response. In other words, we need to measure only the “Active” time that elapsed since any workgroup value was assigned and now.

Measure the ticket status and assignment to a specific workgroup

As one support ticket may bounce around to any workgroup until it’s closed, we added a definition via eazyBI advanced settings to import the custom field "Workgroup" as a dimension, property, as well as all its changes.
While creating a support ticket, the “Workgroup” field must have a value assigned in Jira Service Management.
During the ticket lifespan until its resolution (issue status is “Open”), the ticket is considered “Active” as long as it is not paused–waiting for customer response. While a ticket is “Active”, the performance parameters of its workgroup are measured. While the ticket is “Waiting for customer,” we pause the measurement of workgroup performance. The time period in which measurements are paused will not count toward SLA metrics. To account for active and paused time, we add a JavaScript code via eazyBI advanced settings to create a new custom field only for eazyBI reporting needs "Days in Workgroup". It can be imported as a measure and property.

This way, we capture and measure the support ticket events. And stratify them per workgroup, only for the time periods in which the JSM ticket is “Active”.

You can find more details about the created custom calculations in this community post “How to measure the SLA for each workgroup throughout the lifecycle of a ticket”.

Report Examples

The active time of all closed issues per workgroup–how many active days issue closed in a certain month spent in each workgroup.
The active time of all open issues in a workgroup–trending report visualizing the accumulated active issues in a workgroup per day.

Notes

This measure can get complicated if the ticket is assigned to another workgroup before the customer response arrives.
Another complication arises if the ticket status is changed to “Waiting for customer,” but there is no record of “comment to customer” in the JSM database. We assume that there would be some communication with the customer before going into “waiting for customer” status.
Unless the issue was handled entirely within the same workgroup, we can’t rely on the definition of “Time to First Response” set in JSM for reporting the performance in eazyBI. For example, if the ticket has a changed “Workgroup” before the first customer comment in JSM, the trigger for “Time to First Response” will never occur. Thus, JSM’s measured time to the first response may be inaccurate.
“Time to Resolution” (only “Active” time) is the accumulated active time elapsed between ticket creation and its assumed “Close” status.

Jira Service Management provides quite powerful real-time reporting. You can monitor your team's performance and trends in your workload. Despite the option to create your own custom Jira reports to query any combination of performance data, there might be situations when it does not bring you the perspective you are looking for. Try eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira to customize Jira Service Management reporting.

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eazyBI vs Power BI for Jira Reporting

Kalos Bonasia — 2021-09-09T00:00:00Z

Follow this link to our newest comparison of eazyBI vs Power BI for Jira reporting where our support consultant Elita compares both tools based on her hands-on experience and many trials and errors.

Occasionally I work with clients who use Jira and who would like to leverage Microsoft Power BI as a business intelligence tool for Jira data analysis. What to look at before choosing the Jira reporting tool? How do eazyBI and Power BI differ when it comes to Jira reporting?

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful data analysis and business intelligence tool. Being a Microsoft product, Power BI resembles a user interface and functionality similar to other Microsoft Office products.

eazyBI for Jira is a stand-alone data visualization and analysis tool with a native Jira integration. You can build interactive custom reports and charts combining Jira and other data sources. There are many eazyBI predefined sample reports and measures, and a formula editor to define your own custom calculations.

Taking into consideration the above-mentioned, there is no complete parity of features between eazyBI and Power BI and there never will be.

Power BI or eazyBI - which one should you choose for Jira data analysis?

If you are considering which BI tool to use for Jira data analysis, here is my list of features that might help you to decide on the most suitable tool for you:

Power BI has very limited support for Jira or Jira Service Management custom fields, especially for Jira Cloud. Most custom fields are not available via Rest API. Meanwhile, eazyBI recognizes and supports standard and custom fields from Jira, Jira Service Management across all platforms.
Power BI doesn't natively support importing data from other Jira apps. In some cases, you can model the connection to the app manually, however, limitations exist there. Some connectors provide access to third-party app data for Data Center or Server, but not for Cloud. eazyBI supports standard and custom fields, dimensions, properties, and ready-to-use data models, and model reports for many of Jira's third-party apps. (You can read more about Jira apps reporting with eayzBI on the eazyBI blog.)
Power BI uses data connectors and Rest API for import. Importing large numbers of Jira issues can be unreliable and slow. eazyBI uses optimized APIs to import large datasets from Jira reliably and significantly faster.
Power BI does not support incremental data import via Rest API or connector. Refreshing the data requires a completely new import of all Jira data; which results in a performance impact on Jira's database and is time-consuming. eazyBI supports incremental data refresh, importing only new and updated data records.
When connected to the Jira database or using connectors, Power BI uses a relational database schema which is not optimal for data analysis. Running complex queries on a database like this (with Power BI) stresses MySQL Server and takes a long time. eazyBI uses OLAP databases with optimized star schema, aggregation tables, and dynamic caching to allow interactive and fast data exploration. In this case, the query time is reduced by 20-100 times.
Power BI requires users to use a license for Power BI Desktop and Power BI Report Builder applications. You need a Power BI Server, Cloud, or embedded service to share and view these reports. eazyBI license prices start from $10/month (read more on eazyBI pricing here).

A Few More Things About eazyBI

eazyBI is a completely web-based, all-in-one application - the report generator, the report template library, dashboards, settings, and even user management are accessible from the web. Any modern web browser is all you need to start the report creation.
With eazyBI users can create, update, view, explore or share reports on any modern internet-connected desktop browser anytime, anywhere. In addition, they can view and explore the data on any mobile web browser. No other software installations are required.
eazyBI is a Jira app so it natively integrates with Jira and is available within the Jira interface for Jira Cloud, Server, and Data Center.
While eazyBI supports and automatically detects most of Jira's custom fields there is always an option to add additional custom fields that weren't automatically recognized.
eazyBI for Jira reports can be embedded into Confluence via macros (requires a paid Confluence app). Reports and dashboards can also be embedded using iframe in HTML pages and apps. Reports can be made accessible to non-Jira users using public access tokens.

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eazyBI for Confluence–More than Page Analytics

Evita Legzdiņa — 2021-08-26T00:00:00Z

eazyBI Reports and Charts for Confluence app was relaunched in October 2019. Since then besides eazyBI for Jira report publishing on Confluence pages, you can analyze Confluence data–page updates and views, search queries, attachment size, task completion, and more.

Deep Dive Into Page View Analysis

Page view analysis is one of the most frequently used metrics in content review. You can analyze the Confluence page views by year, month, day, hour, or create a heat map to visualize the content consumption by an hour of a day. Create a rank of top viewed pages, add the average, min, max values or draw a trendline to see your page popularity over time.

Content Creation Insights

Who are the most active content creators? When was the content created? There are many interesting insights to learn from content creation habits. When the content is created and is it related to any other processes happening in the company?

As you can see in the example from the eazyBI, we update our documentation site content right before the new product version releases. However, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are our favorite days for content updates.

What Are Your Readers Searching For?

How to decide which content to publish? What the users would like to see on your site? What are the dynamics of searches over time?

Search query analysis indicates the topics your readers are interested in. By analyzing the list of top search queries together with the returned results you can easily see if you have an answer to their questions, or there is room for improvement.

Is Your Content Up-To-Date?

How to make sure that readers see only actual content? How to manage your content effectively? You might not be able to keep an eye on all your content regularly. With eazyBI, you can easily find out when you have updated the most visited pages. Similarly, you can look at older, but still frequently visited pages. This way you can keep an eye on the content that your customers read and keep it up-to-date.

Confluence Task Analysis

Wondering what is the task completion status from your previous team meeting? How many open tasks are waiting for your input?

At eazyBI, we usually assign tasks in Confluence during our team meetings. With a couple of clicks, we can review the completion status of those tasks. You can also sort out all pending tasks with due dates and task status by the attendee to have an overview of all of them in one place.

How To Share The Reports?

eazyBI is built for sharing. Create reports and dashboards and use eazyBI macros to publish them on your Confluence pages for everyone to see. Publish your reports on any website using the iframe and public access token. Subscribe to receive a collection of reports as a PDF document in your email. If you also use eazyBI for Jira on the same domain as Confluence (for Cloud) or have a Jira application link in Confluence (for Server), you can publish all your eazyBI for Jira reports and dashboards on Confluence pages using macros. Learn more about report publishing on our documentation site.

Beyond Confluence Data Analysis

eazyBI for Confluence is a business intelligence tool and you may use it to analyze data from other data sources and files as well. You can upload data from Excel and CSV files to eazyBI and then create reports, charts, and dashboards from these data. You can replace also successfully imported source files. If you regularly perform full export of your data from some source system then you can always use the same source file name and replace the previous version with the new one and replace all imported data with new. Read more about additional source file import in eazyBI.

As of the end of July 2021, we have reduced the eazyBI Reports and Charts for Confluence Cloud prices for bigger teams by up to 50% (based on price per user). Read more about eazyBI for Confluence pricing.

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Find Out More About eazyBI for Confluence:

Learn more about eazyBI for Confluence on the product page
View more report examples on our demo account
Watch eazyBI for Confluence demo and presentation
Learn more on how to visualize your data using built-in conditional formatting options
See all the measures and dimensions for import in eazyBI for Confluence
eazyBI for Confluence Documentation

Analyze Jira Apps with eazyBI

Evita Legzdiņa — 2021-07-02T00:00:00Z

Atlassian is a rich ecosystem with native and 3rd party apps covering almost every aspect of DevOps lifecycle, from project and time management to test and asset management and beyond. Analyze and visualize Jira and many popular Jira apps–all in one place with eazyBI. Find out how to extend your Jira reporting perspective with eazyBI.

Custom Jira Reporting with eazyBI–how it works?

eazyBI is a general-purpose data visualization and analysis tool with a native Jira integration. Because of that, it is flexible and customizable. You can create a set of cross-project Jira custom reports and dashboards with actionable KPIs and project status reports showing exactly who is working on what, when, where, and why.

eazyBI provides a complete Jira data model out-of-box. Start creating your Jira reports and dashboards in a few clicks. Despite a very complex Jira structure with many workflows, projects, epics, stories, subtasks, and custom fields, the eazyBI’s Jira data model enables instant access to all your Jira data and more.

eazyBI is built for speed and performance, providing quick and effective data updates, reduced impact on Jira performance, and real-time data exploration with instant feedback.

Data Import From Other Sources

With eazyBI for Jira, you can analyze data from standard or custom fields from Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Bitbucket, Bamboo, Insight, and many Jira apps - Tempo Timesheets, Tempo Planner, Zephyr Scale, Zephyr Squad, Xray, Deiser Projectrak, Scriptrunner, Elements Connect.

Import data from external data sources like SQL databases, Rest API, Google Sheets, CSV, or Excel spreadsheets and include them in your Jira reports. eazyBI also supports data import from popular web applications like Highrise, Harvest, Zendesk, Git, Freshbooks, etc.

Tempo Timesheets

Tempo Timesheets is a #1 time tracking and reporting solution in the Atlassian ecosystem integrating with Jira to help software, IT, service desk, and business teams and managers track time for accounting, payroll, client billing, and enhanced efficiency, and forecasting.

Use eazyBI to complement your Jira reports with Tempo billed hours or hours spent by Team, Account, Tempo Category, Tempo Customer, Logged by Team, or Tempo worklog attributes. Combine hours spent with the budget, add cumulative hours spent and see if you are on track with the budget allocation. Find out how many hours are logged by the team and individual team members.

Find more information about the Tempo Timesheets reporting with eazyBI in our documentation.

Tempo Planner

Tempo Planner is the most effective and dynamic resource planning and capacity reporting tool embedded in Jira. Manage resources and capacity in Jira and provide a real-time view of all resources and their status and plans.

With eazyBI, you can track your project progress with Tempo Planner custom reports to ensure your projects are on time and budget. Analyze hours spent by the team and by the assignee over a period of time. See how much time was logged by each of the teams or in total. Balance your teams and employees to complete your projects on time and within budget.

Use the cumulative Tempo planned hours as a guideline and project roadmap. Add weekly hours spent and cumulative hours spent to see how you stack against the plan. Are you on track? Have you over or underestimated?

Watch more Tempo Planner reporting use cases with eazyBI or find out a full list of Tempo Planner attributes available for import in eazyBI in the documentation.

Insight Asset Management

Boost your productivity in Jira with powerful Asset Management & IT Service Management app. Insight provides a structured view of your assets to link to Jira issues with custom fields, providing deeper insight into your most important assets and the dependencies between them, including hardware, software, people, facilities, licenses, and much more.

Enhance your Jira Insight reporting with eazyBI–measure Insight objects created, changed, including change history, transition statuses, and transition times. Then, add an extra "layer" of data in your Jira reports by adding Insight custom fields, Insight objects, object attributes, relationships, and more.

Insight custom fields will allow you to extend standard Jira reporting capabilities. For example, find out how many issues are reported for a particular asset or which asset model has the largest number of issues created. Details on assets provide insight on how to plan resources and support for specific asset types.

Find out the latest changes introduced for Insight reporting with eazyBI in our webinar recording. Also, read more about Insight attributes available for import in eazyBI in our documentation.

Zephyr Squad - Test Management for Jira

Zephyr Squad is the leading Jira test case management tool for scalable, agile software testing with a native Jira experience. Improve test planning and execution, synchronize test results, integrate with leading test automation and other tools, track coverage with traceability between requirements, tests, and defects.

Step up your Jira test reporting with eazyBI – measure the progress of planned versions and requirement coverage based on test execution status, allocate top defects affecting the progress. Help the teams assign and track all test cases down to the detail with the eazyBI Reports and Charts app. Learn more about Zephyr Squad reporting with eazyBI.

Zephyr Scale - Test Management for Jira

A scalable, performant test management solution inside Jira with advanced test planning, reporting, and reusability features. Manage & reuse tests at scale, benefit from advanced reporting & auditing, integrate across multiple tools & frameworks.

Create Jira test reports with eazyBI based on your test management data to highlight trends and quickly identify and locate testing issues, bugs, or possible improvements and threats. Analyze created, scheduled, executing, or executed Test Cases, Cycles, Runs, and Executions. Review Test Case properties like last execution dates, times, statuses, versions, created or scheduled dates, related issues, and more.

Answer all the questions on the project's progress, coming from testing managers, development managers, project managers, and stakeholders. Find out more about Zephyr Scale reporting with eazyBI in the documentation.

Projectrack - Project Tracking for Jira

Projectrack is a popular project tracking and management app for Jira. Visualize your Jira project portfolio at a glance, track, categorize, and make decisions through different views. Create new properties to follow up on your project status, due dates, people involved, and much more!

Use eazyBI to define your custom project properties as text, number, date, or list values and import those details into eazyBI together with all your Jira issue data for a comprehensive project reporting and analysis. Create reports on a project or cross-project level, combine multiple dimensions in one chart to create new insights and compare the status, and more.

Read more about Projectrack reporting with eazyBI on our documentation site.

Xray Test Management for Jira

Cutting Edge Test Management for Jira. Built for every member of the team to plan, test, track, and release great software. Xray for Jira is complete, Atlassian verified test management app for Jira. Xray supports manual and automated tests and a complete testing life cycle: test planning, test designing, and test execution to help developers improve the quality of their systems.

Use eazyBI to measure created, scheduled, executing, or executed tests, as well as test runs, defect counts, or last execution properties like date, status, duration, environment, and more. Create test reporting in Jira, including Requirements, Test Plans, Sets, Statuses, Types, Defects, Assignees, Environments, etc.

Read more about Xray Test Management for Jira reporting with eazyBI on our documentation site or read our latest blog post and find out how Xray data is organized in eazyBI and explore Xray report samples built with eazyBI.

Bitbucket, Bamboo

Bitbucket is more than a Git code management. Bitbucket guides teams through the development process, giving them one place to plan projects and collaborate on code. Use Bitbucket together with Bamboo to provide continuous integration with testing, deployment, and delivery. Automate and integrate the processes between software development and IT teams to build, test, and release software faster and more reliably.

Use eazyBI to measure min, max, and average times for pull request development, wait and review, build, and deployment executions. Display Bamboo build and deployment information as well as the frequency on a timeline. Measure Average or Total recovery time with Incident issue types, analyze how often bugs in production happen or reappear and how often you encounter issues in the deployment process.

Find out more about Bitbucket and Bamboo integrations with eazyBI in our documentation.

Jira Calculated and Scripted Custom Fields

You can display data based on computed or imported custom field values in Jira to support any number of use cases. At Atlassian Marketplace, you can find several Jira apps that let you create calculated custom fields for issues like Scriptrunner for Jira, Jira Misc custom fields, Elements Connect, Power Scripts, and others. You can analyze any scripted custom fields with eazyBI.

eazyBI automatically detects custom fields during data import. Select them and import them as dimensions and/or properties for “Issue” dimension members.

Scripted field finds the Position list of all linked Stories or Requirements. In eazyBI, we can have a report showing the number of issues by the Position of the linked Story or Requirement.

Find out more about Jira Calculated and Scripted Custom Fields import in eazyBI on our documentation site.

Explore new horizons of Jira reporting by adding data from different sources and apps in eazyBI. Share your findings with business owners and all involved parties–publish Jira reports and dashboards on the eazyBI dashboard, Jira dashboard, or Confluence page using gadgets, or on any other website using iframe.

Gather all your data in one place, experiment, explore, and discover. Create the right set of reports and take your business to the next level based on data-driven decisions. Why not start today?

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Explore Insight Asset Management Data with eazyBI

Daina Tupule — 2021-04-13T00:00:00Z

eazyBI has supported data integration with Insight Server and Data Center for years. Starting from the eazyBI version 6.2, we've added some improvements. Now Insight is also available in Jira Cloud. You can add an additional "layer" of data in your Jira reports by adding Insight custom fields, Insight objects, object attributes, and relationships.

In this article, we'll review a couple of use-cases so you can start building reports based on Insight data. If you prefer a more in-depth review, feel free to watch the Insight and eazyBI webinar recording, covering the integration between eazyBI and Insight and several useful use-cases.

Insight data model

Insight is a very powerful app providing a wide variety of use-cases. Among the most common ones is a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) which is a part of Jira Service Management.

In this article, I will use a CMDB use-case as an example. We'll use a simple setup with two object types Asset and Model.

Here is one Asset: a laptop for a user (owner) Cassy.

Another object type is a Model. In this example, I have only one attribute: a Category. You could use more if needed.

Insight Asset type custom fields let you track your asset lifecycle from the date of purchase to related incidents and upgrades until the end of its use.

As you can see in the screenshot below, there are several Insight custom fields linked to this ticket. One of the linked Insight custom fields is an Asset: "Cassy laptop".

Let me show you how you can use it to analyze Assets.

Extend Jira issue analysis with Insight custom fields

eazyBI enables you to analyze Jira issues extensively. You can check our demo accounts for Jira Core and Software and Service Management.

Insight custom fields (Asset type fields in Cloud) will allow you to extend standard Jira issues reporting capabilities. For example, you can see how many issues are reported for particular assets. Some details on assets could give more insight into why there are as many issues for it and how you should plan your resources and support for specific asset types.

Select Insight custom fields for import into Jira issue cube. You can use them in reports to analyze data split by those custom field values. For example, you can see how many issues were reported by a particular Asset.

Each Insight object type can have some attributes, and you can specify which attributes as additional details for any Insight custom field you would like to import into eazyBI. In the example, I defined and imported Asset attributes Owner, Model, Warranty date, and Cost.

I can use those imported object attributes to add an additional level in reports. I added a custom hierarchy based on the attribute Model grouping all assets by Model. Now, I can use a Model instead of a particular Asset to see which Model caused the most issues and what are the SLA for each Model.

In some cases, you would like to see more details for those assets. For example, detect models with the most issues and check details on asset level. I used imported attributes Owner, Warranty date, and Cost to build custom measures representing those details for Assets.

Analysis of Insight objects, attributes, and relationships

What if you are looking for specific asset groups like assets with outdated inventory, or high-maintenance costs? With eazyBI you can find all the assets with an overdue warranty. If you list your assets based on assigned service tickets, you'd find the most faulty ones.

For this in-depth assent analysis allowing you to dive into your CMDB, you can import the Insight schema into a separate eazyBI cube. There you will have all the details for objects to analyze objects, attributes, and their relationships. There will be limited basic Jira issue information you can use for those types of reports. The main focus here is to analyze the objects themselves.

You can build an overview report on all assets using the Object dimension to pull in all attribute data imported for a particular object type. Here is an overview of Assets objects with full details and some information about created and resolved issues.

eazyBI supports the analysis of the objects based on outbound references. You can import outbound references as dimensions and use them or their attributes for your reports. In this example, I imported the attribute Model of the Asset as a dimension. A model is an object itself in Insight with an attribute Category. I can use the dimension Asset Model and build the hierarchy by Category using outbound reference attributes. This allows me to analyze not only Asset models but Asset Models by Categories.

I this example report, I added an additional level on top of the Model to group all assets by Category - Laptop, Phone, Monitor, to see which category has the most objects, and highest number of incidents. I also added a summary, to see Objects split by warranty date over years to see if objects with overdue warranty dates cause more incidents. This is not the case for Monitors. However, Phones and Laptops have some incidents. Phones have 2 of 6 faulty objects compared to 2 of 9 for Laptops. Phones have more overdue warranties as well.

Analyze your own Insight data

While there are many ways how you can use Insight, there are even more options on how you can use eazyBI to analyze it. We covered a few simple scenarios that could be easily adjusted for your particular Insight schema for issue or object data analysis.

You can use the flexibility of eazyBI to explore your data and look at your objects and Jira issues from many different perspectives. Play around, experiment, explore, and discover. Build the right mix of reports to answer all your burning questions.

Try eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira on Atlassian Marketplace for free and start your journey of Insight data analysis.

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eazyBI: More Than a BI Tool

Līva Pavasare — 2021-03-26T00:00:00Z

In our team, I might be the last person involved in eazyBI product development. That gives me another perspective–to see behind the everyday business. We don’t just build a great Business Intelligence tool; we bring many other gifts to this world. As it is our 10th anniversary in March, let me give you a short glimpse of what else is going on at eazyBI.

For a few years now, eazyBI takes part in the #pledge1percent movement that encourages companies to pledge 1% of their product, equity, profit, or staff time to a charity of their own choosing. We make annual donations to certain local NGOs that stand for anti-corruption, public transparency, and social inclusion. We see these aspects as a foundation of a cohesive community in which we desire to live in.

Recently, we also started to support local funds that modernize mental health services and help medical workers. Those are not randomly chosen charities; we put enough time and effort into choosing organizations that do great work for our community.

Occasionally we expand our horizons and focus on more global initiatives. When the world was still doing business in person, we boarded a plane each time we wanted to attend an event. We calculated (yes, we love data) that our carbon footprint per year is around 11 tonnes of CO2 solely for business travel.

It turns out there is a price for every tonne of CO2 we emit. For example, if you know a trustworthy nonprofit that mitigates climate change, you can offset your carbon footprint by contributing to renewable energy projects. So, we took care of our soul on this one. It may sound like a simple idea, but it guided us to become more conscious about our corporate actions.

Now we commit to also making other small steps:

local suppliers as the first choice,
no more printed documents,
swags with less packaging,
edible gifts etc.

Oh, and one of us switched to an electric car.

Aside from inspiring and supporting this company culture, many of our teammates take matters into their own hands. They share their expertise and skills by examining a bachelor thesis for university students, developing the information systems for non-profit organizations, giving lectures to the local start-up communities, and even translating scientific texts. Every year, some of our bright minds become mentors and participants in the Latvian Open Data Hackathon, aiming to develop innovative solutions for services to local governments, their residents, and businesses. Did I mention they do it during their free time or on weekends? If you’re reading this and wondering how they manage this, you’re not alone. However, last week I read an article on neuroscience. It said that the feeling of giving biologically could be as thrilling as the pleasure of eating a tasty ice-cream on a sunny summer day… just saying.

eazyBI team taking part in Open Data Hackathons in Latvia

I can’t go on without mentioning that the last year was like no other. Coronavirus unleashed a new era for everyone. We felt there is something we could share with others. While eazyBI has been a remote work company since its inception, for many local companies, work-from-home set-up turned out to be a significant adjustment.

We hosted a webinar in Latvian about how to work remotely without giving up productivity and/or sanity. It led us to organize a public discussion with other experts and remote work opponents. We felt proud that more and more people noticed all the benefits of this kind of freedom that you get from not being compelled to go to the office.

Yet, we understand that working from home during pandemics is a different story. Families with kids had to face (still do) many problems when studying from home became a reality. Often it wasn’t about how to use technology but whether every kid has a device to use. Alongside other companies, we helped rural schools to buy devices for pupils facilitating at-home learning to stay connected with teachers and classmates.

Education is something we all care about – a lot. Everyone is constantly signing up for new courses and conferences. Two of our teammates took on a yearlong mentoring job for school teachers in computer science and programming.

“I wanted to keep my commitment to volunteer 1% of my time. Tutoring was something I felt confident about,” says one of them.

Simple, maybe… but not easy. He admits that it takes a lot of patience. Sometimes you also become a therapist or at least a comforter to teachers. But both of them agree that it’s worth it and you get back even more. “I have developed a better understanding of the subjects I instruct because I get to see them in a different light. I hear unbelievable stories, and I can learn from other professionals”.

Jānis and Jānis from eazyBI at the StartIT teacher mentoring program

We inspire each other and create our company culture together. I’m happy to be a part of it and looking forward to seeing what happens in the next decade. Whatever the future may bring, I’m certain that this passion and active interest in the community’s well-being is not going anywhere.

Learn more about eazyBI:

"The First Ten Years, The First Thousands of Customers" by Raimonds Simanovskis, CEO and founder of eazyBI;
Our 10 years visualization on eazyBI dashboard;
Find out how it all started - “Different Start Up Story”.

The First Ten Years, the First Thousands of Customers

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2021-03-25T00:00:00Z

eazyBI as a company is turning ten years old today. Unfortunately, we cannot make big parties during this weird time. But we can reflect on what have we achieved, what has changed, and what has remained the same.

eazyBI for sure has been a very successful business and I have overachieved what I have dreamed about when starting it. But we do not have specific goals that we should achieve that would define us as successful. We celebrate everyday work when we improve our product, when we help our customers, when we learn from our colleagues, when we work as a team. We like the process and not just the end result.

I see that for many startups the end goal is "the exit" which typically means that they are acquired by larger companies. They celebrate that and receive a lot of congratulations. But in reality, it means that nothing will stay as it was before and not everyone will be happy afterward. Some employees might not be needed anymore in the new company. Some existing happy customers might not be needed as well, as they will not fit the strategy of the new company. Founders will be disappointed that things move much slower in big corporations. Hopefully, founders and investors got their money but that probably is the only thing to celebrate.

We do not have investors and we do not have pressure for "the exit". We have good enough multi-million revenues and profits and we should not sacrifice our other values to increase the financial results. Our team and customers are more important than that.

As Atlassian is our main partner then we share many of their values. One of the values is "Don’t #@!% the customer" and it has been important for us during all these ten years.

Initially, before our success with Atlassian, I experimented with different data sources for eazyBI. Some of these integrations didn't bring much revenues for us but all of them helped to improve our product and therefore we are grateful to these customers. I checked that our oldest still paying customer is using eazyBI to analyze Highrise data. Highrise is a product by Basecamp that was canceled several years ago. But they have the "until the end of the internet" policy and they still provide the service to remaining paying customers. We follow the same principle – if we still can provide the integration then we continue to serve our customers that use these data sources.

"Don’t #@!% the customer" doesn't mean that you should do everything to please your customers. Because you can't do everything and therefore you won't do. It means that you should be honest with your customers.

We are honest about our pricing. We have a standard public pricing policy that is the same for all customers. We do not make big unexpected price changes. We suggest the right solution to the customer and not the most expensive one.

We are honest about the product development. We do not promise that the product will have features that we have not started to develop. We do not promise the exact date when the new version will be released. But we do listen to our customers and the prioritization of the backlog is primarily done by the number of customers who are interested in the new feature.

We are honest about the support. We help customers to build their first reports but we do not promise to build all their reports. We teach them and help them to become more knowledgeable eazyBI users so that they can do more by themselves.

We will not do something only because customers asked for it. At first, we want to understand why they need it and then we will try to make the best solution that solves that need.

We celebrate every day that we can help our customers to understand their data better. Thank you for trusting us and let's continue for the next ten years (or until the end of the internet).

Learn more about eazyBI:

Our 10 years visualization on eazyBI dashboard;
Find out how it all started - “Different Start Up Story”.

Custom Jira Reports: How to Create Jira Reports with eazyBI?

Jānis Gulbis — 2021-02-10T00:00:00Z

Have you reached the limit of built-in Jira reports? Ready to move to the next level? You don’t need to be a programmer, an IT graduate, or a data analyst to build advanced custom reports in Jira using eazyBI. In fact, you don’t even need to install eazyBI to try it out.

In this step-by-step guide, I’ll show you how you can build useful reports in minutes using only your computer mouse and your best “clicking finger”.

So what is eazyBI for Jira?

eazyBI for Jira is a powerful reporting app for Jira Cloud, Server, and Data Center, integrated seamlessly into Jira.

eazyBI has been among the top-selling apps on Atlassian Marketplace for years, and for a good reason. When it comes to Jira reporting, you can do virtually anything with eazyBI–from basic reports and pivot tables to complex charts, dashboards, and completely unique use-cases.

It always amazes me what you can do with eazyBI. I think we’re yet to find something where we’ve not been able to do what we want to do!

~ Paul Hardaker, Head of DevOps and R&D Operations, Global Decision Analytics at Experian

How is eazyBI Different From Built-in Jira Reports?

Jira already has a set of reports, dashboards, gadgets, and tools to measure Jira data. Why would you need another tool for that?

If you’ve tried to use Jira reports for your Jira reporting needs, you probably know that the built-in report configuration and customization options are very limited.

eazyBI for Jira removes those limits. It brings new dimensions, metrics, charts, calculations, and unlimited customization options for Jira analysis and beyond. And all that within Jira, without the need of any other external tools.

When importing data, eazyBI reorganizes it into an analytical “data cube”–a performance optimized multi-dimensional analytical database. Having a separate OLAP database enables much quicker responses and also reduces the impact on Jira. It also lets you analyze the history of the data. You can store historical values of statuses, assignees, and more, to see how these values change over time, how long issues stay in each status, etc.

eazyBI is an extremely flexible and useful app. It certainly takes your Jira reporting to an advanced level. Anything from lowest details to a high profile interactive executive dashboards can be built seamlessly. On top of this, you will be able to perform any calculations and derive any insights not only from literally every Jira field, but also combine and map them to multiple sources of data. Their support is top-notch!

Alex Surkov, Deloitte

Analyze Data From Different Sources

In eazyBI, you can analyze data from Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and many popular Atlassian and 3rd party Jira apps like Insight, Bitbucket, Bamboo, Tempo Timesheets, Tempo Planner, Zephyr for Jira, Zephyr Scale, Xray, Projectrak, and more. Check out the full list of eazyBI integrations.

You can also analyze and visualize your data from external data sources like SQL databases, Rest API, spreadsheets, and CSV files. Check out the full list of supported eazyBI data sources.

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Try eazyBI Without Installing

eazyBI for Jira provides good support and straightforward documentation. What if you don’t know the tool and you would like to test it beforehand.

Installing eazyBI in Jira Cloud is straightforward. But for Jira Data Center, you’ll need set up the database and do some configuration.

What if you don’t have the access, the time, or the patience to set up a trial instance? What can you do?

The good news is that there is a way to test the tool without even installing it. There’s a public demo environment fully equipped with samples. You don’t need to install anything. You can access dozens of report examples, enjoy the experience, and play around directly in eazyBI demo accounts!

eazyBI Playground

Probably the easiest way is to start with the eazyBI Playground.

It’s the fastest and the simplest way to try the eazyBI report builder in action without signing-up or installing anything.

Read on to get familiar with some basic concepts and build your first reports.

Basic Terms and Concepts

eazyBI is a fully-featured business intelligence (BI) app. As with all data analysis tools, there are some inherited complexities. To better understand how data analysis tools work, there are a few basic concepts and terms you have to know before you can get started:

What are eazyBI accounts;
What is a dimension;
What is a measure;
How to use the eazyBI report builder.

But worry not, I’ll quickly introduce you to all these concepts.

eazyBI Accounts

eazyBI accounts are somewhat similar to Jira projects. That’s the place where you import your data, create data sets (a.k.a. data cubes), build reports, dashboards, and assign account users.

In eazyBI, you can have one or many accounts. Each account is like an isolated “data silo”. You can import data from one or many Jira projects and other sources. You get to decide what data you want to import, limit user access, etc.

For example, you can have one eazyBI account where you import all your projects and have general overview reports across all your projects. And, you could have a single-project account with as many details as possible for in-depth project-level reports.

Data Dimensions

In eazyBI, all available dimensions are available at the top of the report builder. When building reports, you drag-and-drop those dimensions to rows or columns. Simply put, the dimensions help you structure (or break down) the information the way you need it.

For example, if you want to get some information for a specific year, quarter, month, or day. You can use the “Time” dimension, where you can see the top-level “All times” hierarchy member and expand it down to a specific year, quarter, month, or day.

Measures

As the name suggests, measures are values you can measure or express as a number. Measures can be numerical values, but you can also measure “counts”. For example number of issues in a project.

eazyBI comes with dozens of predefined standard and custom measures. Issue counts, estimated and spent hours, resolution days, and much more.

You can also define your own measures and calculations using an MDX query language by Mondrian.

eazyBI Report Builder

Let me quickly introduce you to the report builder interface.

You'll see a simple table report when you first open the playground report.

Show or hide all available Jira dimensions.
The “Pages” area is where you can add dimensions you want to use as filters in your reports. Those filters then appear as drop-down selectors (8) in the report and can be used as “Common filters” in dashboards to filter all reports in a dashboard at once.
The “Columns” area will have the “Measures” dimension (5) already pre-selected by default. You can add other dimensions to columns if needed.
The “Rows” area is where you can add dimensions to “break down” (group) the measures selected in columns. In this example, “Issues created” and “Issues closed” by year.
The “Measures” dimension. This one is essential and cannot be removed. You can expand it to see all available measures, pick the ones you want to analyze, or add your own custom calculated measures.
The chart-type selection tabs. You can change chart type at any moment–feel free to explore and experiment to find the best visual representation of your data.
Expand, Undo, Redo, Chart Notes, and Export buttons, as well as chart settings. More options available for charts.
The drop-down filter with all the dimension members from the “Page” area (2).
The report area.

Building Your First Report

Now that we’ve covered the basics let’s build a few reports. We’ll use the eazyBI playground report as our workspace.

Feel free to follow along in this virtual mini-workshop. Don’t worry, your changes won’t be saved.

Created and Closed Issues by Issue Type

First, let’s remove the “Time dimension” and replace it with the “Issue Type” dimension. To do that:

Hover over the “Time” dimension in Rows and click on the “x” to remove it,
From the dimensions area, drag the “Issue Type” dimension into Rows.

You have built a single-row table with a total number of issues created and issues closed across all issue types. (“Issues created” is the default pre-selected measure when you create a new report).

Converting Table Into Bar Chart

To convert this simple table report into a bar chart, click on the “Bar” tab in the chart-type selector.

To hide (or show) report builder blocks–dimensions, rows, columns–use the “Expand” icon on the left side of the report menu.

Customizing Your Charts

Let’s change the assigned color for “Issues closed”. Click on the colored square in the chart legend and open the color selector. Select the green color for resolved issues.

You can click and interact with almost every element in eazyBI charts and tables–the legend label and the legend color key, data labels, and bars.

If you click on a legend color key, you can change colors, add labels, move one or more measures to separate axes, and even add other chart types to the mix.

Try it to learn about available configuration options.

Explore Your Data

Clicking on measure labels or data bars will give you different data exploration options like “Drill into”, “Drill across”, etc.

The “Drill into” will open and expand the next hierarchy level. For example, expand the Year dimension to see Quarters. The “Drill across” is a very powerful data exploration feature allowing you to break down selected data by another dimension.

Let’s drill into “All Issue Types“ to see how all the issues break down by specific Issue types.

Click on “All Issue Types” and then “Drill into”.

If you would now switch back to your table, you’d see that eazyBI has updated the information in the table also. Sometimes it’s easier to explore the data from the chart, but for more complex charts, it’s better to prepare the data in the table first before switching to a chart.

If you want to build a slightly different report than the one you already have, you do not need to start from scratch. You can always save the current report, alter it, and save it as a new one.

Adding Page Filters

What if you want to specify which issue types to show in the report? You can use “Pages” filter to add report-level filters. These filters can also be used as “Common filters” in dashboards.

To do that, drag-and-drop any dimension in the “Pages” section, and it will appear as a drop-down selector above the chart.

You can also “Duplicate” one dimension to have it both in “Rows” and also in the “Pages”. To do that, in the “Rows” area, click and expand “Issue Type” dimension, and click on the “Pages” button at the bottom-right corner of the expanded block.

Now the “Issue Type” dimension is also added to the “Pages” section and appears as a drop-down filter in the report. This drop-down filter will let the user select which issue type (or multiple types) to show in the report.

If you go back to your Bar chart, the filter is still there and you can see all the issue types.

For example, you can select “Bug” and get the report only for bugs.

If you want to compare more than one issue type, switch from “Single” to “Multiple” value selection and click on “Story” and “Bug”, then click “OK”.

Building More Advanced Charts

Let’s continue from where we left off and take this one step further. We’ll add one more dimension to the mix.

First, remove the “Issues closed” measure. You can do that by clicking on “Issues closed” in the legend and then “Remove”, or un-selecting the measure in the “Measures” dimension.
Next, add the “Status” dimension in “Columns" right after “Measures”.
By default, eazyBI will use the top-level member “All statuses”, but we want to open all underlying statuses. To do that, click on the “Status” dimension to expand it, and in the “All hierarchy level members” select the “Status“ level.

You should get a chart like this below.

We’ll do a few more things:

Remove the “Closed” status from the chart. In the chart legend, click on the label “Closed” and then “Remove”.
Make this report “Stacked”–click the “Stacked” option.
Add “Values”from the “Data labels” drop-down.

Creating Pie Charts

When it comes to comparing values, it is always better to use bar charts (Learn more about how to pick the right chart type). But sometimes, we want to understand the overall composition of each set via pie-charts.

Starting from the previous report:

Switch chart type to a Pie chart.
You’ll notice that the pies are split by “Issue status” and composed of “Issue types”. To change the composition by “Status” instead, use “Swap axes” option.
Enable “Relative size” to scale pie sizes based on the number of issues created.
Add “Values and percentage” data labels to be able to read the data more efficiently.
Add name labels directly to the pie wedges.
Remove the legend, which is now redundant.

Line Charts and Trends

Let’s take a look at those created and closed issues from a different perspective. You might be interested in knowing how those two measures are changing over time and what’s the overall trend.

We’ll start from the beginning for this one, so refresh the eazyBI playground report to get back to the starting point.

To see all created and closed issues only by month and hide other levels, expand the Time dimension and select “Month” from the “All hierarchy level members”.

The “Nonempty” button in the “Rows” area will hide all empty rows which contain no data.

Now switch to a line chart and assign the same colors as before for consistency: blue for issues created and green for issues closed.

While this already looks good, these lines do not give a clear perspective yet. We’ll add linear trendlines for both measures to improve that.

Click on the measure name in the legend and select “Add calculated” > ”Linear trend”

Now you have linear trends for both measures. New issues are created faster than issues are closed–a very common trend.

Version-Release Charts

Before we round-up for this section, it would be great to see how this created and closed issues trend correlates to actual version release dates.

To add this data, expand the “Measures dimension”, search for “version” and select “Version release”.

There are few chart configuration steps required to make our “version release dates” appear as vertical lines in our line charts:

Click on the “Version release” color marker in the legend to open chart customization options.
Select “Type” and change it to “Vertical line”.
In the same chart options drop-down, select “Data label” and “top vertical” to show the version number on the vertical line.

I hope you’ll have a much deeper insight into what’s going on. Clearly, the number of closed issues often increases right before each release.

Sparklines and Heatmaps

Before closing this post, I just wanted to show you few more cool features you can use in your table and Gauge charts – the Sparklines and Heatmaps.

Sparklines

Sparklines are small charts within table cells. In this example, I’ll add little bars based on issues created and issues closed by issue type.

In any table, click on the measure name > “Add calculated” > “Sparklines” > “Bars”

Drag-and-drop the “Issues created bars” column next to “Issues create and you’ll have something like this:

Heatmaps

Heatmaps is a form of conditional cell formatting. You can apply a color gradient to a column or the table based on cell values. Heatmaps will help you quickly see top and bottom values in bigger tables.

In this example, start from a fresh eazyBI playground report and drill into “Months”. The fastest way to do this is by clicking on the dimension column header and selecting “Month” level from "All hierarchy level members".

Add “Issue types” dimension in Columns after “Measures” and select to show all members at the “Issue type” level.

You should now have a multi-dimensional pivot table like below:

To add cell formatting, click on a “measure“ in the column and select “Cell formatting” from the context menu. Choose the “Heatmap” from the top menu and assign a color for the maximum value to get a gradient color coding from min to max value.

Do the same for Issues closed, only choose a green color for consistency. And here’s what you’ll get.

Learn more about Sparklines, Heatmaps, and other improvements in eazyBI 6.2.

Conclusion

In this article, we went over some first steps and the basic functionality of eazyBI for Jira. There is much more you can do.

Start a free 30-day eazyBI trial to explore your own Jira data, try different reports, add your own MDX calculations, save your reports, and create some dashboards.

In case of any struggles or questions, drop us an e-mail at support@eazybi.com, and we’ll help you out!

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eazyBI 6.2–Sparklines, Cell Formatting, and More

Lauma Cīrule — 2021-01-14T00:00:00Z

If you want to highlight a point or find a pattern, some visual aid helps a great deal. The latest eazyBI release includes several improvements for the table and gauge charts that will help you read your data so much easier. Furthermore, there are quite a few other much anticipated improvements worth mentioning so please read on.

In this article I’ll highlight a few eazyBI 6.2 version updates. If you want to go a little bit deeper, feel free to watch the recent release webinar:

If you just want a quick overview, please read on.

Sparklines

Sparkline is a tiny chart inserted in a table cell to provide visualization and trends of the measure. It can be used alone or added next to its data cell to give a greater insight into that particular measure. This new option provides the eazyBI table view with a lot more insights.

You can add Sparklines in eazyBI with a few clicks through standard calculations or create your own Sparkline data set with an MDX calculated measure. With this feature, not only can you see the data for the selected context, but, in a glimpse of an eye, you can compare it with others (sparkline bar) or see trends over time (line, area, or columns).

This new sparkline functionality can also be added to the Gantt and Gauge charts for more ways to create an overview dashboard.

Upgrade of Table Cell Formatting

When reading the data to find the trends and limit values, visual representation in the chart is very helpful, but the charts have limited options for representing text. The table is more convenient when you need some text next to the numeric value. To make tables easier to read and interpret, you can use table cell formatting.

A basic version of this feature has been available in eazyBI for some time, but it sees a whole new light in the latest eazyBI version. Now, not only can you highlight the range of values, but also add exact values, regular expressions, and create heatmaps.

The new version of table cell formatting also gives an option to enter a custom MDX formula to define advanced criteria for highlighting cells. For example, you could highlight all cells where issues with the Highest priorities are created.

Furthermore, you can now add the formatting also to the Gantt chart table cells! Go ahead, experiment with text, relative date, and number highlighting to make your tables a whole lot more informative.

Text in Gauge

As tables are becoming more powerful, so are the eazyBI Gauge charts. Not only can you add Sparklines in the Gauge charts now, but starting from the latest version, you can also display the text fields in the Gauge chart only values view. Additionally, you can add a Markdown formatting to emphasize a point or add clickable URLs.

MDX Autocomplete Improvements

The MDX calculations provide “the next level” to the data analysis. Writing MDX calculations can be tough, which is why MDX autocomplete is one of the most beloved functionalities of eazyBI. As you may know, it is an outcome of an eazyBI team hackathon. While extensively using the functionality ourselves and hearing feedback from customers, we tackled it again, polishing it up and making it even more intuitive.

Now the autocomplete also recognizes the hidden measures and dimensions, properties, and level names. The typeahead will give more options to choose from–not only if the measure starts with the combination of letters, but also if it is found anywhere in the measure's name. Happy MDX coding!

Dashboard Layout

The final step of displaying the charts is adding them to the dashboard. Until now, eazyBI has been calculating the charts' height dynamically, which sometimes made adding charts next to each other tricky. Now there is an option to resize the charts to adjust and fix their height, making the chart layout in the dashboard much more organized.

Improvements for the Atlassian Insight Integration

There are significant improvements for the eazyBI and Insight integration. Now you can import Insight custom field attributes for Jira issues. You can use this to access all specified attributes for Insight custom fields. You can import the data as dimensions or as properties in those dimensions.

Furthermore, now you can also use those properties to add custom hierarchy in Insight custom field dimension. For example, you could add employees as a sub-group of assets, or assets as a sub-group of asset-types–you decide.

And There Is More…

In addition to the great new end-user features, there are several back end improvements:

An option to add automatic data import from files;
Limiting the Test app imported data;
Compatibility with MySQL 8.x.

You can learn more about all the new features and bug-fixes in the eazyBI 6.2 change log.

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eazyBI, where is my Jira data?

Gerda Zandersone — 2020-12-10T00:00:00Z

Sometimes new eazyBI users get confused about how Jira data are represented in eazyBI. While Jira users are being intimately familiar with the Jira issue layout, dashboard gadgets, and issue navigator, the re-structured analytical data set in eazyBI seems different. How to make sense of it?

Hi, my name is Gerda. I’m a former Jira admin who joined eazyBI about a year ago. Despite my experience with Jira, starting out with eazyBI was not as easy as expected.

eazyBI is a business intelligence (BI) tool thus it has a glory of a fully-featured BI tool, as well as some inherited complexity. Like many other human beings, changes and the “unknown" scares me. But let me show you how eazyBI reporting works from the perspective of a Jira user and admin.

I’ll demonstrate how the Jira data in eazyBI can be represented in the same way as in Jira. And then I’ll add a few eazyBI tips to go way beyond what’s possible with Jira. This has helped me to get started, explore, and to know eazyBI better from a Jira admins perspective which was very familiar to me.

If you’re more of a video person feel free to watch the recording of my presentation from eazyBI Community Days 2020 where I explained this topic in more details.

Let’s start by taking a look at a few most popular Jira report gadgets.

Two-Dimensional Gadget (Pivot Table)

I’ll begin with my favorite – a two-dimensional gadget. It lets you configure two fields and get a pivot table. In Jira, you can select custom or standard fields that have predefined values. In a similar way, you can look at eazyBI dimensions and members it contains, like “Resolution", “Priority", “Assignee", “Reporter", and others.

It is my favorite gadget because it gives Jira users a deeper overview of issue data. For example, how many unresolved issues are with the highest priority?

To achieve the same view in eazyBI, you can start your report creation by dragging and dropping the “Priority” dimension into columns and the “Resolution” dimension to rows. Then select in both dimensions their members and enable “Totals” for rows and columns.

We have created the same report, but eazyBI can do much more than what’s already available in Jira. Let me share a couple of ideas on how to enhance your reports with eazyBI:

Instead of using the “Total” column, you can expand the “All Priorities” level in the dimension as it will give the same result. All level member aggregates the values beneath.
Use cell formatting to change the background for all level members. Or use it to set some threshold for a measure that can be seen immediately.
You can also add other dimensions in Pages for filtering. In Jira, I always needed to have one saved filter that contains data for gadgets. But in eazyBI I can have the search above the chart and change the data I want to explore.
The “Issues created” measure is selected by default. But you can change it to any other measure. In the below example, I selected “Hours spent”. Now you can see that a lot of time has been spent on “Low” priority issues in this example.

Pie Chart

I cannot imagine my dashboard without this donut chart. Though it is not recommended to use a pie or a donut chart for comparison, I do like the overview it provides in this case.

In Jira, I can get a donut chart on issue count per resolution value. In eazyBI, choosing a pie chart and selecting the donut chart option will create the same view as the Jira report.

But there is much more to explore than that:

Switch to a simple pie chart and add an additional dimension, for example – “Priority”. Now, the same information will be split by priorities – each pie for a different priority type (or any other dimension you want to split by - “Assignee”, “Reporter”, “Issue type”, etc.).
Change the color for your dimension members to have some color coding. I recommend using the same color for dimension members (like “Unresolved”, “Done”, “Won’t do”, “Declined”) across all your reports and dashboards.
Select a relative size option and have a quick overview of the priority type that has the most issues.

Issue Statistics

“Issue statistics” gadget in this example shows the issue count per priority type. In eazyBI, choosing the bar chart, and adding % from the total, gives the same look as in Jira.

eazyBI allows you to have a more granular view:

Add one more dimension to see the data split by resolution (or any other dimension you want to see – “Assignee”, “Reporter”, “Issue type”, etc.)
Select the stacked option to see the dimension members next to each other.
Select the percentage option to see each proportion value as a percentage of the total. Also, enable data labels to see the percentage values.

Created vs Resolved Issues

“Created vs resolved chart” in Jira shows how many issues have been created and resolved over a period of time. You can get the same view in eazyBI by selecting “Issues created” and “Issues resolved” measures and using a line chart area option for data visualization.

In eazyBI, you can add more data and enhance your reports:

Add more measures to see Jira data from different perspectives.
Mix chart types so each measure can be distinguished in the report.
Use different axis if the measures are represented by different units.
And explore more options in each chart…

Combine all these methods to get a complete issue overview in one report.

In the report below, you can see how many issues have been created and resolved in each month, and how many days on average it took for issues to be resolved. In addition, the “Open issues” measure shows unresolved issues at the end of each month. “Open issues” are calculated as all “Issues created” minus “Issues resolved” in a particular month.

(If you want to see how you can interact with the report, see it in eazyBI demo account)

Simple, Yet Advanced Tip!

Sometimes you might want to investigate and do some more complex things with your Jira data. In eazyBI, there are different advanced built-in calculations available for easy issue data analysis – min, max, average, trend-lines, comparison to previous periods, and others. You can add those to your charts with a couple of clicks. These are handy and powerful tools helping you explore your Jira data easily.

Combine these calculations with different options that I showed you in this article and achieve a nice-looking report like this (if you want to see step by step on how it is built, check eazyBI training videos: Episode 4)

My last advice to you – keep exploring Jira with eazyBI. Find reports that support your decisions and help you find hidden bottlenecks and new opportunities.

And for inspiration – see examples in eazyBI demo account, eazyBI documentation, eazyBI community, and contact eazyBI support – we’ll help you to find the answers you are looking for!

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How to Create Custom Tempo reports in Jira with eazyBI?

Jānis Plūme — 2020-11-20T00:00:00Z

eazyBI has had integrations with Tempo for a very long time. But since eazyBI version 6.1 you can now easily access data also from Tempo Planner on all platforms–Cloud, Server, and Data Center. How to keep track of your planned and logged Tempo hours more efficiently?

Tempo Planner is the most effective and dynamic resource planning and capacity reporting tool embedded in Jira, and allows planning for multiple resources on one issue.

It is an indispensable tool for planning, tracking, and managing how your team is spending their time. Yet, even with the most thorough planning life always makes its own corrections. How to prevent the unexpected and the unpredictable?

In this article we’ll look at different ways you can monitor your project progress with custom Tempo Planner reports to make sure your projects are on time and on budget.

If you prefer a more in-depth video, feel free to watch the Tempo and eazyBI webinar covering the integration between eazyBI and Tempo Planner as well as several useful use-cases.

In Search for Meaning

Insights are often hidden in plain sight. The same object looks different when you look at it from a different perspective. The same is true for data.

The good news is that you already have the data–Jira issues, Tempo Planner’s planned and spent hours, teams, assignments, and projects. Use it to monitor your project performance, bottlenecks, outliers, trends, anomalies, and more. Make well-informed, timely, smart decisions and prevent disasters before they emerge.

Tempo Planner has a set of useful built-in reports providing operative insights of your planned and spent hours. But you can go even further with eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira.

Introducing eazyBI

eazyBI is more than just a set of reports and charts. It’s a fully-featured business intelligence app (and hence the BI). With eazyBI you can explore, analyze, and visualize your data from every possible perspective. Jira Software, Jira Service Desk, Tempo and other popular apps, as well as external data sources–you can access them all.

Now you can easily access, analyze, and visualize your Tempo Planner data in eazyBI on all platforms–Cloud, Server, and Data Center.

Manage your time smarter, identify bottlenecks and main underlying causes.
Reduce estimation errors or ineffective resource allocation.
Balance planned hours among teams and projects efficiently.
Keep track of trends, threats, and opportunities.
Monitor your performance and progress daily.
Improve planning, execution, and forecasting.
Keep your teams informed, productive, accountable, and responsible.

Let’s explore the Universe of Tempo Planner data and dive into several use cases.

Before we begin, you should know that you can copy these reports to your own eazyBI account using report definitions. Report definitions are like templates, describing report structure. Copy these report definitions from Tempo Planner report examples page in eazyBI documentation.

Team Hours Weekly Accountability Report

Analyze your hours spent by the team and by assignee over a period of time. See how much time was logged by each of the teams or in total. See at a glance who’s working on what and when. Balance your teams and employees to complete your projects in time and within budget.

Furthermore, use page filters to narrow down to specific time period, user, project, or any other issue dimension or combination–all from a single report.

Tempo Hours Planned vs Hours Spent

Bar charts are good for comparing two or more sets of values. In eazyBI you can easily compare your Tempo hours planned vs hours spent over time side-by-side in a simple bar chart report.

But the true power here comes from using one or more dimensions in page filters. Now you can evaluate how your plans are holding up against actual logged hours for each team, project or account.

Reallocate some time for neglected projects to keep up with your milestones, or dig into project details to discover more.

Gantt Chart for Project Planning & Progress

Each project has its own internal complexity. Sub-projects, dependencies, estimates, assignments, plans, and work actual progress. Use Gantt charts to help you make sense of all the moving parts without missing anything.

Start with project overview and general progress, and expand into sub-projects to see the status and progress of each component.

For a better overview, zoom in or out in the time-frame by selecting daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly periods.

Planned Assigned Hours vs Contribution

The assignment vs contribution report will show you individual time spent vs total hours planned for each user.

Just like in other eazyBI reports, you can easily narrow it down by time period, project, version, or issue type.

You’ll notice that this report is very similar the previous “Planned vs Spent Hours” bar chart report. If you swap the “Logged by” dimension in the above report with the “Time” dimension, you’ll have the “Monthly Planned vs Spent Hours” report again. Swap it with the Project dimension in Rows and you’ll have your planned and spent hours broken down by project.

You have the full flexibility. You can break down your reports by Issue Type, Fix Version, or other issue dimension. There’s a lot to discover.

Project Flow Burn-Up Chart

Burn-up charts are good for project forecasting, planning, and overview. You can use the cumulative Tempo planned hours as a guideline and project road-map. Add weekly hours spent and cumulative hours spent to see how you stack up against the plan. Are you on track or have you over or underestimated?

Weekly Hours Spent by Issue Type

Where has your team spent the most time-hunting down bugs, or making new features? What does this information tell you about your processes? Should you account for some additional time during the project, to address all the bugs.

Add another layer to this project by breaking it down by assignee to see who’s working on stories and who’s fixing bugs.

Planned vs Spent Hours by Issue Resolution

One of the best ways to identify under-estimated or overestimated hours is to see your Tempo planned and spent hours by for resolved issues.

In the example below you can see that the first issue is “Done” needed only 10 hours instead of 24 hours planned. Now you can reallocate additional hours to other tasks or update your project estimates accordingly.

Experiment, Explore, Discover

This article covered only a few of the use-cases for project planning and analysis.

You can use the drag-and-drop simplicity and the flexibility of eazyBI to explore your data and look at your teams and projects from many different angles. Play around, experiment, explore, and discover. Build the right mix of reports to answer all your burning questions.

Share your insights with your team to provide feedback, motivation, accountability, and responsibility across all your projects.

Try eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira free on Atlassian Marketplace and start your journey of Tempo data analysis.

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eazyBI 6.1 Release Notes

Jānis Gulbis — 2020-09-08T00:00:00Z

eazyBI version 6.1 comes with dozens of new features and bug fixes. From Tempo Planner updates, custom property hierarchies, and report specific calculated measures, to various administration, usability, and reporting improvements.

Watch The Webinar

If you just want to know the gist of it, read along… But if you’re more of a deep-dive video person, feel free to dive into the 50-min eazyBI 6.1 release notes webinar.

Change the playback speed or use the "Chapters" from the bottom-right video settings to jump directly to the topic you’re interested in.

Report Template Accounts

We’ve always encouraged you to share your report ideas and re-use effective reports across many projects and teams. Often you’d like to use the same set of reports and dashboards for each of your projects and teams separately. While you could do that with some manual exporting and importing of report definitions, any report improvements had to be updated manually.

In eazyBI 6.1 we are introducing report template accounts. It’s a much more convenient way to share and update a set of reports across many accounts.

Now you can set one or several accounts as template accounts and then use them in your team and project accounts. eazyBI will automatically update all your reports and measures from the template account whenever you import templates into your team or project accounts. This way, all reports in your team and projects accounts will be up-to-date and you will be on the same page with anyone in your company.

When creating a Reports template account, just select the check-mark under the account description.

Whenever you want to import reports, dashboards, and calculated members from a template account, go to Import options > Additional options, and select one of the available template accounts

You can learn more about eazyBI report template accounts in eazyBI documentation.

Tempo Planner and Tempo Teams

Tempo Planner allows teams to manage resources and capacity in Jira, providing a real-time view of all resources, their statuses and plans.

Tempo Planner data import was already available on Jira Cloud. But starting from the eazyBI version 6.1 it is now available on Jira Server.

eazyBI now imports a new measure Tempo planned hours supporting planned time in period per user on Issues and Projects.

We also added a new dimension Logged by Team, as well as a few new measures Tempo planned hours, Tempo billed hours, and Hours spent which will work with this dimension.

Now you can analyze planned time versus actual logged time per user or team.

If you have the Tempo Planner installed you will see the import options for Tempo Planner data in the eazyBI for Jira import options tab.

Learn more about Tempo data analysis in our documentation.

Custom Property Hierarchies

In eazyBI version 5.3 we introduced an option to build custom weekly hierarchies in the Time dimension.

Starting with eazyBI version 6.1, you can now create custom hierarchies in several other dimensions:

In Jira, you can create hierarchies in Project, Sprint, Assignee, Reporter, Logged by, and Sprint dimensions.
In Confluence create hierarchies in Space, Author, Viewer, and Task Assignee in Confluence data cube.

To create custom hierarchies, you can import string or numeric properties and map them to those supported dimensions. Then use these imported custom properties to create new hierarchies.

eazyBI will create a new hierarchy with two levels, one representing the property you selected and another representing dimension members.

In addition you can use the new custom hierarchy directly from report creation screen and apply it to your reports.

Read more about custom property hierarchies in eazyBI documentation.

Markdown Cell Formatting

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Would you say that you could also save a few words if you could better highlight and visualize the content in your table reports?

Now you can add links, icons, and even some HTML text formatting to your table reports.

Use the new Markdown cell formatter to make your table reports more interactive. Check the basic use of Markdown for an inspiration. You can even use HTML for more advanced formatting like showing an icon or image as a measure.

eazyBI uses some of the Font Awesome icons and it is possible to refer to them in calculated measures when using Markdown.

You can have fun and mark your teams with their own icons and colors:

Or, you can even go all-out creative and set complex formatting rules based on your own criteria. Check out this “Formatted Project Overview” sample report.

Report Specific Calculated Measures

Those of you who are more experienced with MDX calculations tend to create a lot of custom calculations for your advanced reports.

While it gives you all the flexibility you want, it also has a negative side-effect. Over time, the Calculated measures section becomes crowded with tens and even hundreds of calculated measures. Many of those measures are meant to be used only in one particular report–creating unnecessary clutter.

In eazyBI 6.1 we’re introducing report specific calculated measures. You can create a user-defined measure that will only be visible a specific report and will not clutter the user-defined measures section available for all.

This is useful if the measure is not intended for use in any other context than in a specific report. The report specific measures behave the same way as any other user-defined measure, the difference is only in the “visibility” of those measures.

Re-Organizing Existing Measures

Now, at the bottom of the calculation editor for each particular user calculation, you will see a link to calculated measure usage details. This will give you an idea where this calculation is used and whether or not other calculations depend on it.

You can see more detailed info if you click the link.

If the shared measure is used only in one report you might consider converting it to report specific measure, thus removing it from the list of user-defined calculations available for everyone.

Full Changelog

In this post we reviewed only a handful of features. For a full list of features and bug-fixes released with eazyBI 6.1 version. To get a full list of changes and bug-fixes, please head to eazyBI for Jira Changelog or eazyBI for Confluence Changelog.

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Agile Business Intelligence Explained

Ricksoft — 2020-07-13T00:00:00Z

Agile organizations use data for better decision making and to move the business forward quickly. But with data scattered across multiple projects and teams, it can be a challenge to create a common reporting structure.

The lack of centralized data management also impacts the speed and flexibility needed to support business agility.

Modern business intelligence (BI) tools are developed to solve those challenges, but they may come with a hefty investment and involve IT support. What if there was a more cost-effective and efficient way to achieve BI agility?

Yes, you can find BI capabilities embedded in many productivity apps that your teams are already using today!

Built for agile teams, Jira is among the most popular agile management tools that provide competitive data reporting features. Powered up with eazyBI solutions, Jira allows you to instantly generate reports and capture business insights on a single platform.

Innovative companies like Verifone and Cisco are counting on Jira and eazyBI to make critical business decisions and deliver amazing projects. And so can you!

Learn more about agile business intelligence in Jira below.

Traditional vs. Agile Business Intelligence

Before we dive into the implementation of eazyBI in Jira, let’s go through the fundamentals of agile business intelligence.

Traditionally, BI applications are designed to handle repetitive and structured tasks in a waterfall approach. Think basic financial reporting—a routine, yet incredibly manual process with rigid requirements.

The process of gathering business requirements, designing data models, and analyzing multiple databases can be time-intensive. Since the audit only starts at the last phase of development, it often takes weeks or even months to extract relevant data locked in multiple projects. Hence, companies are looking for a better way to reap the benefits of BI investments quicker and, more importantly, to respond to changing business needs in real-time.

Fortunately, the widespread adoption of agile has transformed BI as we know it. When translated into the BI environment, the agile manifesto addresses:

Individuals and interactions: Involve business users in the project team to identify the questions we can answer with the data available.
Working software: Deliver a minimum viable product (MVP) and analyze results through iterations.
Customer collaboration: Instead of generating a comprehensive BI report, agile BI delivers the right information to the right user at the right time.
Responding to change: Agile BI reflects actual project data to support decision-making when changes arise.

Based on agile practices, businesses aim to create data models that can accommodate changing business goals and market conditions. In a nutshell, agile BI helps to accelerate the time it takes to deliver business value. This new approach allows businesses to ensure a nimble and adaptable BI environment while reducing IT overhead.

Achieving BI agility is simple, once you have the right tools. We’ll talk more about that below.

Enabling Agile Business Intelligence in Jira with eazyBI

Is Jira your mission-critical platform? By integrating BI tools in Jira, you can analyze project data at your fingertips.

Good BI delivery needs to aggregate clean and structured data, especially when your data comes from multiple databases. eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira app allows you to add and analyze data from external sources like SQL databases, REST API, CSV and Excel files, Google Sheets, and more.

That’s not the only feature that makes the add-on one of the must-have project management apps for Jira. Let’s take a look at these extensive BI capabilities in Jira.

Custom Jira Reports

The app features various customized reports and chart types, from high-level overviews to the most granular level—basically, everything you need to analyze project data.

It’s also that much easier to generate reports with the drag-and-drop interface. Instantly build a reporting dashboard to communicate the project’s performance, including data generated from 3rd party apps. With this functionality, you’ll be able to make informed decisions across Jira and facilitate iterative improvements in tandem with the development team.

Visualizing your data with eazyBI’s tool provides you with a clearer way to analyze insights.

Regardless of whether your team uses the Scrum or Kanban agile framework, eazyBI helps you drill down key metrics like Sprint reports, burn-up and burn-down charts, versions, and releases. It works with data from Jira Software, Service Desk, as well as other popular apps for testing, project management, or asset management apps, so you can capture insights from multiple projects in one single dashboard.

Read more: Jira Project Reporting Academy

Interactive Data Analysis

Not just generating default Jira reporting charts, eazyBI is extremely powerful when it comes to creating pivot reports.

From the report, you can compile multiple data dimensions and custom fields across Jira projects. Need to run an analysis for instant feedback? Simply drill down your data points or add calculated measures, such as cumulative sum or linear trend, to display accurate information whenever you need it.

Analyze data points directly from the report.

Uncover trends and insights across data dimensions.

Advanced Metrics Calculation

For advanced users, you can create custom data using predefined eazyBI calculations or even create your own formula using the built-in MDX editor.

Add custom measures and calculations using an advanced MDX editor.

This additional feature allows you to perform multi-dimensional analysis and analyze business data without any constraints. The best part? You don’t have to be a business analyst or IT pro to navigate our custom calculations. Quickly learn advanced eazyBI through auto-complete and syntax highlighting as you type.

The support center is also packed with a demo report library where you can find helpful resources to get started quickly.

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eazyBI 6.0 Release Notes

Jānis Liepa — 2020-05-15T00:00:00Z

Humans are hard-wired to do most things automatically. We wanted to satisfy this core desire making the process of report creation as intuitive as possible. The new interface was rebuilt almost completely from scratch. We are proud to present it to you this spring.

Could You Please Make the Charts Look Fancier?

Was it you who asked us this question? Or did we ask that question ourselves? One or another, here we are — launching the eazyBI version 6.0 with the new user interface (UI).

I hope that you are as excited as we are about the new look of the good-old eazyBI. Something that seems so self-explanatory (not to call it ”easy“) from your point of view, can take months or even years to get it right. Make no mistake, while the new interface may feel very similar and familiar, it was rebuilt almost completely from scratch. We are proud to present it to you this spring.

Don’t Make Me Think About UI

As a front-end developer, I’ve put a lot of effort into this UI update. I also talked about it in a presentation that I titled “Don’t Make Me Think About UI”. It’s a philosophy I firmly believe in. As humans, we are hard-wired to do most of the things automatically. We wanted to satisfy this core desire to make the process of report creation as intuitive as possible. You can watch the full recording from eazyBI Remote Community Day 2020 below.

How Do We Decide What Changes to Implement?

For us, just like many other companies out there, the customer is the boss. We know our product inside-out. We know what it can and cannot do. But it does not matter where we want to take it. What matters is where you want us to go.

While working on our new UI, we listened to all your comments and feedback you shared with us over time. We’ve been doing it since eazyBI was created. All the changes we make to our app are driven by you. Your role is to identify the area for the improvement and communicate it, and we take it further to decide on needed actions.

Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change

~ Jim Rohn

It Was Too Easy to Delete Your Reports

Back in times of eazyBI version 3.4, we received a lot of support tickets like - “I accidentally deleted all my reports” or “I wanted to empty the cube but deleted it instead”. While we did not experience this ourselves, we did not want our users to have that unpleasant experience.

The reason was simple. The “Delete” and “Empty” buttons were right next to each other.

To prevent you from deleting your cube by accident we decided to make it harder for you. We placed the “Delete” option in a drop-down menu and even painted it red. It worked! Now it is harder to make an unintended deletion accidentally.

Fresh New Colors

Our previous color-picker allowed you to choose an unlimited amount of colors and tones. It was only an illusion of a choice. It made it hard to find a good combination of the colors and it also did not help to drive the consistency across different reports. The new color-picker provides a much broader set of default colors and tones for you to choose from.

This might seem like a simple improvement. However, we do not care only about the new reports, but also the existing ones. We did our best to replace old standard colors of existing charts with matching colors from the new color palette to make the transition for you as smooth as possible. This is how we improve with backward compatibility in mind.

We hope your charts will look fancier by default now.

While color picker is a significant part of our new release, the entire app has changed its look to lighter tables and lines. It’s not possible to describe it in words, so let me show you instead.

New UI and Colors in Action

More appealing Jira Reports and Dashboards

Consistent colors for your sprint reports, burn-up and burn-down charts, versions, and releases.

The new color selector and tones let you build beautiful charts.

Lighter-gray table design with cell-highlighting (with more advanced highlighting options coming soon).

Add useful calculations with the new ”Add calculated“ option.

Explore your data — drill into details or across dimensions.

More consistent color-coding for the MDX editor’s syntax highlighter.

Just when we think we have covered all the bases, there’s always just one..more..thing.

~ Steve Krug

This is not the end of the journey. Let us know what you like or dislike, what annoys or helps you the most, and let us make eazyBI the best reporting tool for you.

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eazyBI 5.3 Release Notes

Daina Tupule — 2020-03-09T00:00:00Z

eazyBI version 5.3 is a significant update containing many frequently asked important new features and bug fixes, leading to the upcoming eazyBI version 6.0. While eazyBI 6.0 is still on the horizon, the 5.3 release is a welcome treat to all our customers. Enjoy!

If you’re more of a video person, feel free to dive into the 30-min eazyBI 5.3 release notes webinar and use the chapter links to go directly to the update you’re interested in.

If you just want to know the gist of it, read along…

Drill Into Dimension for a Single Measure

eazyBI allows building reports using many measures side by side in one report. Many of you have asked for on option to access more details for one measure used in a report. Starting eazyBI version 5.3 you can now drill into a measure in columns.

For example, you could create a project report containing all created, resolved, and due issues, an then “drill into” due issues by priority accessing a whole new level of data.

Another common use case could be reports on issues. For example, you can use several Issue properties like “Issue status” and “Issue assignee”, and in additional add a measure like “days in transition status” drilled into Status category.

You can learn more about creating reports and drilling into measures in eazyBI documentation.

Gantt Chart Period Selection

Previously, in Gantt charts you were able to select a daily or monthly time grid. Now you can also select weekly, quarterly, and yearly periods. We also added a new “Fit width” option for Gantt charts to detect the best period selection to fit all data within one screen.

Custom Multi-Weekly Hierarchy

Starting with eazyBI version 5.3 there is an option to define additional custom multi-weekly hierarchies in Time dimension. eazyBI now supports 2, 3, and 4-week custom hierarchies where you can set date representing a start of a multi-week cycle as well as the first weekday of this cycle.

Custom Hierarchy Selection

In addition you can use the new Time hierarchy directly from report creation screen and apply it to your reports.

Jira Source Data Export Definition

Instead of manually creating a new Jira source data with the similar set of options, now you can export Jira source data definition and import it into new account. This enables creation of similar Jira cubes in several accounts for different teams and projects while keeping the same custom field and other import option selections.

eazyBI Database Migrator

We have recently improved and expanded the eazyBI Database migrator. Now we cover more use cases, enabling you to migrate eazyBI:

from another database into your Server instance;
from Jira Server or Jira Data Center to export files;
from export files into Jira Server database;
from current Jira Server instance to cloud.

This will help you migrate from server to server, from server to cloud, or to save eazyBI configuration as a backup file and restore eazyBI from a file if the server is not accessible anymore.

Furthermore, Atlassian has recently released the Jira Cloud Migration Assistant which can be used to migrate selected Jira projects from Jira Server to Jira Cloud.

With the new eazyBI database migrator, you can use both tools together so simplify your server to cloud migrations.

Learn more about eazyBI database migrator in eazyBI documentation.

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eCD2020 — Making Reports Easier

Evita Legzdiņa — 2020-01-24T00:00:00Z

You often told us that eazyBI is a powerful reporting tool, you use it and you love it, but it’s not that easy as the name “eazyBI” suggests. And it’s true — data analysis and reporting is never actually simple.

When it comes to bringing out valuable insights that might impact the project and business performance in the long-run, you have to know your goals, you have to know your data, and you have to know where to look, and what to look for. It ain’t simple.

We realize that with our product & company name we imply a promise that everything will be easy. While our objective is to simplify the process of business and project reporting, it’s an ongoing and never-ending process.

We try to make simple things easy, at the same time making hard things possible. While you focus on data analysis and gathering new insights and conclusions, we take care of technical stuff in the background. Building and maintaining a complete Jira data model, reorganizing data for faster analysis, importing and updating data effectively, and providing you a convenient interface to build the reports you need — eazyBI will take care of that.

Even if your first reports come easy, the business reporting “rabbit hole” is deep. The deeper you go the more you’ll have to know in order to take a step forward on your reporting journey. Luckily, you are not alone on this adventure—we’re here to help you.

One of the most important internal cultural behaviors in our company is knowledge sharing. Whether job-related or not, we happily share our insights, findings, challenges, and discoveries with our teammates.

There is one time in the year when we gather together a community of users, partners, and like-minded people to share everything we know.

eazyBI Community Days started 4 years ago in Riga and has become our annual tradition and one of the most awaited events every year. Those are the days when we exchange knowledge, ideas, use-cases, network and just have fun.

Over the years the event has grown and now it takes place in 2 locations: in Riga, Latvia, and Las Vegas, USA. This year is no exception — you can join us in Las Vegas, US on April 3, 2020 or come to our home-city Rīga, Latvia on May 14-15, 2020.

eazyBI Community Days 2020

What eazyBI Community Days Are All About?

It’s full of eazyBI magic - we share our knowledge and we get a lot of insights and inspiration from you.
Different levels of difficulty and a variety of training topics to meet everyone’s level of expertise.
You can be the first to learn about the new and upcoming features? This for sure is one of the most exciting parts for many participants.
Who doesn’t want to sneak-peak on how their peers are dealing with issues? Use-cases presented by our clients or our expert-team always bring fresh insights on eazyBI leverage in different business areas.
Have our experts take a deeper look at your case, project or plan. Apply for individual sessions with our support experts at the Support Bar during the entire event.
Network with other eazyBI users, experts and pros in an informal atmosphere.

Why do we believe it is worth doing again and again? Well — that’s what our community says…

Analyze DevOps Metrics With eazyBI

Lauma Cīrule — 2019-11-27T00:00:00Z

Just recently, eazyBI has released a couple of new versions—eazyBI 5.1 and eazyBI 5.2. Among many features and improvements, eazyBI is also jumping into the exciting cross-team analysis by adding a standard data import from Atlassian’s DevOps tools—Bitbucket and Bamboo.

Why Have DevOps Concepts Risen to Such a Glory?

In the last few decades, the markets are changing with increasing speed. If you are not fast enough to grab new opportunities and agile enough to adapt to new situations, the competition might get your spotlight in no time. With this, the requirements of the supporting software have also become extremely dynamic. While I do not wish to compare waterfall methods that used to work some time ago (and might still work in some environments), it is clear why Agile software development gained popularity. Today software development wants to be as reactive to customer needs as possible. Yet, it is also surfacing that for a company to be Agile no longer means for the development team to interact with the customer on a regular bases. To be faster than the competitor, the whole process of continuous delivery becomes essential. For this reason, DevOps gain more and more support as various teams in Agile companies work together for the common goal of getting the customer needs from an idea to put in use in production.

Why Talk About DevOps in eazyBI, a Data Analysis Tool?

At eazyBI, we love to talk about metrics, but when looking at DevOps ideas, metrics play an important role too. If you do wish to be fast, improve your processes, find your flaws and get ahead of yourself (and, more importantly, your competitors), you need to measure and analyze how teams are working and cooperating. To know if introduced DevOps procedures have increased your efficiency, you need to analyze and compare it with how it was yesterday. The scientific method mantra of "Build. Measure. Learn." is very relevant to the DevOps concepts. We at eazyBI are happy to jump on the DevOps train and add an import of Atlassian Bitbucket pull request and Bamboo build and deploy data to existing Jira issues cube in the eazyBI Jira app. Combining existing data with the new insights from the development and deployment process will make it possible to Measure, Learn and Improve your DevOps processes and team cooperation, finally reaching the common goal of fast collaboration and quality product operations.

Main DevOps Metrics in eazyBI

There are several main metrics in which organizations using or introducing DevOps are interested in.

Deployment Frequency. Deployment to production is the moment when the paying customer gets to start using the features they need in response to market opportunities. Customers are looking to have features available at the right time. As DevOps process maturity grows, the frequency of new version deployment to production should become shorter and shorter. If you have a process that allows deploying new features to production at any time, the responsibility of when to deploy can be removed from IT and give this decision to the business. With eazyBI, you can now display Bamboo Build and Deployment information as well as the frequency on a timeline.

Change Failure Rate. The choice between building software "faster or with high quality" is as old as time. It would be best if we would not need to make this choice. Measuring and analyzing how often bugs in production happen or reappear and how often you encounter issues in the deployment process helps to find solutions and build things with speed and high quality. Incidents raised and resolved report is possible with importing Jira issue created and resolved information. With Bamboo build information, you can now calculate the incident rate per build.

Mean Time to Change and Change Lead Time. When the business sees an opportunity in the market, they wish to react to it as soon as possible. Measuring and shortening the time for an idea to get from "author's mind" to a solution in production means customers can react to market changes and requirements faster. A similar metric is Change Lead Time, which does not include all issue life cycle, but starting from development moment and until delivery to production. Average Resolution days for Change issue types, which would represent the Mean time to change, were available with standard Jira data import. With the import of Bitbucket Pull request development, review, and deploy average times in eazyBI, you can now get detailed information about Change Lead Time.

Mean Time to Recovery. No software development has gone without failures. If you prepare that this will also happen to your software, you can get ready to deal with the production downtime. It is beneficial to measure both—frequency and duration of downtimes to know if the DevOps processes are working efficiently. One extended downtime can have a more substantial effect on the customer business than several few-second downtimes. With eazyBI, you can measure Average or Total recovery time with Incident issue types.

Other News in eazyBI 5.1 and eazyBI 5.2

While DevOps is the principal and most exciting new integration added in eazyBI 5.1 version, there are also a few other improvements worth mentioning:

Specifically, for the dynamic environment of DevOps, we saw that analysis about more than 12 months ago would no longer be valid. To add this filter to DevOps sample reports, we added a predefined member for the last 12 months in the Time dimension. Additionally, there are Current, Previous month, Last 30 days, and Last 4 weeks calculated members you could use in the DevOps or any other report or as an example for your custom period calculated members.
With eazyBI 5.1, we have upgraded the chart drawing library. In the background, this smashed some chart drawing bugs, but from the user point of view the most visible improvement is the highlight of individual chart series on a mouse hover.

In the 5.2 version, several enhancements are introduced specifically for the bar chart. The option to add a vertical line as a milestone marker, which previously was available only for the Timeline chart, can now be used in bar charts as well as line charts. Also, we have fixed that higher-level names are displayed in the bar chart if you have drilled into lower levels of some dimension. Lastly, you can now show relative values in the bar chart, making the whole stacked bar as 100%.

Learn more about recent updates in version 5.1 and 5.2 in the eazyBI for Jira Changelog.

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Hello eazyBI for Confluence!

Zane Baranovska — 2019-10-31T00:00:00Z

I am happy to tell you that eazyBI has launched a new product on the Atlassian Marketplace—eazyBI for Confluence. Now you can analyze the Confluence content from the viewer’s and the author’s perspectives.

Whenever we meet our customers at conferences, we have been asked whether eazyBI can analyze data from Confluence. And the answer was, yes, you can, but it will require some extra work for users to pull in those data from Confluence database. It is not a convenient solution, right? Also, we ourselves at eazyBI wanted to explore our documentation (naturally, which is also based on Confluence) to see how are we doing. So we created an app for that and shared it with the Atlassian universe.

Learn more about eazyBI for Confluence

Webinar: Confluence Analytics With eazyBI

For a short video overview and demo, check out the "Intro to Confluence Analytics With eazyBI" webinar recording from November 8, 2019.

How to create useful reports for your Confluence data.
How to publish eazyBI reports and dashboards in Confluence.
How to publish eazyBI for Jira reports in Confluence.
Adding additional data sources: SQL, Rest API, Google Sheets, etc.

What insights can you get with eazyBI for Confluence?

The most obvious need is to analyze page views, who, when, and what.

When our customers and teammates read the documents? Maybe this information correlates with their activity on particular areas (based on chosen documentation content)? Or perhaps some of the colleagues are working overtime?
Are there some abandoned pages or spaces no one is interested in? Maybe it is time to clean them up?
What are users searching for in the Confluence? Are the most popular keywords covered with any content?

You should keep in mind that page views and search queries are collected by eazyBI app as this information is not available from the Confluence database. Those data are accumulated starting from the moment when an eazyBI account is set up, and Space is selected for data import.

Page content consumption is only one side of information exchange. Behind the content, there are authors who are creating it. eazyBI allows you to analyze also the habits of content creators.

When authors feel most creative—in the mornings or evenings, which days of the week? Maybe some are working on holidays when they can get some quiet time and work without distractions. By analyzing it all, we can improve our work environment and culture.
Which are the most active content creators? Those colleagues might have the most experience in particular areas and the Confluence tool, and others could leverage them for advice.
Which pages have not been updated for a long time? Are those pages popular among readers? If so, we should check whether the content of those pages is up to date.

With eazyBI for Confluence, you can analyze both page views and content creation activities. Of course, you can explore your data and slice and dice it by any dimension: spaces, page types, particular pages, labels, date, day of the week, an hour of the day, user, and search queries. For more details on available metrics and technical details, check out the eazyBI for Confluence documentation.

Publish your reports and insights

What’s the use of a report if you can’t show it to others. eazyBI is built for sharing. You can use eazyBI macros to publish any or all of your reports and dashboards on your Confluence pages for everyone to see.

Furthermore, if you also use eazyBI for Jira and have a Jira application link in Confluence, you can publish all your eazyBI for Jira reports and dashboards on Confluence pages.

Learn more about eazyBI for Confluence

Summary

In conclusion, a brief description of what eazyBI for Confluence is and what it is not:

It has built-in integration with Confluence and collects data on page creation, version, and updated events, as well as on views and search queries.
It is not a replacement for Google Analytics or similar tools that monitor web page traffic and provide a different type of metrics.
eazyBI for Confluence and eazyBI for Jira are two separate apps meant for different purposes. eazyBI for Confluence is not suited for Jira data analysis as it does not have a built-in integration with Jira, and vice versa.
It also supports additional external data sources like SQL, Rest API, Google Sheets, Excel, and CSV, so you can analyze data from different sources and publish your reports in Confluence.
You can also publish your Confluence, as well as Jira reports and dashboards on Confluence pages.

Those are only the first steps of eazyBI for Confluence, and we are looking forward to enriching it with more analytics.

For a closer look, check out the Demo account.

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Open Data Hackathon 2019

Evita Legzdiņa — 2019-10-28T00:00:00Z

eazyBI continues supporting open data movement in Latvia by taking active participation in Open Data Hackathons. eazyBI was one of the sponsors of the event that took place in Valmiera, Latvia.

This year the Open Data Hackathon was focusing on growing the popularity of open data leverage for municipalities. eazyBI employees were participating in the teamwork and Raimonds Simanovskis—the founder and CEO of eazyBI—was one of the mentors throughout this 24-hour hackathon.

When I started the first Latvian Open Data hackathon eight years ago, there were just 10 participants and nobody in the government was speaking about it. Now I am happy that Open Data movement has grown significantly during these years and is a priority for Latvian government and municipalities. It was great to see so many different teams and ideas, as well as many new open data enthusiasts during the event. We will definitely continue to sponsor and support future Open Data events as well.

~ Raimonds Simanovskis

Open Data Hackathon Gaining Popularity

The goals of Hackathon this year were:

to raise awareness of the potential of open data;
to promote the opening and wider use of municipal and public administration data;
to show the benefits to municipalities, their citizens, businesses or tourists of creating products or services based on open data.

There were 14 teams participating in this year's hackathon. The challenge for participants was to create an innovative web or mobile app from open data focusing on 8 thematic directions – environment, transport, education, inhabitants, safety, medicine, development, and culture.

Open Data Hackaton for Municipalities 2019 was organized by the Ministry of the Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia in partnership with the Latvian Open Technology Association (LATA).

Awards

The 3rd place and the eazyBI prize went to the “Find Your Doctor” team. They created a user-friendly solution for finding the most competent and most accessible specialist for curing rare diseases. The goal of this application is to shorten the time of diagnosis and give people access to the care and treatment. Just by coincidence three eazyBI employees picked exactly this team to work on during the hackathon.

This was the second time I participated in such a long and big hackathon. In our team, there were four people from the previous Open Data Hackathon 2018 and some of us had experience working together. Just in 24 hours of data gathering, designing, and programming, the prototype of a web page was designed. As the author of the idea admitted, she had no idea that a project she dreamed about for the last three years could come to life within 24 hours.

~ Jānis Baiža, developer at eazyBI.

Mārtiņš Vanags from eazyBI participated in the hackathon for the second time. He said that he trusts in open data and its huge potential in the future:

Open data facilitates the evolution of new ideas and it is a great opportunity to meet professionals, enjoy the time together while enabling the society to make data-driven decisions.

~ Mārtiņš Vanags

3rd place: “Find a Doctor” team and Raimonds Simanovskis (first from the right side)

2nd place was taken by the team “Spriditis Club”. They provided an interactive map that helps to evaluate the potential of the future place of living. The application gathers the data about infrastructure, real-estate prices, public transportation, education options and more. This is a service to individuals, who are looking for a neighborhood or city to live. Their vision is to provide holistic-data based analysis of precise suggestions for an optimal living place for anyone.

2nd place: the “Spriditis Club” team

“EduFuture” was the winner of the Open Data Hackathon for Municipalities 2019 in Valmiera, Latvia. Their solution provides the approach for school ratings and future potential evaluation based on the number of students, exam results, and achievements in educational competitions. The objective for “EduFuture” is to make everyone—policymakers, parents, and students alike—take a step back and think about what can and should be done to make Latvian schools the envy of all onlookers.

The winning team “EduFuture” with the prize

Source: LATA Images: LATA

Jira Project Reporting Academy

Fabio Genovese — 2019-06-25T00:00:00Z

The Jira Project Reporting Academy has begun. Learn how to build dashboards of project reports in Jira using the integration between eazyBI and Profields to centralize your project data and visualize it.

The Jira Project Reporting Academy is a free training course provided by our partner DEISER – an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner and a Top vendor on Atlassian Marketplace.

Course instructor – Fabio Genovese

Setting up the Flow of Data from Profields to eazyBI

In this article you'll learn how to set Profields as a source for project and cross-project information in eazyBI. But there’s more you can learn throughout the free Academy course:

How to combine issue-level information with project-level information.
How to create powerful and memorable visualizations.
How to build reports that help you track your project portfolio.

In this first lesson we'll explain how to create the first report on eazyBI with data from Profields. Every article is designed as a step-by-step guide.

By enrolling to the Academy, you'll additionally receive a DIY Checklist to help you create your own set of project reports, independently of my particular choices, as well as access the full Jira Project Reporting Academy Course for free.

During the course I'll show how to create different graphs and grids to represent Jira+Profields data and combine them into a dashboard that helps you with project planning and decision-making.

Here's the full syllabus:

Keeping your budget under control.
Combining different project variables in one chart.
Creating gantt chart views of your project portfolio.
Entering different charts in a project Dashboard.

What If You're a Newbie?

You can start by discovering how to leverage the Atlassian marketplace to transform Jira into a project tracker. Independently of whether you are a project manager, a product manager, or any other type of role with Jira projects, you should know that Profields will help you centralize and manage your project level data.

For example, you can store important information about your projects, including:

Budget.
Start Date/End Date.
Time spent.
Team members. … or any additional information required at project level we need.

The immediate win is to have that information displayed in the Project Navigator.

With Good Data Comes Good Reporting

Having information that is accurate and permanently updated is important, but probably not and end in and of itself. The real need is… reporting.

Put succinctly, one of the main needs of a project manager is:

To Have Reports That Can Be Used to Keep Projects Under Control

It's so easy to miss something important in a project when you're not the only person running it! Additionally, your boss will likely want to see objective data about the project that explains how the project is doing and whether it will be successful.

That's why having a dashboard like this is the dream for every project manager: with it, anyone can see the evolution of a project at a glance and take corrective actions when needed.

Why eazyBI?

There's a bunch of reporting apps in the Atlassian marketplace, but eazyBI is the must-have tool for Business Intelligence: it's flexible, versatile, and sophisticated.

If you ever get lost with eazyBI (particularly if you don't follow my exact steps because you want to implement different metrics), feel free to browse eazyBI's amazing documentation. Here's the article on the main terms and concepts.

Combining eazyBI with Profields, project managers are allowed to:

Read information from Jira and use it for Business Intelligence.
Leverage Profields' data to create reports at project and cross-project level.
Enjoy the visual cues of different kinds of charts.
Combine multiple dimensions in one chart to create new insights and compare.

Ok, let's get started with what's probably the most important dimension for controlling projects:

Keep Your Budget Under Control

If you have a project for a client, probably the first thing you're looking at is the budget line… and how you're going to spend it. In this section we'll see all the steps required to configure a project with all required data so that we can then configure eazyBI to show the results!

We start by defining the following Profields fields:

Estimated Budget.
Cost per hour.

Below you can see the field page of Profields with those two fields.

Next, we create a project Layout with both fields. This layout is already associated with my projects.Now let's switch to eazyBI and define how we want to import data and define which Profields fields we want to manage in eazyBI.

Since Profields is already integrated with eazyBI, you can simply go to the apps tab in the Jira import options.

First we'll set the two Profields fields to be imported both as measure and property. You can check the documentation here for other available options.

After the import, we'll define our report with the measures eazyBI makes available.…and include all this information:

Total hours spent.
Cost per hour.
Total cost spent.
Total Budget.
Difference: aka Usable budget. This is a calculated measure. Use the code in the following image to define it.

Add Reports to Jira Dashboards

Finally, you can add the eazyBI report or dashboard gadget to your Jira dashboard, where you can immediately see how the project is progressing.

Next Steps

This is the first step of this journey. Join the Jira Project Reporting Academy for free to receive a DIY Checklist to help you create your own set of project reports, independently of my particular choices, as well as access all additional courses.

Keeping your budget under control.
Combining different project variables in one chart.
Creating gantt chart views of your project portfolio.
Entering different charts in a project Dashboard.

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eazyBI 5.0 Release Notes

Jānis Gulbis — 2019-06-18T00:00:00Z

From major platform and library updates to new standard calculations. From account administration, to user interface and usability improvements. Here’s what’s new in eazyBI 5.0.

We’ve been working on this release for quite some time now. Most changes took place under the hood. This release is an important milestone for the future updates, compatibility, and development of eazyBI.

You can watch the eazyBI 5.0 announcement and demo in the keynote presentation by Raimonds Simanovskis at the eazyBI Community Days in Riga:

Platform and Libraries Updates

This is a major version update for a reason.

Atlassian is updating Jira and Confluence versions to Jira 8 and Confluence 7. These new Atlassian software updates include several fundamental changes and caused some core incompatibilities for eazyBI.

We’ve updated a majority of our internal libraries and platforms. Our goal was to make eazyBI compatible with current and upcoming Jira and Confluence versions. Now eazyBI supports both Java 8, Java 11.

We updated JRuby — the Ruby programming language implementation on top of JVM. The updated latest version now supports the latest JVM versions.

We’ve also updated the underlying Ruby on Rails framework and the Mondrian reporting engine. This ensures compatibility with other latest libraries.

Although these changes are not visible, they will help us adapt more easily to support underlying eazyBI platform and upcoming Jira version updates.

With eazyBI 5.0 we’ve dropped the support for the old Jira version 6. We are still supporting Jira from version 7.0 until 8.0, including the latest 8.2 version.

New User Interface for Measures and Dimensions

Measures Selection

Previously, both the built-in measures and calculated measures were all thrown into one section, grouped in different sub-groups. To find the measure you were looking for, you had to expand all those sections. It was inconvenient.

Now we’re separating measures into two main sections — predefined measures and user-defined measures. In the predefined measures section all pre-defined measures are in one place, grouped by common sub-groups.

All user defined measures are now separate and users can create their own custom sub-groups.

Filter Measures

Sometimes you’re not sure in which sub-group the measure is stored. Now you can filter measures by name fragments as you type.

Show Pre-defined Measure Formula

Did you notice those “= show” links next to measures? These are the “show formula” links for pre-defined measures. You can see the calculation formula behind these build-in measures. Although you cannot change the calculation or formula, you can copy and reuse it.

Select Hierarchy Member Level

To select the hierarchy level, you had to expand the dimension block to “All hierarchy level members”. Now you can do that directly from the header.

From the same context menu you can also add dimension headers. This feature was introduced in previous versions of eazyBI, but it is well worth reminding.

Quickly Remove Unwanted Dimension

You used to have to drag the unwanted dimension away from Rows, Columns, or Pages to the Dimension block. It’s even more inconvenient when the dimension block is hidden. Now you can just remove the dimension by clicking the “x”.

Standard Calculated Measures

We want to make eazyBI even easier. We want you to write less custom calculations. There are many standard cases where you had to use some calculation templates to calculate certain metric. We have created standard calculations like Average, Median, Min, Max, % of total, Cumulative sum, Linear trend. Now you can add this standard calculation to your report with a few clicks.

You can click on the name label of the measure you wish to add the calculation to directly from the chart and select “Add calculated” and then “Linear trend” or any other standard calculation.

You can also combine some of these calculations, for example, you can combine “Cumulative function” with “Linear trend” by clicking on the name label of the calculated measure.

To avoid polluting calculated measures section with calculations used only in one or few reports, these calculated members will be “report specific” and will not be stored in measures section.

You can also see the underlying formula of these calculated members. When you copy it you can modify it further for this or reuse in other reports.

Dynamic Calculations Using Visible Rows Set

Together with standard calculated measures, there are several new and useful MDX functions available in eazyBI 5.0. The most notable one is the VisibleRowsSet(). This function will dynamically retain members that are visible on Rows. You can now write dynamic calculations based on a set of rows you have filtered in your report.

Write less custom calculations and instead use more generic dynamic calculations that you can reuse in many reports with different sets.

All Accounts Page for Admins

Some customers have many accounts in their eazyBI installations. For admins it’s difficult to understand what are these accounts — how large they are, how many reports, dashboards, who’s the owner, how frequent are the data updates, when was the last data import, what sources are imported, which account imports result with errors.

Now from the updated account administration page, admins can see all accounts and search accounts by name, owner, source data and filter accounts with import errors.

Other updates

There are other small, but nice-to-have improvements, like the “Jira import progress bar“, additional formulas, and other small improvements. You can find more information about this release in the eazyBI 5.0 for Jira change log.

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Better SAFe® Than Sorry

Marten Thorand — 2019-06-06T00:00:00Z

In this blog post, you will discover how to implement a scaled agile project management in Jira based on SAFe® – including value stream and program management.

How SAFe® is Successfully Staged With Jira

The focus here is on how scaled reporting can be provided for use in the enterprise area. Kanban and Scrum can easily be applied to the entire portfolio management and dependencies can be visualized and managed across teams.

With the SAFe® solution from demicon GmbH, you can keep track of the roadmap, project status, metrics and KPIs - completely independent of scaling.

Enterprise Ready Reporting at Scale in Jira

Out of the box, Jira does not offer sufficient possibilities to cleanly set up a scaled SAFe® approach. To become Enterprise ready, you need a number of extensions from the Atlassian Marketplace and the corresponding configuration.

Jira already comes with a multitude of reports and possibilities to map tasks and projects. What Jira does not bring along, however, are hierarchies that go beyond Project → Task → Subtask. For individual teams this is perfectly sufficient. If however the goal is to work across multiple teams or even integrate Portfolio management, such a setup without extensions and a solid concept gets to its limits quickly.

Marten Thorand, Demicon

Agile Frameworks - Challenges for Companies

All companies faced with the challenge of mapping and coordinating many distributed teams in a uniform agile framework need tools that can achieve these goals in addition to the appropriate setup of teams and mindsets. For good internal company reasons, SAFe® training alone does not always find a 1:1 application. Different variations or deviations are the rule rather than the exception.

The solution approach of the SAFe® Bundles developed by demicon GmbH does not interfere with the normal work of the teams, but merely creates a superstructure that maps all requirements for scaled agile approaches. The reporting that is made possible with this approach enables the responsible managers and budget planners to maintain control over the various projects despite numerous dependencies and an almost unmanageable number of details and tasks.

Our approach remains as close as possible to Jira's standard, but extends it through visibility across different levels and graphical reporting. In particular, the reporting provides a quick overview of relevant topics such as project progress and budget status, progress of program increments (PI's) or feature burndown charts.

In addition, we have created reports that show the reliability of the teams. I can also get this information from Jira without any further tools, but only via detours and with much more effort.

Marten Thorand, Demicon

Video: Better SAFe® Than Sorry at the eazyBI Community Days

Apps such as eazyBI make an essential contribution to the SAFe® solution with Jira presented here. Therefore it was obvious for us that Marten Thorand would also present the solution at the eazyBI Community Days in Riga. Here you can find a video recording of his talk.

SAFe® Bundle from demicon

For agile scaled planning in value-driven organizations. Our solution delivers unlimited flexibility in the use of hierarchies and levels. Inspired by the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®), we offer a central enterprise solution based on the Atlassian product range and leading marketplace add-ons that can be flexibly integrated into your existing infrastructure. You get a platform to make real-time decisions at team, project, program and portfolio levels. Metrics, dependencies and efforts are thus displayed transparently for you across all levels.

Features of the demicon Solution

Portfolio- & Program & Project Management
Cross-Project and Multi-Project Teams
Team/ Program/ Portfolio und Solution Planning Boards
Dashboards und Scorecards for Team/ Program/ Portfolio and Enterprise
Strategic Themes
Product Roadmaps
Budgeting & Cost and Value Management
Enterprise-wide Reporting
Advanced Analytics ( Bubble , Heatmaps,..)
Feature Burndown Charts
SAFe Metrics
Dependency Boards and Story Mapping
Drag and Drop Custom Report Builder
Process and Workflow Customization
Kanban und Scrum Boards
OKRs
Prioritization with WSJF
Knowledge Management
Riskmanagement

Atlassian Apps in Action

Atlassian tools such as Jira, Jira Service Desk and Confluence alone can be used to implement numerous use cases. In practice, however, there is hardly a use case without extensions (apps) from the Atlassian Marketplace. The added value offered is simply too great to ignore. These apps are developed and made available by so-called third-party vendors, some of whom specialize in the apps. But be careful! With more than 3000 partly similar and very different solutions, a good orientation is needed for the right selection in the "app jungle". As an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, we have the necessary experience to make the right choice for our customers. In addition, we are partners with many of the manufacturers mentioned and therefore have a direct line.

The SAFe solution described here includes

eazyBI
Structure + Structure Gantt
Easy Agile Programs for Jira
ScriptRunner
Elements Copy & Sync

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FAQ

Which problem will be solved?

Coordinated work of several teams on one product / project
Scaled working method according to Scrum in a tool that many teams already have in use
More detailed reports, e.g. on the reliability of teams
(Product) managers have the current development status present via certain reports and can make informed decisions

Who is addressed with the solution? Definition of target group - who does the solution help?

Companies that want to start large projects or develop complex products
Managers who need to organize a product with multiple teams
Enterprise customers who are already in the SAFe area but have not found the right tool yet

How does the solution help?

Transparency over the different levels (Portfolio → (Value Stream) → Program → Team)
Coordination of different teams and their dependencies
Reporting on the current status of an increment and the entire project, including budget evaluation

Interested in our SAFe® Solution?

If you would like to learn more about our SAFe solution, our Atlassian experts will be happy to provide you with a free, non-binding consultation. Simply call us at 0800 1230 230 or send us an e-mail at: atlassian@demicon.de

Insights from eazyBI Community Days 2019

Nigel Rochford — 2019-05-29T00:00:00Z

Over the course of 2 days in Riga, we got the opportunity to hear practical use cases and gain insights from a range of partners and customers in the Atlassian and eazyBI ecosystem. So here’s our take on it.

So, what was it all about?

This was the third annual eazyBI user conference and is the biggest eazyBI event of the year. We were delighted to attend and present at eazyBI Community Days again in 2019.

eazyBI enables you to create business intelligence reports, charts, and dashboards with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop tool. Data can be imported from various sources including Excel, SQL, and REST. With a bit more experience, you can then start diving into more complex features such as defining your own reporting formulas using the MDX query language.

Targeting both new and experienced users of the product, this event is all about learning from and networking with the wider community. Theatre-style presentations were interspersed with lighting talks over the 2 days. eazyBI put on a great event and certainly brought the community together at the evening event hosted by the Drift Hall, where we all got the chance to race around a track on electric trikes at 50 km/hr!

Why did we go?

We have been huge fans of eazyBI for a number of years now, and have implemented many bespoke reporting solutions for customers that use eazyBI as a Jira app. We also use it ourselves!

Last year, our Technical Lead, Kris Siwiec showed how eazyBI can be combined with the Tempo product suite for portfolio oversight. This year, we followed a similar path, but combined forces with one of our customers Synergy Learning. Our very own Victor Lee presented with Peter Hinds on a project reporting solution using eazyBI and Profields. Here’s a nice relaxed snap before they kicked off

As an Atlassian Solution Partner, we applied our expertise in building a solution that reported on a number of key metrics including project status, workload, and revenue. We utilised Scriptrunner for Jira to extract and process project data from another Jira app: Profields. The processed data was then pulled into a cube for reporting in eazyBI.

What did we learn?

We took away a tonne of insights and this blog entry certainly doesn’t cover everything that happened over the two days. However, I’ve tried to highlight some key takeaways.

First up, I was intrigued by how successful eazyBI have been as a company with stellar year-upon-year growth. Recognised two years running as one of the top 50 Deloitte fast-growing companies in Central Europe, it’s even more amazing that eazyBI does all this in an entirely distributed setup. In other words, they don’t have a physical office — everybody works remotely. This of course comes with its own challenges and questions on how to maintain company culture and team morale. eazyBI seem to have found the right formula with regular group meetups, a packed schedule of events throughout the year, regular online team collaboration and of course the infamous morning team runs when everyone gets together in the same location.

Product announcements

eazyBI 4.6 and 4.7 have arrived with some nice new features, including:

integration with Portfolio for Jira
incremental REST API and SQL imports
context-sensitive auto-completion for the calculated member formula editor
the ability to share dashboards for wallboard mode
support for importing customer satisfactions from Jira Service Desk

eazyBI 5.0 is upcoming and will include:

various platform and library updates
a new measures and dimensions UI (it’ll now be possible to filter by name and a single view will show all measures)
out-of-the-box standard calculation measures (e.g. median, average, cumulative sum, linear trends)
a new progress bar for Jira imports
new integrations with Freshdesk and Bitbucket for DevOps reporting
lots of small UX improvements, including a simple ’x’ for removing measures without drag-and-drop!

Interestingly, eazyBI also announced that a brand new product eazyBI for Confluence will be announced soon. Keep your eyes peeled for the Beta.

Presentations

There were various presentations throughout the 2-day event, from eazyBI, partners, and of course customers.

Most participants were trying to achieve the same ultimate goal: to improve operational efficiencies by consolidating and automating reporting. Here are a few tips and tricks from some highlighted speakers:

Build and test use cases; keep things simple; engage with eazyBI and the community! — Breann Jew from Shareworks
Be careful with performance — Daina Tupule from eazyBI
- find the right KPIs among many!
- use JavaScript pre-calculations during import
- only pull relevant data in your imports — e.g. import by project, time, or domain
Maximise engagement with your audience if you’re embedding eazyBi dashboards in external tools (e.g. Capterra, Concerto) — e.g. be careful with timings and don’t include too many slides! — Elvis Kvalbergs from Flex.bi
Consider using eazyBI for your SAFe reports — with bespoke reporting, you can reliably gauge what % of commitment was actually delivered (not just number of story points) — Marten Thorand, demicon

Some really useful tips were shared by Jānis Gulbis from eazyBI in his presentation on the ”Dos and Don’ts of data Visualization”. Ultimately charts need to be simple and easy to understand:

keep things simple: aim for 1 insight per chart!
bear in mind the data-ink ratio: remove to improve
use colours sparingly and try using contrast instead
use the same colour scheme across your reports to ensure consistency
remove redundant elements such as background, borders, and special effects
make sure you sort by value, not name (except when working with time dimensions)
try not to use pie charts — apparently humans aren’t very good at judging areas and angles!
use tabular charts for small data sets
keep your column and bar charts to a maximum of 5-7 measures
use %’s rather than numbers in column and histogram charts — also put the time dimension on the horizontal axis and work left-to-right
don’t skip values in line charts and aim for < 45 degree slope

All of the presentations were recorded over the two days and will be made available on the eazyBI Community portal. Keep an eye too on future events.

What next?

Get busy building reports in eazyBI!

We look forward to participating again in future events with eazyBI and other ecosystem vendors. They’re really a fantastic opportunity to share and network with the wider community, and we’d encourage customers and partners to partake in these valuable exercises.

Oh — and wouldn’t it be great if we could bring Riga’s drift racing to Scotland?!! (picture courtesy of eazyBI)

Team That Runs Together Wins Together

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2019-03-20T00:00:00Z

It is a couple of minutes past 7AM. There is still a silence in the hotel. Soon several room doors open and eazyBI team members start gathering for their morning 5K run. Actually, some eazyBI ladies have already left for their walk a quarter earlier, and they will all meet soon inevitably.

It does not matter, where the hotel is located – in Riga, Barcelona, or San Francisco – running together is one of the eazyBI traditions that have grown over time and now in one or another way includes the majority of the team.

How This Tradition Started

eazyBI running tradition started as soon as the first employee – Jānis, no surprise there – joined eazyBI more than five years ago. Jānis and Raimonds went together to Catworkx Midsummer days in Hamburg and Jānis invited Raimonds to join his routine morning run, and it turned out to be fun.

Jānis used to explore cities by running. It also helped to decrease anxiety, stress or jet lag, quite typical during business trips.

When other running enthusiasts joined the company, the question “Should I take my running shoes with me? ” became redundant. Very soon the obvious answer was “Yes”.

Running for Fun

Don’t get me wrong, only a couple of my colleagues are seasoned runners. Most of us are quite typical IT professionals trying to keep mind and body functional.

Initially, only those who had run before joined the “morning 5K”; others abstained in fear of not being able to keep up with more experienced runners. Though, they used to unite with colleagues mentally, for instance, doing yoga or working out in the hotel gym.

Good examples do not remain unnoticed. For some, common runs became a trigger to (re)start their own running routine. For others, different thoughts appeared on their mind: if he can, shouldn't I at least try? If my mates are out together, how can I stay in the hotel room alone? If I can’t run for some reason right now, probably, I can walk and participate in such a way?

Let's Try and See

While working fully remotely, we search for things that could bond us together as a team. We are pretty much followers of “Let’s try and then we'll see” approach, and it is deliberating. It sets low expectations and gives you a good feeling if it turns out to be fruitful, and “no hard feelings” to drop if something didn’t work as expected.

The same goes for running: no obligation, let’s try. More experienced runners encourage others, keeping a moderate pace and gladly greeting those who decided to join, even if they run slower or walk; nobody is blamed for not running or not running fast enough. Even if you do not want to participate this time, you know that everyone is welcome and cherished in eazyBI “running team”.

Yes, our running paces still are different, and some of us like walking or doing yoga most, but this is how teams operate. Inclusion, diversity, courage to try, trust, and believing in everyone’s best, makes winning teams; running together trains this in an excellent way.

Join Us in One of the eazyBI Events

We want to share this experience with our partners and customers as well: come to eazyBI Community Days to meet us and join us for one of our morning runs there! Or just come to our booth in Atlassian Summit to say Hi!

How To Create Meaningful Reporting & Why It is Important

Evita Legzdiņa — 2019-01-10T00:00:00Z

Do all the reports we create serve a purpose? Should they? What is the purpose of reporting anyway? How many times have you created a report that nobody cares about? There are several principles you should follow to make the reporting relevant and sustainable.

In this article, I’ll try to capture some important aspects of dealing with data in a meaningful way.

Set a Goal

As for many other things we do in our life, we need to understand the purpose. The same is true for reports. For the report to be meaningful and relevant, it has to answer a meaningful question. If you do not want your report to end up in a trash box, it has to capture a business need for a relevant audience. There are a couple of questions you have to ask yourself:

Am I capturing relevant information?
What business decisions the reporting help to answer?
Am I displaying the analysis that the stakeholders want to see?

If you have any doubts about any of those three questions, you should set the right basis before you start creating your reports.

There are at least two things you must do to find out stakeholder expectations for the reports you are about to build.

Requirements. There is no better way to find an answer than just asking the question. You can do it in many ways: an interview, a chat over a coffee, or just writing it down. It does not matter how you do it as long as you do it. The objective is to fully understand what your stakeholders want to see in the report and what decisions will be made based on the information in the report. Knowing that you can move on with creating your first report drafts.
Outcome. How will you know when you’re done? What does “good” look like? Stakeholders might already have a vision, leverage it! Ask them to draft/sketch the report they would like to see. Firstly, there is no added value to reinventing what’s already on someone’s mind. Secondly, it might help you to get to the final version of the report much faster.

Check for Relevance

It is easy to misuse valuable data. You should always remember about the report relevance for stakeholders and the business goals they have on their minds. It might be very useful to summarize the gathered insights and get the reporting structure pre-aligned before creating reports.

Verify Your Data

Is the quality of your data good? Are data consistent and accurate? You cannot create a reliable report with incorrect data. After you’ve defined the reports you want to make, it is worth to double check the data validity.

Note! It is always worth reconsidering situations when input data adjustments might be required in order to create sophisticated reporting. It is especially true, if it requires some changes in user experience or behaviour (anyone who is involved in creating the data for analysis). It’s worth to re-consider what added value those changes could bring and if is it worth the effort.

Set a Scope Limit

Be prepared that after you create your first reports, further requests for a more detailed view or a deep dive might come in your direction. However, this should be an easy challenge if you have a clear goal for the reports you are preparing.

Different groups and audiences might want to see different levels of detail in reports. The top management might be more interested in general trends and an overview, while project managers, product owners, and others might need a much more detailed picture.

Planning eazyBI accounts is crucial for larger organizations. To maintain the optimal performance, scope, and relevance of your reports, consider splitting your accounts by purpose, project, team, country, or any other meaningful characteristic.

Consider these 3 project groups:

General accounts. Many issues, low granularity. The data in a General account could be used for a general overview, general KPIs, and trends where you do not need details. Optimal for comparing projects, teams, time-frames, etc.
Team & project accounts. Reports on detailed issue levels but in a narrow scope (limited to one or a small set of projects, assignees, statuses, time periods, etc.). Meant for daily usage, regular data imports up to several times per day. These reports will contain more details, custom fields, issue change history, etc.
Template accounts. Many granular reports share common reports and measures with other teams and projects. Why not leverage that and reuse those reports for other purposes? You can use a common template account for all your teams so that each report could be replicated in all team or project accounts as needed.

Target the Right Audience

The right audience for the report will find the report actionable and relevant. If the audience is too wide, it will result in a decrease in report relevance.

You might need to create different angles for displaying the same data for different audiences. It is better to work on different reports for different audiences and adjust them to their needs instead of creating one enormous and complex report that is difficult to digest for everyone.

Go Back to the Future

Data analysis is a process of looking at historical data. Yet the most important objective of this task is to understand how to improve the future. The historical data contains valuable business information on project performance, bottlenecks, outliers, trends, anomalies, etc. Use this information to:

improve planning, execution, and forecasting;
reduce estimation errors or ineffective resource allocation;
prevent major mistakes from happening and/or repeating;
identify trends, threats, and opportunities;
keep teams informed, productive, accountable, and responsible;
optimize and improve workflows, processes, and procedures;
make well-informed, smart, data-supported decisions.

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eazyBI 4.7 – Introducing Wallboards

Jānis Gulbis — 2018-12-28T00:00:00Z

Among other updates, improvements, and bug fixes, eazyBI 4.7 now supports a frequently asked feature – wallboards. Now you can show rotating slideshows of dashboard reports on big-screen monitors in a black or white theme.

The value from reporting comes from sharing your insights with others.

eazyBI already supports flexible sharing capabilities, allowing you to share your reports with other Jira or eazyBI users, or with the whole world, using access tokens.

Share direct links to eazyBI reports and dashboards,
Embed your reports and dashboards in Jira dashboards as gadgets,
Embed eazyBI reports and dashboards in Confluence pages,
Use iframes to embed eazyBI reports or dashboards in external web pages.

Now, starting from eazyBI 4.7, you can also show your project reports on big-screen monitors, showing eazyBI reports in eazyBI wallboards.

How to Create eazyBI Wallboards

eazyBI wallboards are publicly accessible eazyBI dashboards, optimized for large screens. Wallboards use bigger fonts, show each dashboard page in a rotating slideshow, and a special layout to look better on big screens.

To use eazyBI wallboards:

Open dashboard embedding settings from the top right corner of the dashboard.
Enable public access with a token.
Select "Wallboard" to display dashboard in a wallboard style.
Use the generated link in your wallboard browser.
Save your settings.

In addition you can:

choose between light or dark theme;
show or hide the wallboard header;
and set the report auto-refresh interval.

Last but not Least – Other Updates

Besides the wallboard functionality, eazyBI 4.7 comes with several other new features and close to 20 bug fixes.

Improved Tempo Timesheets import performance

Now eazyBI will import Tempo Timesheets data directly from the database. You won't need to provide the API token, and imports will be much quicker and more reliable.

Additional eazyBI Settings

Now Jira system admins can specify Jira user groups which should have eazyBI administration rights (in addition to Jira system administrators). Sometimes core eazyBI users are not Jira system administrators, and they didn't have full access rights to work with eazyBI. Now they do!
There are times when eazyBI users set unreasonably short data import frequency which can unnecessary affect Jira performance. Now administrators can limit minimum regular import frequency to prevent this from happening.
eazyBI Usage Statistics is a great eazyBI monitoring tool for admins to identify, fix, and prevent report issues pro-actively. Now you can enable usage statistics easier from the new Additional settings tab.

eazyBI Takes the 2nd “Best Small Exporter” Prize

Evita Legzdiņa — 2018-12-14T00:00:00Z

eazyBI was named the 2nd “Best Small Exporter” at the Export and Innovation Award 2018, organized by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia and the Ministry of Economics of Latvia, celebrating the leading exporters and most innovative companies in Latvia.

The eazyBI team with the President of the Republic of Latvia – Raimonds Vējonis (3rd from the left)

The first prize in the “Best Small Exporter” category went to "Sonarworks" – an acoustic systems software developer, while the third place was taken by SIA "Sport Revolution” for innovative fitness equipment production.

Software and IT services is one of the top growing export industries of Latvia in recent years and eazyBI is proud to be part of it. We believe that small and effective teams are the best way how to create innovative software products and find a unique niche in a global market. I am thankful to our eazyBI team that they believed and joined me in this journey which now shows successful results.

Raimonds Simanovskis, the CEO of eazyBI

This was the first year when eazyBI took part in the competition. The main success factor for this recognition is the rapid financial growth during recent years in export markets that accounts for 99% of eazyBI's revenue.

eazyBI is a business intelligence tool for data visualization and analysis. It is used by more than 2000 active clients across the world, from which 40% of users come from the United States of America, 30% are served across Europe, the remaining 30% - spread across the rest of the world. eazyBI product differs from other similar tools with its simple interface and data import providing essential web-based reporting features. Additionally, eazyBI can be integrated as a plug-in reporting system in other existing web applications.

The goal of the Export and Innovation Award is to promote the competitiveness of companies in local and foreign markets, to foster growth in the quality and quantity of exports, to generate products with high added value, and to further innovation by evaluating results and identifying successful partnerships and products. The evaluation of Latvian companies takes place in the following categories - Leading Exporter, Best Large/ Medium Exporter, Best Small Exporter, Innovative Product, Import Substitute Product, Industrial Design.

Source: www.liaa.gov.lv www.delfi.lv

5 Reasons You Should Attend Atlassian Partner Events

Līva Pavasare — 2018-12-07T00:00:00Z

eazyBI regularly attends Atlassian Solution Partner events to spread the word about our solutions and to interact with our clients and prospects. In this article I've listed my top five reasons why you should go to Atlassian Partner events too.

This November, eazyBI attended the DEISER Enterprise Days 2018 in Madrid.

The event brought together Atlassian customers as well as other Atlassian Solution partners.

This year was a special occasion considering that DEISER celebrated their 20th birthday! Participation in this event was a special occasion for me as well. This was my first ever Atlassian Partner Event so it was a big deal. Besides, it made me realize how much value these events actually bring.

Here are my top five reasons why you should go to Atlassian Partner events too:

1. Get Practical, Useful Information, and Learn

DEISER Enterprise Days 2018 was a two-day event. The first day was loaded with vendor workshops running on 4 separate tracks. While on the second day Atlassian speakers working in companies like Panasonic, Keynote, Bosch, and others came to the stage lights to share their experience with all attendees.

Is there any better place to learn?

It doesn’t matter how much experience or expertise you have in your business, you can always discover new innovative products, services, and solutions, or even expand your perspective beyond your field of interest.

2. See Real Life Use Cases

I believe the best way to learn is by exploring how the knowledge applies to your real-world situation. All topics I saw on the agenda were focused on real and practical advice.

What can be more valuable than to see best practices and use cases already field-tested by others?

I can only think about getting your questions answered straight from the experts. And guess what – they were more than welcome to do that.

3. Get Face to Face Conversations with Vendors

On the second day we had around three hours to interact with existing and potential customers at the expo hall. It was mostly during the informal lunch or coffee breaks in a very sincere atmosphere. That encouraged not only open discussions but I also noticed some serious knowledge bombs dropped by the members of Atlassian community.

I guess that’s just what happens when people feel really passionate about the product they make and sell. Or was it wine? And tapas?

4. Meet Your Industry Peers

It is not only about meeting all vendors face to face, you also get to meet people from the industry who are working daily with Jira or Confluence. This could really be the place to connect with people, network and share experience, so basically a professional development two-day boot camp.

Besides the workshops and presentations, there was plenty of time besides the workshops and presentations to learn about other attendees’ work experience, find out their struggles or challenges and, in the end, hear new ideas and inspirations.

5. Get Inspired

In this busy world we sometimes immerse ourselves in the daily life so much that we do not even notice our motivation level dropping.

DEISER team did a great job in terms of making their Enterprise Days event a refreshing and inspiring experience.

You can never know which workshop topic or particular conversation can lead you to new ideas that you can put to work next day at your job.

eazyBI attended DEISER Enterprise Days 2018 as a sponsor. During events like these you have a chance to participate in training sessions and resolve particular issues. As a sponsor, we had the opportunity to provide a short training for our customers.

We are always happy to meet our clients in person and answer their concerns, help with their challenges, or just have a chat.

We all know that meeting people in person rather than just virtually has a lot of benefits which is why I think these events are just the place to go.

Release Notes – eazyBI 4.5 and 4.6

Daina Tupule — 2018-10-23T00:00:00Z

From Data Center improvements, incremental imports, and updated 3rd party app integrations, to updates in user interface, chart options, and troubleshooting.

Here's what we've added in the recent eazyBI releases.

Improvements for Jira Data Center

The eazyBI team worked together with the Atlassian team during the AppWeek in Amsterdam to improve and provide a better support on how eazyBI works in Jira Data Center.

The new and improved eazyBI for Jira Data Center supports dedicated cluster nodes for eazyBI tasks. Background processes and Child process work on dedicated nodes while all user requests are distributed to cluster nodes via the load balancer.

Read more about Data Center in eazyBI documentation.

Zephyr Test Management Data Import

Zephyr for Jira – Test Management is one of the first 3rd party apps supported by eazyBI. From the eazyBI version 4.5, Zephyr for Jira data import into eazyBI is updated and now provides better import performance.

We also added a few new dimensions and measures for data analysis, providing better tracking for test processes, requirements, and defects.

You can also analyze tests by persons involved in the testing.

Mora about Zephyr for Jira integration in the eazyBI documentation.

Report and Chart Improvements

There are several improvements for reports and charts in the latest eazyBI versions:

Now you can show only key or summary of the issue in the report, add headers in Table reports for dimensions.
The CSV and Excel result export has been improved.
Since the eazyBI 4.6., Measures are always used in all reports and cannot be removed.
Previously, If users didn't select a measure, reports still displayed the default measure "Issues created". It was confusing because it wasn't clear what data are displayed and how to add more measures.
Analyzing changes over time is a very commonly used report type. Many of you have asked us for an easy option to filter the time period used in Time reports.
Now you can use the Time dimension both in Pages as a filter (Year/Month/Week) as well as in Rows or Columns.
This was one of the most requested features that allows you to create a Time based chart and quickly apply a filter to narrow down to specific members (quarter, month, week, or day).
This option is available since the version 4.6 and it is not limited to Time dimension only. You can use any dimension both in Rows/Columns and in Pages for filtering.

Source Data and Import Options Selection

We have redesigned our import screens. You can either select a data source or import using a predefined definition.
We reorganized Jira import options screen with several tabs to group and simplify your options. Now you'll find all the basic import options in the first screen and access any additional option in other tabs.
You can pick particular projects or select project import by project category. All 3rd party app import options are now in the same place. If you are looking for import options and custom fields for Tempo, Profields, or other supported apps, you will find them all grouped in the Add-ons tab.

REST API and SQL Incremental Imports

Since version 4.6, eazyBI now supports incremental data imports from REST API and SQL data sources. You can define additional import options both for REST API and SQL to identify changes in your data and then import only updates instead of performing a full data reimport.

Read more about REST API Incremental import or SQL Incremental import in eazyBI documentation.

Autocomplete for Calculated Members

eazyBI introduced an autocomplete for the calculated member editor in version 4.6.0. Now you can see available functions and their parameters while writing the MDX.

Just start typing measures, member names, functions and eazyBI will provide autocomplete options. For functions, we will show both name and all parameters.

You can access both the default as well as user-defined measures. You can get any member names there as well. This will allow you to write your formulas faster, easier and with fewer errors.

Portfolio for Jira

Since version 4.6.0, eazyBI supports Portfolio for Jira data import. eazyBI will automatically detect Portfolio custom fields and issue properties. Also, eazyBI will create a new Issue Portfolio hierarchy based on your Portfolio hierarchy configuration.

Read more about integration with Portfolio for Jira in the eazyBI documentation.

Link Field Dimensions

eazyBI extends issue link and hierarchy data analysis by supporting new dimensions based on linked Jira default field values. You can create new dimensions based on any default Jira field and any single value link field.
For example, you can create Epic Fix version dimension and analyze how Stories are released by Fix version within Epic Fix version. Linked field dimensions have the same dimension structure and properties as default field dimensions.

Usage Statistics for Source Data Import

Usage statistics for Source Data Import now provide eazyBI import data analysis. You can monitor imports of all eazyBI accounts. You can analyze the total time of imports, imports by type, see details by steps and source types.

For example, you can see which accounts take the most time for the import time and require more resources.

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eazyBI Supports Open Data Hackathon in Riga

Evita Legzdiņa — 2018-10-18T00:00:00Z

During the weekend of September 28th and 29th, eazyBI was represented in the Open Data Hackathon 2018 in Riga, Latvia organized by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) and Latvian Open Technology Association (LATA).

During 24 hours, 75 participants in 11 teams were developing ideas based on the open data innovations in four areas:

transportation,
culture,
regional development, and
tourism.

In the event, eazyBI was represented as a prize sponsor while eazyBI team members actively participated in the hackathon as well:

Raimonds Simanovskis, the founder and CEO of eazyBI, was supporting all teams as a mentor;
Martins from the eazyBI support was a member of the Comeback team who took the second place.
And Janis, a software developer from eazyBI joined CareQueue and was among the winners.

Awards

3rd Place

The third place and the eazyBI award went to “piesien.lv” – an Android app and an online tool for finding existing and submitting new bicycle racks in the city. The project was based on the insight that during the recent year the usage of bicycles has increased by 40%, but no new bicycle racks have been installed in the city.

2nd Place

The second prize went to Comeback – a site where re-emigrants can find the best place to live. Those willing to come back to Latvia could make a thoughtful choice of a city to return to based on the criteria of available housing, infrastructure and social services. The app also has a further potential to also integrate job opportunities.

1st Place

The main prize was taken by the CareQueue team who created a tool for a more effective kindergarten applications management in Riga city. The tool included a more effective document flow and up-to-date information about available private kindergartens and nanny services nearby applicant's home and work place.

The team plans to continue developing the solution and adjust it for the use in other cities. As admitted by the mentors this tool also might have a potential in other countries like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden where new parents face similar problems with kindergarten availability.

Future Potential

All of the ideas and tools created during the Hackathon event were using open data provided by Latvian Open Data portal and other Hackathon event supporters. According to European Commission calculations, the economical potential of Latvian open data applications reach up to 70 million Euros.

Open data creates a huge economical potential if used correctly. The hackathon format is a brilliant way to discover new information in a short time and a focused manner. This can provide solutions for complex problems that could facilitate governmental actions and could become a valuable socially-economical product.

Edgars Babris, Director of Technology Department of LIAA

Source: LATA (in Latvian). Images: LATA.

eazyBI in the Deloitte Fast 50 CE Again

Evita Legzdiņa — 2018-10-16T00:00:00Z

eazyBI is ranked by Deloitte as one of the top 50 fastest growing technology companies in Central Europe for the second consecutive year thanks to a 442% revenue growth over the last 4 years.

eazyBI has been ranked in the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 50 CE ranking for the second consecutive year.

This year eazyBI is listed on the 30th place thanks to a 442% revenue growth over the last 4 years. It was a fierce competition with 265 applicants from 10 countries.

This year at the top is the Prusa Research s.r.o - a Czech 3D printing company with 17118% growth, followed by last year’s winner kiwi.com with 14377% revenue growth.

We are glad that we are in the top 50 listing for the second year in a row. We are participating to demonstrate that even a small company from Latvia without any outside investments can build a growing and profitable international business. IT industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in Latvia and we would like to encourage others to find their unique niche in the global export markets.

Raimonds Simanovskis, the founder and CEO of eazyBI

Last year was the first year when eazyBI (then named EazyOne) took part in this program and was listed on the high 18th place with a 731% revenue growth over previous 4 years, being the first Latvian company during the recent decade to make it to this prestigious ranking.

eazyBI has never been a typical startup. We do not have a venture capital, we do not have a large team, we do not focus on high growth at all costs, and we don’t even have an office. Read the full eazyBI startup story on the eazyBI blog.

eazyBI is a powerful visualization, data analysis, and business intelligence web application used by thousands of customers all around the world. With eazyBI, users can import data from popular data sources and web applications to create interactive reports, charts, and dashboards. The easy-to-use drag-and-drop user interface enables any user to visualize and analyze data easily.

Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is a program that recognizes and profiles the fastest growing public or private technology companies in Central Europe. The program encourages and promotes entrepreneurial, fast-growing technology companies by celebrating their achievements. As described in the application opening, “Recognition as a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 winner provides increased, national visibility, brand recognition, and growth opportunities.”

Two Partner Events and Why They Moved My Heart

Ilze Leite-Apine — 2018-10-15T00:00:00Z

After attending Atlassian events of two eazyBI partners last week, I came back home inspired both professionally and humanly. And a little bit in love, too.

I attended two partner events during the last week: the first TeamUp! event in Belgium, organized by ACA IT, and, two days later, Valiantys Enterprise day in Paris.

It is a great honor as well as a responsibility both - to be invited to the very first event hosted by ACA IT, and to be a recurrent attendee of Valiantys days. eazyBI has participated in more than five Valiantys Enterprise days in the last few years.

Despite the different degrees of the event maturity, both events were well organized, welcoming and both hosted around 100-150 attendees and 6-7 partners and vendors. Such volume of an event means a lot of personal conversations with customers and partners.

Talking to customers always is an enlightening process. You can never guess about many diverse ways how your product is treated. Moreover, how your product is expected to be handled.

During these partner events, there are always a couple of customers who just come by the eazyBI booth just to say, “Hi, we use your product!” We love it, so please, keep doing that!

Then there are always a few serious gentleman with a prepared list of specific questions, saved for the opportunity of meeting someone from the eazyBI team in person. I have noticed that those lists of questions are exceptionally gents’ thing.

The format of those partner events gives us the time to dive into each customer’s story. If we have time to understand our customers, we are able to suggest to them better ways of using eazyBI. This helps them improve their reporting rather than focusing only on general applications of eazyBI.

In both events, I presented for a wider audience how eazyBI reporting could be used for different teams.

My obsession and firm belief is that:

There are no superheroes and sparkling unicorns, just hard working and united teams.

This belief helped me formulate the story for my presentation: “Reporting, done by the team itself, could be invaluable to communicate within a team and with other teams.”

I shared how eazyBI not only supply building blocks to create reports but also provides several meaningful out-of-the-box sample reports for Agile, Service Desk and test teams to empower them using eazyBI for Jira, not just receive data from the management.

In Belgium, I also led a 3 hours long training workshop. Business intelligence concepts are never easy to explain or grasp, and we are still looking for the best way to help understand eazyBI.

I was happy to flow with the spirit of the audience (more than 20 people, a couple of them were current users). Instead of covering as many eazyBI features as possible, I dug deep to explain how things work in a multidimensional data cube and why “measures are treasures”.

My ultimate goal (not achieved yet) is to find words and examples to explain the eazyBI story in a human language, instead of overwhelming people with buzzwords or technical terminology.

Trainee emotions and questions keep me engaged to look for creative ways to explain things. The audience in Brussels was just perfect for that. Statistically, the number of attendees leaving the training before it had ended: zero.

There is yet another reason why I love these events – fabulous Atlassian community people whom I repeatedly meet. I remember them from Atlassian Summits as their company representatives in green, blue, or orange t-shirts.

Now I slowly get to know them and they become “real” persons with names, for example, Lisa, Thorunn, Julie, Christophe, Sylvia, Eugene, and others. Each with their own stories and tastes. They are not only great and passionate professionals to learn and get inspired by, they are also open-minded people ready to share their experiences and cultures.

I got familiar and ate my first aligot and tried my first Belgium “tripel”.
I saw Miróretrospective in Grand Palais.
I have almost complethed “Lean in” - a book by by Sheryl Sandberg. I literally squeaked a couple of times from an excitement while reading it.
I went to the Eifel tower at night.

Everything that was suggested or accompanied by them.

While personal connection with customers and partners is always bittersweet, as it includes both attachment and goodbyes, it nourishes my human part. Sales figures come after that.

Introducing eazyBI Documentation 2.0

Līva Pavasare — 2018-08-13T00:00:00Z

When we hear a word documentation, we anticipate a long, boring, dry, and complex page full with hard-to-read text. Often it’s difficult to find what you need or understand what should you do next.

We admit our own flaws and want to make things better.

Over time, while adding more and more information, the eazyBI Documentation page had become messy.

The site has plenty of useful information, yet it was difficult to find an answer or a solution you were looking for. The page was noisy, confusing, and full of distractions.

Here’s what has changed since then…

Simplicity, Workflow, and Focus

We have redesigned the eazyBI documentation page with a focus on three fundamental things:

Simplicity – a simple and intuitive user interface;
Workflow – an improved logical workflow and navigation;
Focus – clean, uncluttered, focused information.

If you open up the new eazyBI documentation page, you’ll instantly notice that the interface is clean and uncluttered. Less is more.

Simple, Distinctive Categories

We felt it was crucial to separate all three eazyBI documentation categories, each with it’s own distinctive color:

eazyBI Core – general eazyBI features common in all eazyBI versions
eazyBI for Jira – the app for Jira Cloud, Jira Server, and Jira Data Center
eazyBI Private – the downloadable and installable eazyBI server

Once you select your category, you can now freely access all the information, examples, and step-by-step instructions without bouncing back and forth from category to category.

We have also simplified the left-side navigation by restricting it to a particular category.

Let’s be honest, removal of some excessive and irrelevant links and icons gives a lot of space to breathe. We used this approach also to all other navigation steps, keeping only the required information that gives real value.

Furthermore, this new navigation stays at the top at all times. Now you’ll know exactly where you are and it’s much easier to find what you’re looking for.

A Consistent and Familiar Workflow

All the content in each category has been re-organized and grouped into six main sections. These sections are consistent in every category.

If you’re new to eazyBI, the Getting Started section should be your starting point. Other sections correspond to sequential steps of the eazyBI workflow.

Most Visited Topics

All sections feature three most visited topics simplifying your choice and quickly guiding you to the answer.

This will help you stay on course while becoming more and more advanced.

Color-Coded Sections and Pages

We added a color-coding to each of the six main sections in order to help you navigate easily.

Furthermore, we have included the same color-code in every documentation page. So now you’ll know if you’re in the same section or you’ve wandered outside of it.

The Search

It’s no coincidence that we’ve placed the search-bar in the header of each category and at the top of the navigation sidebar.

We want you to try it. We want you to use it.

When you become more experienced with eaazyBI and you already know what you’re looking for, use the focused Search bar to find your answers quicker.

Did you notice how we've color-coded and tagged the results to help you quickly find the right page? Give it a try.

Mobile Friendly

Last, but certainly not least – the whole documentation is now a pleasure to use on mobile devices. It’s clean, it’s simple, and it’s easy to use.

Credit Where Credit's Due

We are really proud with what we've achieved with our new documentation, but we would not be able to achieve that without a solid tool-base.

The eazyBI documentation site is powered by Atlassian Confluence and the Scroll Viewport app from K15T, allowing us to fully customize our documentation site without losing the simplicity and usability of Confluence.

We gradually add new information and examples with an end to make your work more efficient. The information in the documentation reflects frequent questions we receive from our customers. In a way, you're writing this documentation with us. Thank you for all the great feedback, and keep it coming.

Asset Management in Jira with Insight and eazyBI

Rickard Hyllenstam — 2018-06-18T00:00:00Z

Assets are all around us - employees, customers, facilities, IT infrastructure, or something else entirely. How can you track and manage all your assets easily and in one place? How to get valuable insights about relative costs, usage, or assigned issues related to your assets?

This is where an asset management tool like Insight Asset Management from Riada is indispensable.

Update: Insight Asset Management is now part of the Atlassian family!

The asset management is simply a system for monitoring and maintaining a list of assets, objects, entities and a set of related descriptive properties.

Insight, you can manage your assets right within Jira. Combine these with eazyBI for Jira, and you'll have a powerful solution to visualize and analyze your Insight data, providing a full overview and flexible reporting on your assets.

What is Insight?

Insight is an enterprise asset management database that works seamlessly with Atlassian’s Jira.

Insight gives you a total control over all assets in your organization, no matter what kind of assets you need to manage.

By using Insight as an asset management database, you combine two very powerful and automated platforms. With this solution, Jira is not only used to manage issues, it can be used to manage anything. ITSM, CRM, HR, product or service catalogues, infrastructure and facilities are just a few areas where Insight can help your organization to succeed.

All Insight products are perfectly integrated with all flavors of Jira and are used for a wide variety of scenarios. Customers like Spotify, Disney, Intel, and Sony are running Insight with Jira to manage their assets successfully.

How to Analyze Your Assets With eazyBI?

While Insight is a powerful database that helps you manage all kinds of assets, eazyBI adds additional visualization and analytics layer with flexible reporting options on Insight data.

With just a few clicks, users are able to import Insight data into eazyBI and start creating various kinds of reports based on Jira or Insight data using a simple-to-use drag-and-drop interface.

IT Service Management

When it comes to IT Service Management (ITSM), Jira and Insight is the perfect fit for it. You can have your CMDB (Insight) built right into your Jira Service Desk solution.

With the flexible data model that is provided by Insight, you often need the possibility to make equally flexible reports, and this is where eazyBI plays an important role.

eazyBI is integrated both with Jira and the Insight asset management. It provides flexible reports where you can combine Insight data, Jira data, and even data from other Jira apps and external data sources. This enables you to extend your Jira reporting with Insight custom fields.

Being able to combine data from Insight and Jira into same reports gives you great power to make rich reports that fulfill your needs. For example, you can extend your incident reports with the dimension on what services were involved. You might also want to see which hosts are causing the biggest SLA breaches.

With the new Insight cube in eazyBI you are able to do more complex reports on Insight data than ever before. For example, when you manage your employees, office locations, and hardware in Insight, you can they all relate.

These three very different types of assets are connected to each other in Insight. An employee belongs to a certain office and is using a specific hardware.

When having these relations, you can generate a report and find the total cost of hardware, grouped by a location. The results could look something like the following image:

Examples above are just a few common use-cases. The power of using Insight and eazyBI together give you endless options for management optimizations.

All in all eazyBI extends Insight and Jira with great reporting power. Imagine having your real time reports of Insight data directly in Jira instead of having to export your data and process it offline in a spreadsheet tool.

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Reporting Challenges in a Global R&D Organisation

Paul Hardaker — 2018-05-17T00:00:00Z

We are excited to have Paul Hardaker from FinancialForce joining our speaker line up this year. We caught up with Paul before the event to learn more about his role at FinancialForce and what he plans to present to our community next week.

eazyBI Community days 2018 event will take place over two days, May 24-25, 2018. With ten guest speakers, industry use-cases, hands-on training and one-to-one consulting workshops, the event will provide everything you need to know about eazyBI and how it can help your business.

Paul, Can you describe your role at FinancialForce and what a typical day involves?

The reality is I can’t describe a typical day. It doesn’t really exist in my job but that is what I enjoy most about it.

I run the Operations Group for FinancialForce which includes Development and Cloud Operations. My team are responsible for providing an internal service to the entire FinancialForce product organization including product managers, business analysts, and agile development teams. We also manage the software development infrastructure which includes solutions such as Jira and Confluence, as well as all the test frameworks used by the project scrum teams.

Providing reliable metrics, and reporting on current releases and backlogs, is a crucial part of our role and this is where we have been able to use the combined capabilities of Adaptavist’s Test Management for Jira (TM4J) and eazyBI for Jira to a significant effect.

It’s really about empowering our teams to be as productive and efficient as possible. My team’s specific focus is on enhancing our software development infrastructure and products. We believe that if our product and scrum teams can thrive at speed by delivering high-quality, feature-rich releases this will help our customers to also thrive at speed.

For small or large-scale projects using eazyBI and Adaptavist’s Test Management for Jira (TM4J) is a huge help for our business.

As TM4J is so well integrated inside Jira, it allows our teams to view the latest test executions or stories they are working on, quickly and easily. From a reporting perspective, eazyBI provides a window for our stakeholders into current activities, progress and results.

For me, thriving at speed is about applying the best products available to help our teams to be as productive as possible. If our teams are successful it will ultimately help our customers succeed too.

Before using the eazyBI and TM4J solution what were the major points/challenges your team faced in managing R&D and collaborating across your global organisation? How did this affect your ability to innovate?

Being able to innovate comes down to how fast you can develop, test, iterate and release new products and features. It is not a one-off event, it has to be continuous.

Before using eazyBI and TM4J, it was clear we couldn’t access the data we needed to fast enough. This meant a lot of time was wasted manually collecting, checking and interpreting data. It was clear to everyone that the rich data we needed existed, but it was buried deep in Jira. Various filters and dashboards were created in Jira in an attempt to address the gap, but we still couldn’t find the key performance metrics (KPI) we needed.

We looked at different solutions on the market and decided that TM4J and eazyBI would solve this challenge for us and more. Both solutions have given us the ability to capture data quickly and run test reports in real time.

Before using TM4J we used an internal testing framework and in the early days of FinancialForce this solution worked pretty well. But as our product and engineering teams expanded, it was no longer fit-for-purpose. We also had not managed to integrate our internal testing solution with Jira, meaning we had no visibility of our test catalog from within Jira itself.

We soon realized that by using TM4J we could seamlessly integrate and automate our test framework all inside of Jira. Today, we have successfully rolled TM4J out across all our product lines and teams which includes 25 scrums teams (8-10 developers each) in 4 locations (San Francisco, UK, Granada and Jaipur in India).

The key to creating great products and features is having a development system that is fully integrated and automated. Jira has now become the ’single source of truth’ for all data, and we can store, track and run tests all from one place.

Where TM4J comes into its own is when we plan major software releases. We currently release six product lines/apps twice a year and these apps are becoming more and more integrated with each other. We follow a comprehensive release check-list which includes evidence of the level of testing undertaken before release.

As you can imagine, before using TM4J, extracting the correct evidence was a challenging process for our engineering teams.

Now with TM4J we can run a quick coverage report for a particular release on demand, attach it to the test release check-list and we are good to go. The process is straightforward and pain-free and makes everyone’s life much easier.

It has been an exciting year of growth at FinancialForce, with a new office in New York and innovation releases. In your view what emerging tech trend will have the most impact on driving customer success in the future?

You always have to keep an eye on emerging trends and tech innovations to plan and understand what customers will need from your products in the future. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are game-changing and can be applied to almost any industry.

Advances in predictive insights/analytics could also have a lot of potential for our business and customers, rather than focusing on what our data shows and tells us today, we could use that same data to predict what might happen in the future.

With the right data at the core, these technologies could dramatically increase time-to-market of our products, improve the quality of our releases and drive better decision-making in the future.

We can’t wait to continue this discussion with you at our Community day in May, what are you looking forward to most about this year’s event?

I wasn’t able to join last year’s event, so I am excited to be going this year and to be presenting. I’ve met a few of the eazyBI team members before and they are always very helpful, so I am looking forward to catching up in person and discussing some of our more complex reporting needs.

I am also keen to hear about where the product is going next and how other companies have used and applied it. It genuinely amazes me what the eazyBI tool is capable of, the potential seems to be endless.

Using eazyBI to Improve and Simplify Sales Process

Rodrigo Molinare — 2018-05-16T00:00:00Z

In advance of our eagerly awaited eazyBI Community days, we got the chance to catch up with one of our event speakers, Rodrigo Molinare, a Business Analyst from Adaptavist about his thoughts on using eazyBI to transform sales planning, reporting, and management.

We hope you’ll enjoy Rodrigo’s insights as much as we did, make sure to join us on May 24-25, 2018 to hear the full story!

eazyBI: You attended last year’s event and have signed up to speak this year, what motivated you to do this?

Last year’s event was great. The best aspect was meeting the eazyBI team and learning about the tool’s capabilities. Since then, I have been a dedicated eazyBI user and have focused on optimizing it to improve our sales process at Adaptavist.

I learned so much from the presenters and the eazyBI community last year; I wanted to contribute to the discussion this year and share my own experience of using the tool as well as some time-saving tips and tricks.

Find out what are my 3 reasons why I can’t wait for this year’s eazyBI Community Day event.

At Adaptavist, we love getting creative and using the best technology to solve customer challenges. So, we put the eazyBI tool to the test to improve and streamline our sales process. We realized that sales is often siloed from the rest of the organization; this didn’t make sense to us, so we set out to change it.

In my presentation, I will show how Adaptavist have used eazyBI to improve the visibility of sales portfolios for managers and the rest of the business. Previously, our sales team used Salesforce to manage customer accounts and contacts. Although this worked well for them, the information stored in Salesforce was not visible to the rest of the company. As you can imagine this caused a few issues, including:

Predicting future workload and resource requirements was a manual process between Salesforce and Excel
Customer contacts and engagement history was not visible across the company
Sales forecasts and portfolios were updated monthly instead of being available in real time

To our team’s delight, eazyBI eliminated our need to create endless excel reports. It helped us to visualize, understand and act on our sales data, to bring our data in Jira to life. Most importantly it ensured our sales data was accessible to everyone who needed it – when they needed it.

I am looking forward to sharing how we used eazyBI to create this solution and how it has dramatically improved our sales process and management.

eazyBI: What is your view on what is next in the data and business analytics space, what would you love to see happening in the future?

From an industry perspective, data security and ownership are a big concern following recent data breaches by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Protecting people’s data through the right regulations and processes should be top priority. Once the industry gets this right, I think people’s data should be used for their benefit, so they can be offered more tailored products and services. It would be great to see innovative companies like eazyBI playing a role in this and leveraging machine-learning to provide that extra layer of intelligence to help customers make more informed decisions and prepare better for the future.

Adaptavist Test Management Reporting Using eazyBI

Zane Baranovska — 2018-01-10T00:00:00Z

Atlassian provides a powerful ecosystem of project management and collaboration tools. Many of those tools complement each other, delivering benefits far beyond each separate tool alone.

A good example of complementary tools are tools for testing and data analysis.

Being a business intelligence, analysis, and visualization tool, eazyBI has created integrations with several test management tools. eazyBI extends and adds value in the form of advanced reporting at all levels of project management and testing management.

Introducing our most recent integration with Adaptavist Test Management for Jira Server.

Update: Adaptavis Test Management has jointed the SmartBear company and is now known as Test Management for Jira

You can learn more about Test Management for Jira (TM4J) integration and available pre-calculated measures in eazyBI documentation page.

Test Management for Jira is the highest rated QA & Test Management add-on for Jira. It is a full-featured test management solution, helping you to coordinate all testing activities including test planning, authoring, execution, tracking, and reporting. It also supports REST API integration with test automation tools to import test results in Jira. With Adaptavist Test Management for Jira you can:

Organize large test-case libraries using folders and test suites
Create test runs to track testing cycles
Use test cases from multiple projects for a test cycle
Group test runs into test plans for higher level reporting
Report on test execution status and traceability
Assign tests to individual testers and environments
Administer your projects with granular permissions for test activities
Add custom fields
Import and export XLS and XML data

Why Would You Need Custom Test Management Reports?

Testing management tools are perfectly suited to perform daily tasks such as creating manual and automatic test cases, managing test steps and expected results, planning test runs, recording test execution results, reporting bugs from tests and tracing them back to the cause, or linking tests to requirements. Most test management add-ons also have their own built-in reports. Those reports are good for a general information overview such as a list of assigned tests, progress and status of a particular test cycle, a list of tests assigned for release (version), and so on. This is often enough to get your job done, but there is much more you could do with your data.

Very often testing is the last stage of the development cycle—right before delivery. At that point, there are many questions regarding the progress of the project, coming from testing managers, development managers, project managers, and stakeholders. For example:

Is a particular feature completed—developed, tested, and debugged?
Can we release a version to our customers?
What is included in the next planned release?
How much time does it take to test new features in pre-production environment?
Is the new version of product better than the previous?
Are our automated tests working/performing?

When trying to answer these questions, you need clear data; a general overview will not suffice. Eventually you’ll need something more powerful.

This is Where eazyBI Can Help

Data analysis is a complex process. eazyBI can provide the missing context and give you tools to look at your data from many different perspectives. You can create custom reports based on your test management data to highlight trends and quickly identify and locate testing issues, bugs, or possible improvements and threats.

In this article, I’ll try to illustrate some ideas of using eazyBI together with Test Management for Jira.

Getting Started With Some Report Examples

When your import your Adaptavis Test Management data, you will see a new sample report folder called “Samples ATM,” containing several Adaptavist Test Management sample reports.

This is a good place to start. Let's review some of these examples.

Example 1: Cumulative Test Case Burn-Down Chart

A cumulative test case burn-down chart will give you a high-level overview of all your test cases by their result statuses in time: all test cases, remaining tests, not executed, in progress, pass, fail, and blocked tests.

This chart can be very useful for analyzing the progress of your Test Plan to see how it evolves over time. It is a great way to spot issues more easily, make better project forecasting, and see whether or not the testing goes according to schedule.

Example 2: Test Case Results Over Time

Alternatively, you might want to see non-cumulative test executions by statuses by day. This will give you an overview of your daily test execution activities and your test distribution by test statuses (not executed, in progress, pass, fail, blocked).

Example 3: Test Requirement Coverage

In addition to looking at executed tests and their completion statuses, there are additional aspects to testing.

You might want to take a look at your list of requirements that your tests should cover. And better yet:

see how many test cases are created and executed for every requirement,
estimate how long it takes to execute those tests (on average), and
quickly check whether or not these tests reveal some defects.

This simple test requirement coverage report does all of that. Use it as your starting point to identify slow performing tests, cases with most defects, or unexecuted test cases

If there is only one test covering a requirement, you might want to define that requirement more thoroughly.
If you have many test cases, but you haven’t run all of them, you should ask yourself why.
If a test cycle returns many defects, it is worth looking into to understand the cause or to change development priorities.
If you want to release a certain requirement, obtain an estimate on how long it might take to test it.
If something jumps out of those charts, use the interactive “Drill through” feature to drill into more details and find the cause.

Another way for you to analyze almost any report in eazyBI is with page filters. When you drop a dimension in the “Pages” section, those dimensions will appear as drop-down filters in reports. Then you’ll be able to select one or several members of each dimension and narrow down your report to the specific level of your interest.

In the example below I’ve selected the “Shuttle Launch to Skylab” project and all “Unreleased” fix versions, SKYLAB-P1 Test Plan, etc. I could just as well have narrowed it down by Test Plan, User, Priority, Script Type, or Time — you name it.

Example 4: Test Case Performance Bottlenecks

Some reports can also reveal your top or bottom performers, threats, opportunities, or outliers. Most of the time, when something is clearly above or below the average level, it is an indication of an issue. For example, if we would list all Test Case time estimations and compare those with actual average execution time, you would quickly identify:

Slow tests
Over-estimated tests
Under-estimated tests

If a test cycle takes an unreasonably long or unreasonably short time to execute, perhaps there is something wrong. Can it be improved? Should you make better time estimates?

With this insight, you can drill into details and find out what caused the result. Happy hunting! =)

How to Import Test Management Data into eazyBI?

The Adaptavist Test Management (ATM) data import is supported on Jira Server instances, starting from the eazyBI version 4.4.0 (released on Nov 3, 2017). Adaptavist Test Management is currently not supported on Jira Cloud.

Step 1: Create an Account and Connect to Jira

Let’s start with a clean sheet by creating a new eazyBI account in Jira.

Creating separate accounts by project, reporting goal, or area is always recommended, as this keeps accounts clean, focused, easy to navigate, and compact. Smaller accounts also make reports and dashboards run faster.

Because Adaptavist Test Management is a Jira-based add-on, let's add Jira as your source application.

Step 2: Import Your Projects, Test Results, and Samples

Select those projects which have test management data associated with them.

If you have installed Adaptavist Test Management for Jira Server, then, in Jira import options, you will see the Import Adaptavist Test Management (ATM) option.

If you want eazyBI to create a few sample reports, we recommend checking the “Import sample reports” option.

If you want to see how things evolve over time and how issues transition from one status to another, we also recommend importing “issue change history.”

What ATM Data Will Be Imported?

If you want to get the maximum out of Adaptavist test reports and eazyBI, it's usefull to know what data is available to you. Dimensions, measures, calculated measures – it's easy to get confused. Let's cover some basic terms:

Dimensions are the building blocks of data cubes. They can have children and can be organized in multilevel hierarchies. Dimensions help you slice your data based on dimension members. For example the Time dimension has Year, Quarter, Month, Week, and Day members.

Measures are the "meat" of the cube. A measure can be any number, like Tests Created, Test Run, Tests Executed, etc.

Calculated Measures are additional measures that you can add using mathematical expressions.

ATM Dimensions

When importing Adaptavist Test Management data, eazyBI takes into account Adaptavist Test Management structure, to create a data model that reflects the same structure, hierarchy, and relationships. On import, eazyBI will automatically create 17 new Adaptavist Test Management dimensions including defect, environment, iteration, requirement, test case, test run, test plan, and other. You can group, aggregate, visualize, and analyze your data based on these dimensions.

ATM Dimension Hierarchies

eazyBI will hierarchically organize Test Cases, Test Results, Test Runs, and Test Plans by Jira Projects or by Adaptavist Test Management folder structure. This allows you to neatly organize your tests in folders and then see the same structure in your reports.

As you can see in the report below, it is the same Folder / Subfolder / Test structure as in your Adaptavist Test Management tests page in Jira.

ATM Measures

eazyBI will also create and import 15 test management measures such as created, run, executed, or scheduled tests, as well as registered defects and test execution time.

In addition, eazyBI will create about 30 custom calculated measures, greatly extending a set of tools you can use in your reports.

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What’s New in eazyBI 4.4

Jānis Gulbis — 2018-01-03T00:00:00Z

eazyBI release notes highlight recent product improvements we’ve made. From new integrations with Adaptavist Test Management and Insight Asset Management to user access roles, public report sharing, performance improvements, and mobile user interface.

Adaptavist Test Management

Update: Adaptavist Test Management has jointed the SmartBear company and is now known as Test Management for Jira

eazyBI has created integrations with several test management tools available for Jira, including Zephyr and Xray for Jira. This enables advanced reporting at all levels of project management and testing management.

Introducing our most recent integration with Adaptavist Test Management for Jira server.

There are usually many questions regarding the progress of the project, like:

Is a particular feature completed, developed, tested, and debugged?
Can we release a version to our customers?
What is included in the next planned release?
How much time does it take to test new features in the pre-production environment?
Is the new version of product better than the previous?
Are our automated tests working and performing?

With eazyBI, you can now create custom reports based on your Adaptavist Test Management data. Highlight trends and quickly identify and locate testing issues, bugs, or possible improvements and threats.

A simple test requirement coverage report could show you:

how many test cases are created and executed for every requirement,
how long does it take to execute those tests (on average), and
whether or not these tests reveal some defects.

Use it as your starting point to identify slow performing tests, cases with most defects, or unexecuted test cases.

Profields 5.2 Custom Fields

Profields is a useful Jira add-on that lets you define custom fields for your Jira projects and organize all your project information right inside Jira. Profields has its own built-in reporting based on Profields data, but with eazyBI you can do much more than that. You can visualize, analyze, organize and share your Profields project information using advanced reports and charts provided by eazyBI. It's a powerful match between two great add-ons, giving you a toolset to organize, manage, and analyze your Jira projects, build better workflows and achieve better results.

eazyBI now supports Profields 5.2 custom fields.

Insight Asset Management

Insight Asset Management is a powerful Enterprise Asset Management solution inside Jira. It provides a modern CMDB (Object Management) for ITSM and many other areas. With Insight you can:

Control assets like servers, computers, phones, accessories etc.
Manage release information like software components, packages and versions.
Manage onboarding of employees, financial information, marketing & legal assets.

Possibilities are limitless.

With eazyBI you can now dive deep into your Insight Asset Management data and discover the “big picture” behind your assets. Analyze your created, changed objects, and any status changes in detail. Group your assets by object, object type, object status, time, object history changes, object transition status, etc.

Public Access Tokens

If you want to publish eazyBI reports and dashboards to other Jira users, you can either embed them using iframe, or use eazyBI gadgets in Jira dashboards and Confluence pages. Either way, only authorized users will be able to see those reports. What if you need to share some reports publicly with users who do not have access to your Jira or eazyBI? Now you can do that using public access tokens.

This embed_token is unique for each report and dashboard, and is used to authenticate access to a particular report or dashboard for non-authenticated anonymous users.

Data Access Roles

In eazyBI, you can grant access at the account level. There are several access levels with different access levels for each user, yet sometimes you need more granular permissions.

Introducing eazyBI data access roles. Now you can restrict access to certain folders, dashboards, cubes, and even selected members in some dimensions.

You can create and manage user data access roles in the Account users page Data access roles tab.

You can create as many access roles as you need and assign them to your eazyBI users or groups.

New Mobile and Tablet UI

We have made many improvements to the small-screen eazyBI user experience. The eazyBI user interface has always been responsive and users were able to use eazyBI on mobile devices. Sometimes the details were too-small and the desktop-optimized charts were impossible to navigate.

We have made many improvements to the mobile interface, making it adaptive. Now we will check the screen-size and create an optimal layout for your your device. Give it a try!

Other Improvements

Simple and Beautiful Export to PDF

eazyBI now supports export to PDF using the headless Google Chrome browser.

All printed reports and dashboards are now rendered just like in the browser, creating more exact and beautiful PDF snapshots.

Improved Jira Data Import

Data import is an important part of eazyBI, which is why we are constantly working on import performance improvements. In eazyBI 4.4 we have made several data import improvements which greatly affect import speed and stability.

Some Jira data import steps now run up to ten times faster and overall import time is reduced significantly, especially when change history import is selected.

We've also improved the Jira Service Desk SLA data import.

I hope you'll enjoy these updates. Read more in the eazyBI change log.

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Xray Jira Test Management Reports With eazyBI

Jānis Gulbis — 2017-02-15T00:00:00Z

We are constantly investigating integration possibilities with other popular Jira add-ons. Many users have asked us to add the support for the Xray for Jira test management add-on. We've listened, and now, starting from eazyBI version 4.2, you can import and analyze data from Xray for Jira.

Xray for Jira is a complete, full-featured Atlassian verified test management add-on for Jira. Xray supports both manual and automated tests and a complete testing life cycle: test planning, test designing, and test execution to help developers improve the quality of their systems.

Importing Xray Data

To import your data from the Xray add-on, you should upgrade eazyBI to version 4.2.x. eazyBI will automatically detect if you have an Xray add-on and give you additional checkbox parameter in the eazyBI Jira Import settings.

This will import a few dozen new Xray dimensions and measures. If you use Xray v.2, you can also import additional custom dimension fields, such as “Test Environment”.

Now you can use the power and flexibility of eazyBI to squeeze out every bit of information about created, scheduled, running, or completed tests, the number of defects, and more. Let’s take a look at a few Xray reports you can build with eazyBI.

Overall Xray Test Run Results

You can create a simple test execution report to quickly see the overall snapshot of your test execution results. You can specify additional filters, for example Xray Test Plan, Test Environment, Test Set, Time period, or other Xray dimensions.

Xray Tests by Project and Test Set

After reviewing all test execution summary, you can dig deeper to analyze created and executed Xray tests by project and test set. This will give you a full overview of test execution status across all your project portfolio to quickly check which projects require your immediate attention.

Xray Test Burn-Down Chart

A cumulative Xray test burn-down chart will give you even more detailed information. This chart can be very useful for analyzing the progress of a Test Plan to see how it evolves over time. How many tests are created, how many of them have been completed, and whether the tests are To-do, Executing, Pass, Fail, or Aborted. It is a great way to spot issues more easily, make better project forecasting, and see whether or not the testing goes according to schedule.

All Xray Tests Report

You can see a detailed information about each one of your tests – all in one chart.

Which tests have been scheduled, executed, or completed most often?
How many times and how long each test has been run?
What statuses have been returned?
Which test have been failing most often?

You can also set additional filtering by a project, status, or version, to narrow down your report even further.

Top Defects Report

You can list all distinct tests who executed with defects. Find out what defects are captured in each version and how many tests does that affect? For example, if a certain defect is affecting many tests, you might want to resolve it first.

Xray Test Report Dashboard

You can combine several Xray reports in one dashboard and use the common filter option to get a quick top-down overview of a particular project, test plan, version, assignee, status, test type, etc. Common filter values are applied to all reports at once, giving you instant results based on filter criteria you selected. For example, you might want to see how many times each test was run, what’s the average run duration of each test, how many defects there are and which tests are affected.

With eazyBI you can also subscribe to receive regular dashboard snapshots to your email. With a monthly, weekly, or even daily updates you will always be in the loop.

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What’s New in eazyBI 4.2?

Jānis Gulbis — 2017-01-31T00:00:00Z

eazyBI Release Notes highlights recent product improvements we’ve made. From usability improvements and new dimension hierarchy members to Xray integration and built-in report usage statistics for server versions — this is what we’ve released in January.

Dashboard Improvements

In dashboards, the primary focus should always be on charts and reports. This is why we’ve made many small changes to eazyBI dashboard colors and navigation bar. You will notice that reports in eazyBI dashboards now stand out more clearly, while embedded reports and report gadgets blend in with the rest of the page. Additionally, small adjustments to report alignment and layout make dashboards look more balanced and organized.

Dashboard Email Subscriptions

In eazyBI, you can subscribe to receive dashboard reports as PDF attachments in your email. With this update, now you can select not only a particular day of the week but also specify a certain day of the month when you’d like to receive those reports. For example, you might want to receive report updates every Monday, but also the first day of every month. Try it!

Chart Axes Options

Now we are giving you more chart formatting options to help you highlight your data and to make your charts clearer and more informative.

Change names of chart axes labels.
Choose the font size between small, medium, and large.
Set minimum and maximum values on your axes and define the step of the gridlines.
Use the “Swap axes” option to swap row and column dimension placement on X and Y axes.
Change the title and label orientation for the X-axis.
Add a prefix or a suffix to your labels. For example, add the “$” symbol before currency values.

Time Dimension Options

Atlassian Jira is used in many countries all around the world. When analyzing time-based data, we have to take into account different working and nonworking days, holidays, and even time zones. In previous versions of eazyBI for Jira, all date timestamps were imported based on Jira server time zone, and all non-working days had to be inserted directly into formulas.

Nationwide and multinational companies with offices in different time zones now can create different eazyBI accounts to represent the data based on different time zones. You can specify additional options for the Time dimension: the time zone, the first day of the week, and nonworking days.

When you set a different time zone, all timestamps for the particular account will be converted to this time zone. All the selected nonworking days and holidays will be used to calculate the new workdays’ measures such as Average resolution workdays, Average age workdays, Workdays in transition status, and Average workdays in transition status. Nonworking days of the Time dimension will be used also for DateAddWorkdays MDX functions.

Integration with the Xray Add-on

We are constantly investigating integration possibilities with other popular Jira add-ons. Now eazyBI supports data Xray for Jira is a complete, full-featured test management add-on for Jira. Now you can use the power and flexibility of eazyBI to squeeze out every bit of information about created, scheduled, running, or completed tests and the number of defects.

Category Hierarchy Level for Projects and Statuses

Different teams in your company might use different sets of issue statuses, describing the same stages of your business process. It makes status reporting complicated. Now, with the additional Category hierarchy level, you can make faster and simpler reports to check issues in to-do, in progress, or done status — no need to select all corresponding individual statuses. Similarly, you can analyze your projects by a project category.

eazyBI Usage Statistics

eazyBI Usage statistics is an optional feature available in eazyBI for Jira Server and eazyBI Private server. You can enable it in advanced settings. Analyze how your eazyBI reports are used, which reports are viewed most, and which are running slow. For example, you can see an overview of daily, weekly, or monthly eazyBI usage, most active users, top executed reports and dashboards, reports with errors, or slow reports.

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A Different Startup Story

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2017-01-25T00:00:00Z

eazyBI has never been a typical startup. We do not have a venture capital, we do not have a large team, we do not focus on high growth, and we don’t even have an office. So, how did we manage to build a company from $0 to $1 million in less than five years?

I started the company alone from scratch, almost six years ago. At that time, I already had more than 15 years of experience in the information technology (IT) service business and was working as a CTO in one of the largest IT companies in Latvia. Yet, for some reason, I felt that this was not what I wanted. I was getting bored of the daily routine at this large corporation. Secretly I dreamed about creating my own company.

Being a 38-year-old guy with a family of five and a house, I didn’t exactly match a typical startup entrepreneur profile. On the other hand:

I had enough savings to live on for at least a year without making additional income;
I had no mortgage on my house;
I had no other obligations besides my family; and
I was certain that I would still be valuable as an employee in the IT industry if this entrepreneurial journey didn’t go so well.

I just had to try!

Inspiration and Motivation

I’ve read many inspiring books about business, but there are a few that were life-changing for me. Reading those books changed my perspective about business. My inspiration and motivation to start my own company came from reading 37signals (now Basecamp) describe their approach to business, design, development, marketing, and life.

37signals used their unconventional “getting real” process to launch five successful web-based applications – Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, and Ta-Da List – in just two years with a team of only seven people. They did that with no funding and no debt.

In that time they also created over a million web applications and websites.

When building eazyBI, I borrowed a perspective and many ideas from those two books. These are the lessons I’ve learned.

How to Pick the Right Idea

Obviously, the very first thing to do is to think about the idea. This is one of the most important decisions you have to make before you start doing anything else. While making this decision, you have to think about several fundamental questions:

What do you know and do best? What do you know and do better than most others? You should not think about the latest trends or what’s hot and popular right now. Instead, think about your main competitive advantage. What is your differentiator? It could be a special skill or a unique set of personality traits.
What do you love to do and wouldn’t mind doing for a long time? Businesses are not built overnight. It will take months, even years, before you catch momentum. There is no way of knowing whether or not you’ll be successful. It’s better to do something that you’d love to do anyway, so that when you look back after a couple of years, you won’t regret the time you spent.
Is there a real need for this? Have you seen those silly infomercials selling a solution for a nonexistent problem? If people have urgent problems they want to solve, they are most likely already looking for a solution. You can do a quick search to find out if people talk or complain about a certain issue, ask questions, and suggest solutions.
Are people willing to pay for a solution? If there is a quick, simple, and free solution already out there, and if there are no paid products, that’s a big red flag. Competition is good. Your competitors will mark the areas where the money is, and show you what the market is looking for, before you begin.
Is this niche business too small or too big? If you can acquire only a few dozen customers and sell them once, there is no business. On the other hand, if the niche is large enough that huge corporations are already fighting and competing in it, be careful. Those big companies can out-compete, out-develop, and out-market you, or even offer a free product or service alternative that would eventually kill your business.

When picking an idea for my business, I thought about all these questions carefully.

In my previous career, I was working with many business intelligence (BI) tools from different vendors, so I knew this niche quite well. I knew that there was a business need and paying customers who would pay for these tools.

There were many BI tools out there, but most of them required a team of IT specialists to integrate data sources, create reports, and provide results. It took a lot of time to implement those solutions and the total cost was often outside the reach for many businesses.

There was a need for an affordable, easy-to-set-up, and easy-to-use BI tool which would not compete with those big vendor tools that I’ve used previously.

I already had a great experience in software development, a good understanding of BI concepts, I knew the market quite well, and I knew I’d love creating this new solution. It seemed almost like an obvious choice.

The outcome was eazyBI – a ready-to-use web-based BI tool supporting a one-click data import from many popular applications, an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface for report and dashboard creation, many different chart types, powerful custom calculations, and many advanced features.

Start Small; Stay Small

More than a decade ago, I worked in a small IT services company. This company started out with 30 people and quickly grew to more than 300 people. Right after that, this company was acquired by a large corporation with more than 15,000 people. I was participating in management meetings throughout all these growth stages.

When we met at those management meetings, we often remembered and discussed the “good old days” when we were a small team. We sat ruminating about how easy it was to make decisions and solve problems back then, just because we were all able to work together.

I hear these stories often. Then why, if it was so good, should we spoil it and grow to a state where we’re not happy anymore? Is bigger better?

New businesses first need to find a profitable niche and a working business model. They have to experiment and make decisions quickly. Starting small and staying small has many benefits:

When you’re just starting out, your success often depends on how long you can last with low-to-none income. When you’re small, you can keep your expenses low. You don’t even need an office; you can work from your home, garage, or a nearby coffee shop.
While you’re still trying to find your niche, you can be much more flexible and resilient with a small couple-person team. You can make quick decisions, experiment faster, and make changes easier.
It is not a good idea to believe that you can start an unprofitable big business, with a lot of funding in the background, and hope that at some magic point this business will eventually become profitable.
It is easier to find a working business model while you are still small. You have to find out what’s working and what is not before you start throwing your time and money at something. When you have found a working model, you can start growing your business gradually. The profitability will start to grow proportionally as well.
If you have only a few customers, it’s easy to change a functionality or a direction of your product and explain individually to each of your customers what are you changing and why.

I started my company all by myself and was working alone for about two years. I had some savings from previous work to finance myself for a couple of years. I did not want to risk too much. I just wanted to explore different ideas.

The beginnings are never easy. My imaginary deadline for this business was about two years. If after two years I was still struggling, I’d just move on. Two years after starting eazyBI, I had a feeling that this will go well. Before that, during this two-year period, sometimes I felt that I had not reached that level.

In the third year, I hired my first employee. In the fifth year, we were six. Now, six years later, we are 12, but I’m still trying to keep the team small so we can all work well together. I have no intention of growing into a big corporation, where I would not be happy anymore.

Some business owners want to hide the fact that their company is small. They would rather pretend bigger. It is mostly because they are afraid that their customers might not take them seriously, assume that it’s unstable and not worth doing business with.

There are many big corporations around the globe that are using eazyBI. When dealing with these big companies, we’re not hiding that we’re a small Latvian company. If you hide this, these companies might ask you to provide things you can’t provide. They will find out how big or small you are anyway. It will just lead to disappointment. It’s better to be clear about it up front.

You Don’t Need a Venture Capital

Most venture-capital-based startups are focused primarily on a really high growth. They are expected to double in size every two to three months.

According to Paul Graham, a programmer, writer, and investor

A good growth rate [during a growth phase] is 5–7% a week. If you can hit 10% a week you’re doing exceptionally well. If you can only manage 1%, it’s a sign you haven’t yet figured out what you’re doing.

The business behind those venture capital funds is that they have a portfolio of ten or more startup companies. Purely statistically, most will fail, some will struggle, and hopefully one in ten will be a success with a high growth – covering the loss from others. If you are a business owner of a venture-capital-based startup, there is a 90% chance you’ll fail and no-one will care.

Venture Capital Is a Time Bomb

David Heinemeier Hansson, Founder & CTO at Basecamp, Creator of Ruby on Rails

When going into this business, I decided to go with a less risky approach. I decided not to go with venture capital for several reasons:

High growth in early stages of the company can be harmful. A less risky approach is to go for a controlled growth. You can grow to a level that is still manageable and you don’t have any internal pressure to grow beyond your control if you don’t feel good about it.
Venture capital startups are pushed to go for all or nothing. Bootstrapped startups can live very well with a sustainable niche business model.
The primary goal and exit strategy for most venture capital startups is to go for an acquisition. A goal for a bootstrapped niche business is to find a profitable model.

Focus on Paying Customers

Too many startups are trying to find the next fancy thing that could become insanely popular with huge masses. They are looking for a product that would appeal to millions of users. But when asked to pay for these products or services they realize that out of those millions, only a few are interested enough to buy.

If you have a million users who wouldn’t pay, every user becomes your expense – you have to give them support, communication, time, infrastructure, and so on. Instead, start with a "good enough" minimum viable product your customers are willing to pay for.

Find a product or a service your customers will buy. Don’t fall into the trap of believing your prospects when they say, “If only you had/could __ __ __, then I would definitely buy.” They have to take out their wallets and actually pay for your product or service as it is.
Focus on the needs and requirements of your first real customers. If you try to improve your product for your existing customers, you’ll find even more new customers just like existing ones.
Grow with your customers. When your customer base grows, you can linearly grow your team and business, maintaining a balance and keeping steady control.
Ask for a fair price. Your income from one customer should start from tens-of-dollars per month or hundreds per year for a product or service package. These are the starting points where you can start making some business from customers.
If you ask for just a couple of dollars, then every time a customer contacts you, you’re already making losses. You have to charge a reasonable price for your product or service to be able to provide high quality. eazyBI pricing is focused on paying business customers. Our prices are clear, simple, and reasonable. We don’t use any annoying psychological tricks to make the prices appear lower – for example, $97 instead of $100.

Provide the Best Quality Support

When customers are looking for a solution to their problem, they will often check what other users are saying about you. They want to know whether or not they will get a decent support when needed. Providing an excellent support has many benefits:

A great support can be your best competitive advantage. If you are in a good niche, especially in a B2B industry, it is likely that there will be many other similar tools and competitive services. Providing a great support is your opportunity to stand out.
More reviews. A good support is one of the best ways to earn good ratings, reviews, feedback, and testimonials. The best time to ask is at the moment when they are most satisfied with your product or service, or when you have just provided good quality support.
Understand your market. Talking to your customers and helping them solve their issues is the best way to learn more about them and to .
Develop new features. Observing how your customers are using your tool will give you ideas on how to improve it. They will tell you about any functions and features that your product is missing.

In eazyBI, we have an “all hands on support” policy. I myself, our marketing and support team, and even our developers are involved in customer support. Every two weeks we rotate our developers, and one of them becomes a full-time support member.

When our customers ask for a function or feature that we do not provide, we often realize that there is a work-around. This thought process leads to much better ideas and helps us develop new useful features, which eventually benefit all customers.

Find Beneficial Partnership

It is hard to do business alone these days. Although the Internet enables you to reach your prospects worldwide, it also enables your competitors – they are just one click away. It’s important to find partners and distribution channels to distribute your products directly and more efficiently.

Initially, I built integrations with several popular applications like Zendesk, Basecamp, Highrise, Harvest, Git, Jira, Twitter, and others. For eazyBI, the most successful channel turned out to be Atlassian Marketplace, thanks to our Jira add-on. For the past couple of years, eazyBI has been listed steadily among the top 10 add-ons for Atlassian Jira on Atlassian Marketplace.

Atlassian has many partners, including solution experts who consult and implement Atlassian products and add-ons for their customers. Instead of competing with other Atlassian partners, we partner up with them. We focus more on product development and primary support, giving our partners the opportunity to provide deep and personal support, and improve their consulting business. This model benefits all parties:

us, because we can focus our resources on development;
our partners, because it provides them with new customers and additional business; and
our customers, because they have a wide network of qualified experts all over the world who can give them the time, attention, and support they need. Being a small team, we wouldn’t be able to do that alone.

When working with partners, it’s important to remember that you still have to do the selling. Do not expect that if you have a great product, your partners will take care of the whole sales process. They can provide a distribution channel, they can help you getting new prospects and trials, but you need to convert those prospects into customers yourself.

Meet Your Customers

A common mistake for startups is to spend a lot of time going to startup conferences and seminars, hoping for a breakthrough secret. Instead, they should go to business and user conferences where their prospects are most likely to be.

In eazyBI, we travel to many business conferences each year to meet our customers and prospects personally. We talk to them, and show them our product and solutions.

Most of the time, the return on investment from direct leads or customers acquired at a conference does not cover the immediate expenses. But, our presence builds our brand and a momentum that converts into growth and sales in the long term.

One of the biggest benefits from these conferences is the ability to build relationships with our partners and to expand our partner network and distribution channels.

Control Expenses

In the beginning, your success often depends on how long you can survive with little- to no-income. That, in turn, depends on your savings and your burn rate – the amount of money you, as a company, are either spending (gross) or losing (net) per month. It is important to keep your burn rate as low as possible. It could mean you have to go with no office, no team, no excessive equipment, and no loans.

Small Team

The first few years, I was working alone from my home. I knew how to handle the product development and the management side of my business because I had a great experience in both of these areas. I hired my first developer only when I already had customers and a positive cash flow to cover my expenses. Sometimes it’s a good idea to have a team of two, where one covers the business side and the other the technology side of the business.

Over the past three years, our team has more than doubled. We have a small controlled growth and we add new team members only when it’s really necessary. We always try to find a member who is a good fit for the company and our culture.

Remote Work – No Office

In my previous work, I was tired of spending hours in traffic jams each day. I decided that I could spend that time more effectively if I didn’t have to go to an office every day. Later, when new team members joined, we decided to continue working remotely.

If our market is global, why should we have one small office in one particular place anyway? We can work equally well or even better from any place with an Internet connection. We have a 4G broadband Internet available anywhere in Latvia, so we can work wherever we want.

We still don’t have a central office and I still work from home.

We have “home offices” all over Latvia. In the summer, some of our employees go to their rural premises and spend their summer outside the city.

If you are working fully remotely, you’re also more flexible with employees. You are not limited to a certain area around your office. There are people with families and family houses outside the capital, and they also prefer this remote style of working. This is a positive differentiator compared to many other companies.

Reasonable Marketing Expenses

The “if you build it, they will come” mindset is broken. Your prospects don’t even know you and your solution exists until you tell them. When you are starting out, you don’t have a budget for expensive marketing campaigns. In fact, you shouldn’t burn all your budget in marketing while you still don’t know who and where your prospects are and how to reach them.

Marketing is fishing – you need to find the right place, the right hook, and the right bait to catch your desired fish. And you have to do all of that blindfolded. Throwing a load of worms in the middle of a pond won’t help you to catch a whale.

When looking for prospects, I mostly looked for different user forums and discussion groups. I tried to find somebody with a problem where I could give a real solution, using my product for an example. When considering apps to integrate with, I was checking their user forums to see whether users are asking for custom reports and charts, implying that the built-in functionality was insufficient.

Our first customers came mostly from application websites where we had integration and were listed as an external analytics solution for their application. Many users came from user forums. This helped us building the authority and links to our website, essentially improving our rankings in search engines.

Many years later we still benefit from organic search engine traffic. We still don’t need paid traffic sources because we are satisfied with our growth rate so far.

What is Test Data Management? 3 Steps to Information Security

Sanjay Zalavadia — 2016-08-29T00:00:00Z

Information is a key in today’s software projects. Faster feedback loops and user data all come together to provide insights that lead to better quality and innovative improvements, yet this involves security threats. Keep test data secure with these 3 essential steps.

Three Essential Steps to Information Security

Teams have a wider breadth of test data to access than ever before during the software development process. This comes both from fabricated information (usually done during early project phases) as well as actual user data (gathered from real world use of the project or similar apps).

Depending on the industry and nature of the software, test data can glean a lot of personally-identifiable information that must be protected. Let’s take a look at three essential steps to keeping information secure when used as test data.

1. Identify Sensitive Information

The first thing to do is to determine what data is sensitive enough to require protection. This could include items like names, addresses, social security numbers, and birth dates. Leaks of this information could lead to identity theft, fraud, and other such consequences for unsuspecting users.

PCI security standards governs any financial transactions and information, making it one of the most common laws that organizations must comply with.

While it may be clear what type of documents need safeguards, putting them in place can be much trickier. According to Software Testing Help, cloud-based environments, a popular choice among testers, cannot guarantee user privacy, causing concerns despite the other advantages they bring. Luckily, there are different approaches that teams can experiment with to find the solution that fully covers sensitive information.

2. Use Masking Techniques

With all of the data at a team’s disposal, they’ll want to use it, but how can they do so without putting sensitive information at risk? Masking is an easy way to convert these sets into non-sensitive data that can be leveraged for analysis or testing.

Computer Weekly contributor Shalini Gupta noted that the de-identification strategy must make sense to developers and testers alike. Any fields should be substituted out with their appropriate counterparts.

For example, alphanumeric characters must be replaced with other alphanumeric characters. This will help teams understand what type of information went there and still transform sensitive data into something that’s usable.

“These technologies are effective, scalable and easy if performed properly,” Gupta wrote. “For example, only sensitive data must be masked, the masked data must not be reversible, and the masked data must represent real data.”

3. Leverage the Right Tools

Testers must be provisioned with the best tools that will not only keep their test cases straight, but will also integrate well with data masking and protection solutions, and will provide a comprehensive overview. Agile test management tools could be the answer here.

Jira Software, together with eazyBI reporting, make a powerful set of Agile software management tools. Together these tools not only enable groups to collaborate effectively across projects and see updates in real time, but they can also help teams assign and track all test cases down to the smallest detail.

The security from bringing these forces together will ease the minds of users as well as developers and testers. These types of tools will also lead to a greater accuracy, better security and overall improved quality while delivering applications faster than ever before.

“Test data privacy must be incorporated into businesses’ overall application testing life-cycles,” wrote Database Trends and Applications contributor, Stuart Feravich. “This fosters greater collaboration between security and IT professionals, by getting everyone on the same page in terms of time-lines and schedules. But perhaps most importantly, ensuring test data privacy can be a relatively easy, cost-efficient way to deliver high-quality, adaptable business applications quickly, while minimizing data security risks and taking people - IT, security professionals, and customers - out of harm’s way.”

Masking techniques can help keep sensitive test data secure.

The 80/20 Rule: How to Calculate the Pareto Principle?

Jānis Gulbis — 2016-08-25T00:00:00Z

Time, money, supplies, energy — every business has to manage its resources efficiently. How can you reduce waste and increase your return on investment? As it turns out, there is a simple but very powerful tool that can be applied to almost any aspect of your business and life.

The universe is imbalanced. Whether it's business, life, or nature – cause-and-effect relationships are never equal. There are the vital few and the trivial many everywhere.

There is a universal law, with many names, that describes these imbalanced relationships.

80/20 rule, or 80-20 rule, or 80:20 rule,
80/20 principle, or 80-20 principle, or 80:20 principle,
Pareto principle, Pareto's law, or Pareto theory,
principle of imbalance,
principle of factor sparsity,
principle of least effort,
rule of the vital few, or the law of the vital few.

If you know and understand this universal law, you can use it to your advantage. Apply it to see patterns, identify top and bottom performers, and make the right decisions.

Origins of the 80/20 Rule

The law of imbalance has existed since the beginning of time, but it was discovered in 1896 by Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto.

Pareto discovered that approximately “80% of the land in Italy was owned by only 20% of the population”. He soon realized that this 80/20 rule seemed to be a universal truth that could be applied to practically all aspects of life:

80% of outputs are produced by 20% of inputs.
80% of results come from 20% of the effort.
80% of the work time is often spent on 20% of tasks.
80% of the world’s riches are concentrated in 20% of developed countries.
80% of sales come from 20% of customers.
80% of profit comes from 20% of products or services.
80% of warehouse stock comes from 20% of suppliers.
80% of the peas are harvested from 20% of the pods.
80% of the world’s food is grown in 20% of the world’s countries.
80% of criminal activities are performed by 20% of the population.
20% of your friends will consume 80% of the beer at a party.
80% of the time you visit only 20% of your friends or relatives.
80% of readers will read only 20% of this article.

The 80/20 Distribution

Often, the 80/20 is represented as two stacked columns to compare and contrast.

It's worth mentioning that the distribution is not always 80/20. There are even more extreme variations of the Pareto principle, like 95/5 or 99/1.

For example, in language learning, knowing just 5%—7% of the total number of words will allow you to understand anywhere from 90%—95% of the vocabulary found in common texts!

In Pay-Per-Click advertising, only 5% of search keywords bring in 95% of leads.

In the Pareto principle, the inputs and outputs do not have to add up to 100%. The relationship could as well be 80/40, 60/20, 90/30, or 100/10. The 80/20 distribution is just the most common one.

How You Can Use the 80/20 Rule?

The 80/20 rule is a simple concept that can be applied to many situations. It states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. This means that you should focus on the 20% of your efforts that will lead to the greatest reward, or yield the highest value for your time and energy.

You can use this principle in any area of your life, whether it’s in business, education, relationships, or any other aspect. For example, if you want to learn a new language, focus on the 20% of words and phrases that will likely be used most often. If you’re trying to improve your physical fitness, focus on exercises that are most beneficial for reaching your goals – such as jogging or weight training.

By applying this rule in different areas of life, you’ll be able to maximize your effort and get more out of each day. If you apply the 80/20 principle to prioritize your daily tasks, you might get an 80% impact by completing only a fifth of the items on your to-do list instead of completing everything.

The Power of 80/20

The 80/20 rule is actually infinite. You could, for example, look at the top 20% and apply the 80/20 on this data subset, then on the sub-subset, and so on. It's like using a magnifying glass to discover even finer details about your business.

In an example from Perry Marshall in a primer to the Pareto principle, he writes: “If you have 1000 customers, 80% of your business comes from 200 of them. But if we now look at those 200 best ones, 80/20 is still true. 80% of business from those 200 will come from 20% of the 200, which is 40.
If you now look at the top 20% of the top 40 customers, it will leave you with 8 customers. Nearly half of your entire business will come from those 8!”

How does it work? Let's do the math. If 80% of 80% of business comes from 20% of the 20% of the customers, it's (0.80 x 0.80) / (0.20 x 0.20). This means that 64% of business comes from 4% of the customers. That is 80/20 squared or (80/20)².

“Zoom in” and look at the top 20% of the top 20% of the top 20%, and you'll discover that nearly 50% of the business (0.80 x 0.80 x 0.80) comes from only 1% of customers (0.20 x 0.20 x 0.20). That is 80/20 to the power of 3 or (80/20)³.

If you plotted all those relationship points on a chart, you'd notice that they form a curved line. This line is often called the Pareto distribution curve.

There are many distribution curves, each describing a different relationship between inputs and outputs, or causes and effects.

As you can see in the chart, according to the 80/20 curve, the first 20% of the input would give you 80% output, but the remaining 80% of inputs would give you only 20% of the output.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Pareto Principle

While the Pareto Principle can be a useful tool for making decisions and prioritizing tasks, it is important to remember that not all problems can be solved using this simple rule.

Relying too heavily on this approach could lead to unintended consequences such as neglecting some areas of need or over-investing in others. To make sure it is used effectively, it is important to consider both the advantages and disadvantages of the Pareto Principle before implementing it into any strategy or decision-making process.

The Advantages of the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle allows decision-makers to focus their energy on the decisions that are most likely to produce the greatest results. This can save time and resources by eliminating the need to consider all options equally.
Prioritization of efforts and resources can potentially lead to more efficient problem-solving.
It helps decision-makers identify which areas of a project should receive greater attention and which can be addressed with less focus.
By prioritizing results, the Pareto Principle encourages organizations to focus on quality over quantity when evaluating outcomes.

The Disadvantages of the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle is based on a statistical model, which means it is not always accurate or reliable in predicting outcomes in real-world situations.
In the Pareto analysis we "assume" that the current situation will remain static; changes in circumstances may require new strategies or decisions that cannot be predicted using given parameters.
The principle only measures results, not effort; this can lead to a lack of incentives for employees or teams who put in extra effort but may not see their results represented in numbers or percentages.
A focus on results can lead to tunnel vision and ignore potential long-term benefits or opportunities that may be available with different approaches or strategies; this could potentially limit innovation and creativity within an organization or team environment.

How to Find the 80/20 Using Spreadsheets?

Let's try to find the 80/20 distribution using a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

For the sake of this example, I will use Google Sheets to analyze sales data from the Northwind database. The Northwind database contains the sales data for a fictitious company called “Northwind Traders”.

Let's take a look at Northwind Trader’s total sales by country (open example Google Sheet here). I want to find out which countries attribute to 80% of total sales.

To do that you have to:

Sort data by sales numbers in descending order.
Calculate cumulative totals from top to bottom.
Calculate the cumulative total percentage from total sales over all countries.

1. Sort Your Numbers

Before calculating cumulative totals, first, sort your data by the sales column in descending order. Make sure you sort ALL your columns by the sales column, not the sales column alone. Click here to see how to sort rows in MS Excel and how to sort rows in Google Sheets.

2. Calculate the Cumulative Total

The cumulative total simply means “how much so far”. To calculate cumulative totals we just have to add up the values as we go down the table row-by-row. Each cell should contain the sum of all sales numbers down to that cell.

On the right you can see a simple formula I used to calculate cumulative totals:

The first cell contains the same value as the sales number of the first row because that is equivalent to the total sales for the first row.
All the other cells contain a sum of the current row sales plus the cumulative total of the previous cell.

You can use a formula like an example above: =C3+D2, where the C3 is the sales numbers for the current country, and D2 is the sum of previous sales numbers. In the next cell, the formula would be: =C4+D3, then =C5+D4, and so on.

3. Find the Cumulative Percentage

Finding cumulative percentages is quite simple. You have to divide the cumulative total in the current line by the total sales over all countries, and then format the number as a percentage.

As you can see in the example, the sales total is in column C, row 22.

In the formula, I use the “$” symbol before column and row indicators in order to make this cell fixed both by column and by row. Now, if I copy this formula to any other cell, the D2 will be replaced with a different row number, but the $C$22 will not change.

As you can see in the table, the 80% cumulative threshold is reached at row 9, so the first 9 out of 20 countries (45%) are accountable for 80% of sales. In this example, it is an 80/45 relationship.

You might also notice that the top 3 countries (15%) are accountable for almost 50% of sales. It is a 50/15 relationship.

Sales by Country Chart

Let's plot sales and cumulative totals on a chart for better comprehension. As you can see, the cumulative totals line is a curve, similar to the 80/20 curve, only not as steep. It is because in this example we have an 80/40 relationship, not 80/20.

Finding the Vital Few Using eazyBI

Finding the vital few with eazyBI is much simpler. To do that you just have to click on the legend, in this case, “Revenue”, and select the top 80% from the total.

eazyBI does everything else automatically:

Sorts the data in descending order.
Calculates cumulative total.
Filters out all the data that is below the threshold.

In the following chart, you can see the top 9 countries that contribute to 80% of the revenue. The last column combines all the remaining countries that were outside of the top 80%. Check the 80/20 sales report in eazyBI and feel free to experiment. To return to the previous view, refresh the page or click the “undo” arrow.

Conclusion

Pareto's law is a simple, yet very powerful tool. It can be applied to almost everything in business that you can count or measure:

Which customers attribute to most of your income or profit?
Which products are the most popular and why?
Which software bugs cause the most crashes?
Which employees attribute to most company sales?
Which advertisement has the greatest effect and return on investment?
What are your main customer sources?
What are the most visited pages on your website?
Who creates the most support tickets?
Which activities take the most time?
Which defects contribute to most guarantee requests?

Use it in your analysis, data discovery, planning, troubleshooting, problem-solving, decision-making, broad initial judgments, and when you need to check propositions.

Data Mining – A Threat, Evolution, or Opportunity?

Jānis Gulbis — 2016-04-27T00:00:00Z

Our world continues to move into the digital era. With the proliferation of devices capable of collecting data, we are experiencing a data explosion. Every Internet-connected-device, from a smartphone to a cash register, creates data.

Terms like Big Data are now commonplace. In 2018, more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data were created every day.

Data scientists and data miners are considered a gem to companies around the world. According to LinkedIn, data mining was one of the hottest jobs in 2014, and continues to be one of the highest-paying jobs.

Back To Small Data

But let us get down to earth. I believe that it is the Small Data that helps entrepreneurs, business owners, and managers making data-driven decisions.

Small data is data in a volume and format that makes it accessible, informative and actionable, connecting people with timely and meaningful insights for everyday tasks.

Before stepping into Big Data, businesses and entrepreneurs have to learn how to use the Small Data first. It is the primary skill, required to navigate through this increasingly complex world.

In this article, I will review several interesting cases of data analysis. It doesn't matter whether you think data mining is a good thing or bad; This might change your perspective.

How data analysis changed the whole baseball industry;
How data can help us control the spread of malaria or other epidemic diseases;
How phone companies are tracking your every step; and
How someone can tell that you're pregnant before you know it.

The Beginning of Data Mining

While it may sound overwhelming, data mining is not a new term. The process of collecting data goes back before the birth of the computer. Industries and government institutions have been collecting data for centuries.

In 1763, Thomas Bayes published a probability theorem, now called the Bayes’ theorem. This is a fundamental concept in data mining and probability theory even today.

Data mining is used in almost every industry:

Science: space and ocean research, statistical probability;
Medicine: clinical trials or genome sequencing;
Business: credit card transactions, purchasing behavior, stock market movements;
Government: national security, tax collection, and fiscal policy.

Those are just a few of the data mining applications.

Data has changed industries, and still changes them. Those who master data analytics define the new rules.

Evolution of Baseball – The Moneyball Principle

Have you read a book called Moneyball by Michael Lewis? Perhaps you’ve seen a movie by the same name?

It is a story about the United States baseball team, the Oakland Athletics. It proves that using a statistical approach can help to assemble a winning team.

In professional baseball, there are large-market and small-market organizations. The New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics are good examples. Both have to make important decisions based on their economic status.

Before the success of Oakland Athletics, scouts did not pay particular attention to statistics. They ventured all over the country to evaluate players, based on five tools: speed, quickness, arm strength, hitting ability, and mental toughness.

This general theory is now considered the “old” scouting theory.

The New Approach To Baseball Scouting

Paul DePodesta, a statistician from Oakland Athletics, proved that small-market teams can successfully compete with large ones by using sabermetrics.

The Moneyball theory places no emphasis on the body of the athlete. It did not matter what physical tools the athlete possesses. The theory was based mainly on the on-base percentage.

From 1999 to 2003, on-base percentage was a significant predictor of wins, but it wasn’t a significant predictor of individual player salaries. Good on-base players were undervalued. At the same time, sluggers, players who consistently hit home runs and doubles, were overvalued.

Oakland Athletics used this knowledge to gain the advantage. They sold overvalued assets and purchased undervalued ones. This eventually brought them to the playoffs in 2002 and 2003, with only one-third of the payroll.

Spread and Control of Epidemic Diseases

Research findings, published in October 2012, revealed how human travel patterns contribute to the spread of malaria.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. This disease kills about 1 million people each year; ninety percent of them are children under age of five. Malaria is a threat to over three billion people globally.

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health analyzed cell phone data from 15 million people in Kenya. They combined this data with regional incidents of malaria.

Research showed that malaria, in large part, emanates from Kenya’s Lake Victoria region and spreads east, primarily toward Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

By using this data, researchers can now build a map of malaria parasite movements between “source” and “sink” areas. This information can help public health officials decide how to control this disease.

Privacy Concerns – The Other End of The Stick

The collection of data is no longer limited to the information we put into the Internet. We have become more exposed and vulnerable as our personal information is more readily accessible. Even the simplest act of purchasing an item from a store will leave a personal behavior pattern. User behavior patterns can reveal personal information that one might not want to reveal.

That raises a concern. Is Data Mining a threat to our privacy? Perhaps it's just an evolution and we all have to adapt?

Congratulations! You Will Have a Baby…

Back in 2012, a consumer giant Target was involved in a data mining incident. The retailer was able to predict that a teenage girl was likely pregnant before her father found out about it.

Target analyzed a group of 25 key products. When purchased together, these products could predict that a women is likely pregnant. Based on these predictions, Target sends out relevant coupons.

The teenage girl started to receive coupons for baby clothes, cribs, and other maternity related products. Obviously, when the girl’s father saw these coupons, he got angry. He went straight to the manager of Target to express his frustration in person. But, between talks and the frustration of the girl’s father, it turned out that Target was right. The girl was indeed pregnant.

You Are Being Tracked! Anywhere You Go

Even if you don't share any information on the Internet, if you have a mobile phone in your pocket, you're being tracked.

In the summer of 2006, the European Union Commission released a new directive called the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC. It required that phone companies and Internet service providers collect and keep a wide range of information about their customers for at least six months to two years.

A German citizen named Malte Spitz requested this data from his phone company. After many unanswered requests and a lawsuit, Spitz eventually received all his data, which included 35,830 lines of code — a detailed, nearly minute-by-minute account of half a year of his life.

With the help of data visualization tools, Malte was able to create a visualization for 6 months of his life. Geographical location, calls made and received, number of SMS messages, and Internet usage: Everything was recorded. More in this TED talk.

Conclusion

These are only a few examples, but the trend is obvious. We leave data patterns everywhere we go. This makes us vulnerable because our personal information is exposed. On the other hand, it is an opportunity for companies and organizations who can use this data to better understand their customers.

Like most every topics out there, data mining is a stick with two ends. When you pick up one end of this stick, you inevitably pick up the other end as well.

eazyBI Has Now Become Easier

Jānis Gulbis — 2016-04-18T00:00:00Z

We have some great news to share with you. For the past couple of months, we have been silently working on some visual and functional improvements.

Take a look at the changes we've made so far.

Over the years, we have been actively listening to the feedback from our customers. Your questions, comments, and suggestions have been invaluable.

So far, our main priority has always been the core functionality of eazyBI. For a while, the user interface and usability questions have been neglected; not anymore.

In this release, our focus has been directed toward the “Account Analyze” page.

The Account Analyze page is one of the most visited pages on eazyBI. It makes perfect sense. This page is the starting point for most users. It is where all your cubes and reports are listed. Here's how it looked before:

What Have We Changed and Why?

The old Analyze page had quite a few usability issues. We used all your feedback to make this page cleaner, more friendly, and more intuitive.

The new interface is available on all platforms–eazyBI for Jira Cloud, eazyBI for Jira Server, and eazyBI for Jira Data Center, as well as standalone eazyBI Cloud and Private eazyBI versions.

More Space, More Clarity, More Control

The first thing you will most likely notice is the new layout. We wanted to make it easier for you to create and find your reports. The new “Analysis” page layout is more compact and clear. This applies to both the grid view and the list view.

We have moved the “Cube Action” links away from the right side of the cube. The name and action buttons are now on top of each cube block, right where the users normally look for them.

You can now hide or show all reports by collapsing or expanding your cubes. This will give you more control and help you find a particular report much quicker.

Now there is more room for your cubes and reports, giving you a better overview of your account.

A Consistent Look and Feel

You will also notice that we have changed the icons and colors. We are gradually transitioning to a unified color palette and icon style. This will make the experience of using eazyBI more consistent and pleasant.

The new icons and action buttons are now simpler, clearer, and more descriptive. Every icon visually identifies the type of each report. Most important action buttons, like “Save” or “New Report” now clearly stand out.

Find Your Reports Quicker

With a growing list of new reports, it becomes more difficult to find a particular report. Now you can search for a particular report by name. The new report search field will filter reports as you type.

If you have more than one cube in your account, you will love the sticky cube navigation bar . Now you can go to any cube with one click.

Quick and Convenient Access to Most Important Actions

Creating a new _blank report is now more intuitive. In the previous interface, you had to click on the cube name. Many users found it confusing. Now there is a “New Report” button for it.

You can now rename, delete, or export your reports right from the Analyze page. You don’t need to open each report to access these options anymore.

We have made some minor changes to the reports view as well.

There is now a sticky navigation and action bar at the top. All the most common actions are now always accessible from the top right corner. But the breadcrumb navigation bar will always show the exact cube and report you are viewing.

It is now more convenient to open reports from a “Report” page, or add reports to a dashboard from a “Dashboard” page. The new “Open Report” dialog is as clean and compact as the Analyze page, and it contains a search box, filtering reports as you type.

I hope you are as excited about these improvements as we are. Our developers are working on other improvements as I write this, so keep an eye out for further announcements.

Please keep your comments and suggestions coming.

Data Visualization – How to Pick the Right Chart Type?

Jānis Gulbis — 2016-03-01T00:00:00Z

Making sense of facts, numbers, and measurements is a form of art – the art of data visualization. There is a load of data in the sea of noise. To turn your numbers into knowledge, your job is not only to separate noise from the data but also to present it the right way.

What is Data Visualization and Why Does it Matter?

Data Visualization is a way of representing data graphically to help people easily understand the information. It can be used to convey complex relationships between different variables or to analyze trends over time. Data visualization can take the form of charts, graphs, maps, histograms, scatter plots, and other visuals. By using colors, shapes, and other visual elements, data visualization can make it easier for people to comprehend large amounts of data quickly and accurately.

Data Visualization is a powerful tool for exploring data, identifying patterns and trends, and communicating insights. It can provide insight into correlations and trends that may otherwise be difficult to detect from examining raw data alone. It is why data visualization tools and methods are often used in business, financial analysis, project management, scientific studies, and just about everywhere else – as long as there is some data to visualize.

Data Visualization Gone Wrong

Many of us come from the "PowerPoint generation" — this is where the roots of our understanding of data visualization and presentation lie. Unfortunately, it is far from anything related to good, and I stand before you as guilty myself.

And if you think I'm too cynical about this, don't take only my word for it.

PowerPoint could be the most powerful tool on your computer. But it’s not. Countless innovations fail because their champions use PowerPoint the way Microsoft wants them to, instead of the right way.
– Seth Godin, Marketing expert

There is no question that PowerPoint has been at least a part of the problem because it has affected a generation. It should have come with a warning label and a good set of design instructions back in the ’90s. But it is also a copout to blame PowerPoint — it is just software, not a method.
– Garr Reynolds, Presentation expert

– Mark Goetz

To avoid common pitfalls in your presentations, it wouldn’t hurt to review the basics of data visualization.

In this article, I’ll try to undo some of the damage by sharing some of the best practices for data visualization and representation and, hopefully, save some kittens in the process.

This is a lengthy article, so here's a list of topics that we'll cover:

Data Visualization Best Practices
When to use plain tables
How to use column charts
When to use bar charts
How to use line charts
How to use area charts
Why avoid pie charts and donut charts
Propper use of scatter charts
How to use map charts
How to use Gantt charts
Using gauge charts for KPIs
Should you use multi-axes charts
Data Visualization Do’s and Don’ts

Data Visualization Best Practices

There are four basic presentation types that you can use to present your data:

Comparison
Composition
Distribution
Relationship

Unless you are a statistician or a data analyst, you are most likely using only the two, most commonly used types of data analysis: Comparison or Composition.

Selecting the Right Chart

To determine which chart is best suited for each of those presentation types, first, you must answer a few questions:

How many variables do you want to show in a single chart? One, two, three, many?
How many items (data points) will you display for each variable? Only a few or many?
Will you display values over a period of time, or among items or groups?

Bar charts are good for comparisons, while line charts work better for trends. Scatter plot charts are good for relationships and distributions, but pie charts should be used only for simple compositions — never for comparisons or distributions.

There is a chart selection diagram created by Dr. Andrew Abela that should help you pick the right chart for your data type. (You can download the PDF version here: Chart Selection diagram.)

Let’s dig in and review the most commonly used chart types, some examples, and the dos and don’ts for each chart type.

Tables

Tables are essentially the source for all the charts. They are best used for comparison, composition, or relationship analysis when there are only a few variables and data points. It would not make much sense to create a chart if the data can be easily interpreted from the table.

Use tables when:

You need to compare or look up individual values.
You require precise values.
Values involve multiple units of measure.
The data has to communicate quantitative information, but not trends.

Use charts when the data presentation:

Is used to convey a message that is contained in the shape of the data.
Is used to show a relationship between many values.

For example, if you want to show the rate of change, like a sudden drop in temperature, it is best to use a chart that shows the slope of a line because the rate of change is not easily grasped from a table.

Column Charts

The column chart is probably the most used chart type. This chart is best used to compare different values when specific values are important, and it is expected that users will look up and compare individual values between each column.

With column charts, you could compare values for different categories or compare value changes over a period of time for a single category.

Best practices for column charts

Use column charts for comparison if the number of categories is quite small — up to five, but not more than seven categories.
If one of your data dimensions is time — including years, quarters, months, weeks, days, or hours — you should always set the time dimension on the horizontal axis.
In charts, time should always run from left to right, never from top to bottom.
For column charts, the numerical axis must start at zero. Our eyes are very sensitive to the height of columns, and we can draw inaccurate conclusions when those bars are truncated.
Avoid using pattern lines or fills. Use a border only for highlights.
Only use column charts to show trends if there are a reasonably-low number of data points (less than 20) and if every data point has a clearly-visible value.

Column Histograms

A histogram is a common variation of column charts used to present the distribution and relationships of a single variable over a set of categories. A good example of a histogram would be a distribution of grades on a school exam or the sizes of pumpkins, divided by size group, in a pumpkin festival.

Stacked Column Charts

Use stacked column charts to show a composition. Do not use too many composition items (not more than three or four) and make sure the composing parts are relatively similar in size. It can get messy very quickly.

Before moving to the next chart type, I wanted to show you a good example of how to improve the effectiveness of your column chart by simplifying it.

Credit: Joey Cherdarchuk

Bar Charts

Bar charts are essentially horizontal column charts.

If you have long category names, it is best to use bar charts because they give more space for long text. You should also use bar charts, instead of column charts, when the number of categories is greater than seven (but not more than fifteen) or for displaying a set with negative numbers.

A typical use of bar charts would be visitor traffic from top referral websites. Referring sites are usually more than five to seven sites and website names are quite long, so those should be better horizontally graphed.
Another example could be sales performance by sales representatives. Again, names can be quite long, and there might be more than seven sales reps.

Bar Histogram Charts

Just like column charts, bar charts can be used to present histograms.

A good histogram example is a population distribution by the age (and sex). Remember those Christmas-tree graphs?

Stacked Bar Charts

I’m not quite sure about a good application of stacked bar charts — except when there are only a few variables, composition parts, and the emphasis is on composition, not comparison.

Stacked bars are not good for comparison or relationship analysis. The only common baseline is along the left axis of the chart, so you can only reliably compare values in the first series and for the sum of all series.

Line Charts

Who doesn’t know line charts? We used to draw those on blackboards in school.

Line charts are among the most frequently used chart types. Use lines when you have a continuous data set. These are best suited for trend-based visualizations of data over a period of time, when the number of data points is very high (more than 20).

With line charts, the emphasis is on the continuation or the flow of the values (a trend), but there is still some support for single value comparisons, using data markers (only with less than 20 data points.)

A line chart is also a good alternative to column charts when the chart is small.

Timeline Charts

The timeline chart is a variation of line charts. Obviously, any line chart that shows values over a period of time is a timeline chart. The only difference is in functionality — most timeline charts will let you zoom in and out and compress or stretch the time axis to see more details or overall trends.

The most common examples of a time-line chart might be:

stock market price changes over time,
website visitors per day for the past 30 days,
sales numbers by day for the previous quarter.

The Dos and Don’ts for Line Charts

Use lines to present continuous data in an interval scale, where intervals are equal in size.
For line charts, the axis may not start from zero if the intended message of the chart is the rate of change or overall trend, not exact values or comparison. It’s best to start the axis with zero for wide audiences because some people may otherwise interpret the chart incorrectly.
In line charts, time should always run from left to right.
Do not skip values for consistent data intervals presenting trend information, for example, certain days with zero values.
Remove guidelines to emphasize the trend, rate of change, and to reduce distraction.
Use a proper aspect ratio to show important information and avoid dramatic slope effects. For the best perception, aim for a 45-degree slope

Area Charts

An area chart is essentially a line chart — good for trends and some comparisons. Area charts will fill up the area below the line, so the best use for this type of chart is for presenting accumulative value changes over time, like item stock, number of employees, or a savings account.

Do not use area charts to present fluctuating values, like the stock market or prices changes.

Stacked Area

Stacked area charts are best used to show changes in composition over time. A good example would be the changes of market share among top players or revenue shares by product line over a period of time.

Stacked area charts might be colorful and fun, but you should use them with caution, because they can quickly become a mess. Don’t use them if you need an exact comparison and don’t stack together more than three to five categories.

Pie Charts and Donut Charts

Who doesn’t love pies or donuts, right? Not in data visualization, though. These charts are among the most frequently used and also misused charts. The one above is a good example of a terrible, useless pie chart - too many components, very similar values.

A pie chart typically represents numbers in percentages, used to visualize a part to whole relationship or a composition. Pie charts are not meant to compare individual sections to each other or to represent exact values (you should use a bar chart for that).

When possible, avoid pie charts and donuts. The human mind thinks linearly but, when it comes to angles and areas, most of us can’t judge them well.

Stacked Donut Charts

I would not recommend using stacked donut charts at all! I mean, like, never! You might think that you could use a stacked donut to present composition, while allowing some comparison (with an emphasis on composition), but it would perform badly for both. Use stacked column charts instead.

Here’s a good example of how to use pie chart effectively.

Credit: Joey Cherdarchuk

The Dos and Don’ts for Pie charts

For those of you who still feel sentimental about the old PowerPoint Pie charts, and want to keep using them, there are some things to keep in mind.

Make sure that the total sum of all segments equals 100 percent.
Use pie charts only if you have less than six categories, unless there’s a clear winner you want to focus on.
Ideally, there should be only two categories, like men and women visiting your website, or only one category, like a market share of your company, compared to the whole market.
Don’t use a pie chart if the category values are almost identical or completely different. You could add labels, but that’s a patch, not an improvement.
Don’t use 3D or blow apart effects — they reduce comprehension and show incorrect proportions.

Scatter Charts

Scatter charts are primarily used for correlation and distribution analysis. Good for showing the relationship between two different variables where one correlates to another (or doesn’t).

Scatter charts can also show the data distribution or clustering trends and help you spot anomalies or outliers.

A good example of scatter charts would be a chart showing marketing spending vs. revenue.

Bubble Charts

A bubble chart is a great option if you need to add another dimension to a scatter plot chart. Scatter plots compare two values, but you can add bubble size as the third variable and thus enable comparison. If the bubbles are very similar in size, use labels.

We could in fact add the fourth variable by color-grading those bubbles or displaying them as pie charts, but that’s probably too much.

A good example of a bubble chart would be a graph showing marketing expenditures vs. revenue vs. profit. A standard scatter plot might show a positive correlation for marketing costs and revenue (obviously), when a bubble chart could reveal that an increase in marketing costs is chewing on profits.

Use Scatter and Bubble charts to:

Present relationships between two (scatter) or three (bubble) numerical variables,
Plot two or three sets of variables on one x-y coordinate plane,
Turn the horizontal axis into a logarithmic scale, thus showing the relationships between more widely distributed elements.
Present patterns in large sets of data, linear or non-linear trends, correlations, clusters, or outliers.
Compare large number of data points without regard to time. The more data you include in a scatter chart, the better comparisons you can make.
Present relationships, but not exact values for comparisons.

Map Charts

Map charts are good for giving your numbers a geographical context to quickly spot best and worst performing areas, trends, and outliers. If you have any kind of location data like coordinates, country names, state names or abbreviations, or addresses, you can plot related data on a map.

Maps won’t be very good for comparing exact values, because map charts are usually color scaled and humans are quite bad at distinguishing shades of colors. Sometimes it’s better to use overlay bubbles or numbers if you need to convey exact numbers or enable comparison.

A good example would be website visitors by country, state, or city, or product sales by state, region or city.

But, don’t use maps for absolutely everything that has a geographical dimension. Today, almost any data has a geographical dimension, but it doesn’t mean that you should display it on a map.

When to use map charts?

If you want to display quantitative information on a map.
To present spatial relationships and patterns.
When a regional context for your data is important.
To get an overview of the distribution across geographic locations.
Only if your data is standardized (that is, it has the same data format and scale for the whole set).

Gantt Charts

Gantt charts were adapted by Karol Adamiecki in 1896. But the name comes from Henry Gantt who independently adapted this bar chart type much later, in the 1910s.

Gantt charts are good for planning and scheduling projects. Gantt charts are essentially project maps, illustrating what needs to be done, in what order, and by what deadline. You can visualize the total time a project should take, the resources involved, as well as the order and dependencies of tasks.

But project planning is not the only application for a Gantt chart. It can also be used in rental businesses, displaying a list of items for rent (cars, rooms, apartments) and their rental periods.

To display a Gantt chart, you would typically need, at least, a start date and an end date. For more advanced Gantt charts, you’d enter a completion percentage and/or a dependency from another task.

Gauge Charts

Gauge charts are good for displaying KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). They typically display a single key value, comparing it to a color-coded performance level indicator, typically showing green for “good” and red for “trouble.”

A Dashboard would be the most obvious place to use Gauge charts. There, all the KPIs will be in one place and will give a quick “health check” for your project or company.

Gauges are a great choice to:

Show progress toward a goal.
Represent a percentile measure, like a KPI.
Show an exact value and meaning of a single measure.
Display a single bit of information that can be quickly scanned and understood.

The bad side of gauge charts is that they take up a lot of space and typically only show a single point of data. If there are many gauge charts compared against a single performance scale, a column chart with threshold indicators would be a more effective and compact option.

Multi Axes Charts

There are times when a simple chart just cannot tell the whole story. If you want to show relationships and compare variables on vastly different scales, the best option might be to have multiple axes.

A multi-axes chart will let you plot data using two or more y-axes and one shared x-axis. But it comes at a cost. That is, the charts are much more difficult to read and understand.

Multi-axes charts might be good for presenting common trends, correlations (or the lack thereof) and the relationships between several data sets. But multi-axes charts are not good for exact comparisons (because of different scales) and you should not use this type if you need to show exact values.

Use multi-axes charts if you want to:

Display a line chart and a column chart with the same X-axis.
Compare multiple measures with different value ranges.
Illustrate the relationships, correlation, or the lack thereof between two or more measures in one visualization.
Save canvas space (if the chart does not become too complicated).

Data Visualization Do’s and Don’ts – A General Conclusion

Time axis. When using time in charts, set it on the horizontal axis. Time should run from left to right. Do not skip values (time periods), even if there are no values.
Proportional values. The numbers in a chart (displayed as bar, area, bubble, or other physically measured element in the chart) should be directly proportional to the numerical quantities presented.
Data-Ink Ratio. Remove any excess information, lines, colors, and text from a chart that does not add value. More about data-ink ratio
Sorting. For column and bar charts, to enable easier comparison, sort your data in ascending or descending order by the value, not alphabetically. This applies also to pie charts.
Legend. You don’t need a legend if you have only one data category.
Labels. Use labels directly on the line, column, bar, pie, etc., whenever possible, to avoid indirect look-up.
Inflation adjustment. When using monetary values in a long-term series, make sure to adjust for inflation. (EU inflation rates, US inflation rates)
Colors. In any chart, don’t use more than six colors.
Colors. For comparing the same value at different time periods, use the same color in a different intensity (from light to dark).
Colors. For different categories, use different colors. The most widely used colors are black, white, red, green, blue, and yellow.
Colors. Keep the same color palette or style for all charts in the series, and same axes and labels for similar charts to make your charts consistent and easy to compare.
Colors. Check how your charts would look when printed out in gray-scale. If you cannot distinguish color differences, you should change hue and saturation of colors.
Colors. Seven to 10 percent of men have color deficiency. Keep that in mind when creating charts, ensuring they are readable for color-blind people. Use Vischeck to test your images. Or, try to use color palettes that are friendly to color-blind people.
Data Complexity. Don’t add too much information to a single chart. If necessary, split data in two charts, use highlighting, simplify colors, or change chart type.

Data Analysis And Visualization – Are You Doing it Right?

Jānis Gulbis — 2016-02-16T00:00:00Z

There is so much data around us — but it’s mostly facts, numbers, measurements, and a common noise that does not convey any information. Making sense of these facts and numbers require some understanding of analytical methods.

We all need good, actionable, and valuable information. This is why there is an ever-increasing demand for data analysis. Almost any person who has ever touched a computer, at some point, has had to analyze and visualize data in order to present it to others.

It is well worth knowing the basics, to be able to apply and display your data correctly and get the results you want.

Four Basic Methods of Visual Data Analysis

Unless you are a statistician or a data-analyst, you are most likely using only the two, most commonly used types of data analysis: Comparison or Composition. But there are four basic methods of data analysis that can help you turn your numbers into knowledge:

Comparison
Composition
Distribution
Relationship

1. Comparison

Comparison of data points is probably the most common and easy-to-understand method for data analysis. As the name suggests, we use comparison to evaluate and compare values between two or more data points. With comparison you can also easily find the lowest and highest values in the chart.

There is a common subset of comparison charts—Trends. Trend charts usually have a time axis and one or several value axes, which are used to show how a data set performed during a specific time period (imagine the stock market).

Usually comparisons are made to accomplish one of the following goals:

To compare two or more values side by side to visually grasp the difference
To list key values to quickly find and read them (i.e., revenue per month)
To rank several data categories from best to worst or the other way around
To show pattern recognition by visually highlighting gaps, spikes, outliers, or trends

You can use data comparison charts to show:

Annual revenues for major product lines from the previous year, to see which products are performing best and which are failing.
Total number of visitors per month, grouped by the type of acquisition source, to see where most visitors come from and where to put more efforts.
Quarterly product sales (in units sold or revenue) for a particular product, to spot seasonal trends or performance issues.
Number of asthma patients by city, highlighting the environmental effects and increased risks of childhood asthma.

Best chart types to use for data comparisons include:

Column
Bar
Line or time-line

2. Composition

Composition of data is probably the most misused method in data representation endeavors.

The idea is to show how individual parts make up the whole by combining them together and displaying them as a sum. Composition can also be used to show how a total value can be divided into parts or to highlight the significance of each part relative to the total value.

A typical misuse of this presentation type is done when there are too many parts, too many composition sets, the value differences between parts are too big, or any combination of this.

Use data composition charts to show

Company market share and a few key players in the market
Total country population by TOP religions, languages, or ethnical groups
Total revenue, by TOP product lines, divisions, or regions

Charts typically used for compositions include:

Stacked bars or columns
Pie or donut charts
Stacked area charts
Waterfall charts

Quite a few people would argue that you should not use pie or donut charts because people are bad at evaluating angles. Some would say that you should avoid stacked area charts and waterfall charts because those are confusing and are often misunderstood.

3. Distribution

A distribution combines the merits and functionality of both Comparison and Composition. It can help you see the full data spectrum and visualize related or unrelated data points. With distribution you can see if there are any correlations, trends, patterns, shapes, clusters, averages, or outliers.

A very common subset of distribution analysis often used in business reporting is Deviation or Variance analysis. These methods let you see which values deviate from the norm. Understanding deviations from targets, budgets, or growth rates is a common requirement in almost any company.

Use a distribution or deviation visualizations chart to:

Visualize the distribution of ages in a group of people
Visualize the correlations between cause and effect
Spot bugs or constraints in production or quality control systems
Visualize sales in various stores, to spot best and worst performing ones

Charts typically used for Distribution and Deviation:

Column and bar histogram charts
Line and area charts
Scatter plot charts
Data tables
Map charts

4. Relationship

As the name suggests, these types of charts show the relationship, correlation, or connection of two or more variables and their properties.

A good use of relationship graphs would be to demonstrate how something does or does not affect another variable positively or negatively. Somewhat similarly to distribution, you can use data relationships to find correlations, trends, patterns, clusters, averages, or outliers.

Use a relationship chart to:

Estimate how marketing expenditures affect sales and profit.
Spot flaws in effectiveness by evaluating expenses vs. income by store or region.
Answer questions such as, “Does income level depend on IQ?” or “Do top tier business school graduates earn more in their careers?”

Charts typically used for relationship charts:

Scatter plot (typically with two dimensions)
Bubble (three to four dimensions, using bubble size and color scale, or five dimensions with animation or layers)
Line (or lines, with two or more axes)
Table charts

Picking The Right Chart Type

For different methods of analysis there are different types of charts that work best. For example, bar charts are good for comparisons, while line charts work better for trends and relationships. Scatter plot charts are good for relationships and distributions, but pie charts should be used only for simple compositions—never for comparisons or distributions.

There are some overlaps. The final choice of chart type depends on a few more factors:

How many variables do you want to show in a single chart? One, two, three, many?
How many items (data points) will you display for each variable? Only a few or many?
Will you display values over a period of time, or among items or groups?

To help you pick the right chart for your data type, refer to a chart selection diagram created by Dr. Andrew Abela.

You can download the PDF version here: Chart selection diagram

Recommended Books on Data Analysis

	How to Lie with Statistics by Darrel Huff, October 1993
	Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving by Jonathan G. Koomey PhD, April 2008.
	Advanced Presentations by Design: Creating Communication that Drives Action by Andrew Abela, September 2008

Other Resources & Further Reading on Data Analysis

Git Commit Statistics: How to Visualize Git Commit Log?

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2016-01-20T00:00:00Z

We tend to use a lot of code analysis tools to find out what’s bad with our code. But have you ever looked at your Git logs lately? Git commit logs contain a lot of analytical information. You can visualize and analyze your logs and Git commit statistics to see how the code has evolved over time.

A while ago, I talked about Git commit visualization and analysis at the DevTernity conference in Riga. In this presentation, I used Git commit logs from open source projects to reveal some new and meaningful (but also meaningless and funny) Git statistics about these projects and the people contributing to them.

Analyze and Visualize Git Logs for Fun and Profit – Slides

I wanted to share with you a few reports I used as an example in my speech. You can also watch the presentation in the video above. I hope you’ll enjoy it. 😀

Why Analyze Git Commit Logs?

We often use different code metrics to estimate our code, for example:

Lines of code
Cyclomatic complexity
Test coverage
Duplication

All these metrics give us only the current status snapshot of the code. But the code is not static – it changes a lot. If you’re a software developer using Git, you might want to look at your Git commit logs from time to time.

Git commit logs hold all the change history. We can learn a lot if we analyze those commits and changes in code. It’s a great source to learn trends and patterns about your projects. Yet those plain-text logs with thousands or even tens of thousands of commits and lines aren’t very useful. What if you could visualize all that data?

How to Visualize Git Commit Logs?

To visualize your Git commit logs, you need to parse and transform your logs into a database you can analyze. You can do that with eazyBI – a web-based data analysis tool supporting Git commit logs as a data source (among many other sources). eazyBI will extract all the details from your Git logs and transform this data into a multi-dimensional analytical OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) data cube.

With eazyBI you can analyze and visualize Git commit logs by time, author, file, file extension, time zone, weekday, or the hour of the day. This will give you a pretty good understanding of your project development trends:

How is your code base changing over time?
Who is adding code, and who deletes it?
Who are the most active contributors to the project?
What is the ‘Net’ gain of your project contributors?
Which days of the week and which hours of the day are the most productive?
Which files and which parts of the code are changed the most?

Let's analyze the Git log from the Ruby on Rails repository to see what we can get.

Analyze Code Changes Over Time

Git log timeline reports showing repository code changes over time like commits, additions, and deletions, are probably the highest top-level overview reports you could have.

It’s a good idea to include additional stats like “Total number of lines” and “Changes per commit” to give the report a better context.

“Changes” would count each change regardless of whether it’s an addition or deletion.

Code Changes in Ruby Files

If we filter only by ”ruby“ files (files with the ”.rb“ file extension), we can see different major development stages. All these Ruby on Rails development stages are reflected on the timeline.

For example, at the birth of Rails, there was a lot of activity. The next big wave of activity coincides with the great Rails 3 refactoring.

Git Commit Log – Changes in Ruby Files by Quarter

Funny that there are always some spikes of activity right before the annual RailsConf conference. Apparently, contributors want to show others something new.

Individual Contributions by Author

Let’s look at individual contributions.

We know that David Heinemeier Hansson has created Ruby on Rails. In 2004 he did all the coding by himself. Starting from 2005, David finally let others contribute too. Because of this, his contributions diminished. He started to work less.

Then in 2011, David had a technical keynote at RailsConf. Apparently, he wanted to tell something new, so he had to do a lot of coding again. You can see the whole story from just one contribution report.

Top Contributors and Their Role

We can analyze the Git log to find current top contributors for the project.

It’s interesting that in 2015, the top 10 contributors from a total of 620 were responsible for half of the commits and changes in the project.

It means that 1.6% of all contributors were responsible for 50% of project contributions. It is a common phenomenon often called ”The vital few“, and it proves itself once again in this case.

As you can see in the table below, some contributors are creating more code, and some are deleting code.

Data reflect authors' style and work approach–some like adding new functionality and code, but others like to contribute by refactoring and making the code cleaner and better.

Individual Work Patterns

Let's look closer at individual contributors to evaluate their working habits. If we look at the logs by the hour of the day, we can see when developers are working and how they organize their work.

For example, if we analyze Aaron Patterson, we can see that he is a very disciplined 9-to-5 developer.

If we contrast Aaron's schedule with the patterns of José Valim, you’ll notice that José is more all-over the place. Apparently, José also likes to work late nights while still being able to start working at 8-9 AM. We can also see that José likes to take a break between 5-6 PM and around 8-9 PM.

Overall Git Stats

Most open source developers, like the rest of us, work during work hours, eat lunch at around 12 PM and go home at 5-6 PM. Later most of them go back to their PCs for a late evening session. Sounds familiar?

If we look at the overall work pattern, it’s clear that both Aaron and José fit in nicely.

The beauty of open source projects is that developers work all day, including weekends. Commits on Saturdays and Sundays take a considerable chunk.

The most productive days regarding commits and changes are Tuesdays, while developers are most likely to submit commits with smaller changes on Fridays.

Because open source developers come from around the world, from different countries and time zones, commits come in 24/7.

Visualize Your Own Git Repo

You can try and analyze your own git repository with eazyBI for free.

Export Your Git Log

First export your Git log.

Navigate to your project source code directory from the Command Line.
Export the Git commit log to a txt file using the following commands:

On windows:

set LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
git log --numstat > filename.txt

On UNIX:

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
git log --numstat > filename.txt

Make sure to use the .txt file extension.

Import Git Log in eazyBI

In eazyBI:

Open the Source Data tab and upload your git-log.txt file. eazyBI will recognize it as the Git log file.
Click the Import button to start file import,
Go to the Analyze tab to build custom Git log charts.

Quick Tip: You can export and import report definitions (report templates) from the Git log demo account right to your own account in a few clicks. You can do the same with Git log demo dashboards.

Analyze and Visualize Git Log with eazyBI

Turn your Git commit logs into valuable information. Analyze your Git log and see who, where, when, and what contributes to your project. Sign up for an eazyBI Cloud 30-day free trial. The free eazyBI plan should be enough for you if you have just hundreds or a couple of thousands of commits. You could use the extended free PUBLIC plan for an open-source project commit log. If you want to analyze larger private project commit logs, choose a subscription plan that works for you.

Small vs Big Company – Does Company Size Matter?

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2015-12-14T00:00:00Z

eazyBI is a small team and we don’t hide that fact. I see many small companies that try to pretend that they are much bigger than they are. I believe that these companies should not be ashamed that they are small.

Sometimes we associate the company size with its success. But from my experience, it is not always true that when you grow bigger you become better.

I have experienced the growth of one company from tens of people into hundreds of people and then being acquired into a corporation with thousands of people. As we grew bigger our management team meetings often centered on how good it was when we were a small team, as well as how fast and flexible we used to be. And, when we grew too big, our old management team broke away and many started something new and small. I see this scenario quite often when small, efficient, and motivated teams grow into large, slow, and unhappy groups of people.

Sometimes customers consider small companies as riskier compared to large ones. But from my experience, those large companies do not guarantee that you can rely on their products in the long term.

For example, my first experience with a multi-dimensional, data-analysis technology was Oracle Express. After several years, a quite different OLAP technology was integrated into the Oracle database server and Oracle Express was discontinued. Then, Oracle Discoverer data analysis tool was promoted as a BI solution. But then, Oracle acquired Siebel and created a new BI tools platform based on the Siebel analytics platform. Other large companies also have long lists of discontinued products. See, for example, the list of Google discontinued products and services.

If you are a customer of a large corporation, then typically you will be a small customer for them, ensuring that you will have a small influence on their product development priorities. Your typical interface will be just with their support team, which is separate from their development team, who does not know the internal details of the product.

If you use a product from a small company, then typically you will interact with their development team more frequently. You will get better answers from the development team, and your needs will have more of a chance to be prioritized for the product’s development.

If you are a small company providing services to a large company, do not pretend to be bigger than you are. It will minimize the formalities between you because the larger company will understand that it is not beneficial to require from you things that you cannot provide. And, as a result, it will be beneficial for the customer so you can spend more time doing productive work.

Be honest and find the right size for your team.

I managed to build a company from $0 to $1 million in less than five years with a small team, no office, and no venture capital. I wrote about that in a different startup story.

eazyBI at Atlassian Summit 2015

Raimonds Simanovskis — 2015-11-13T00:00:00Z

We are starting our eazyBI blog with the first post about our recent trip to the Atlassian Summit in San Francisco. This year our company was a gold sponsor of the Summit, and six of us came to the conference. As we do not have an office and we work fully remotely, joint trips to the conferences are our on-site company meetings as well.

This is a picture of us in the Riga airport at 5 a.m.

We were quite happy to meet up with each other — as you can see! 😀

Sunny San Francisco

During the first weekend before the conference, we explored San Francisco. The weather was not quite typical for San Francisco in November. Rather, it was sunny and warm – so we were able to enjoy walking around the city.

We visited Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf, China Town, Alamo Square, and many other places. Several of use even ran across the Golden Gate Bridge and back.

Meetings and trainings

On Monday, we participated in the Atlassian Ecosystem Partners Day. It was nice to reconnect with Atlassians and partners that we knew from the previous Atlassian events.

On Tuesday, we organized two eazyBI training workshops for our customers and partners. Every time we attend an event, we organize these training workshops. It is valuable both for our customers to learn more about the eazyBI features, as well as valuable for us to get the feedback about the functionality and usability of eazyBI.

Conference days

The conference started on Tuesday evening and lasted until Thursday. Our eazyBI booth was located in the main hallway of the conference and, therefore, we had a lot of people visiting it.

Lauma, Ilze and I spent most of the time in the booth demonstrating eazyBI to our existing and potential customers. There were about 250 people that came to our booth – making it quite and intensive three days for us, but a very valuable time as well. In addition, we were glad to hear from several customers that eazyBI is saving them a lot of time every month, as all their regular reporting is now automated.

Yosemite Valley

On Saturday, we made a long but nice trip to Yosemite Valley. I suggested to our colleagues that we finally needed to have a look at the latest Mac OS X versions (Yosemite and El Capitan) in the real life. 😀

Again, we were fortunate to have a beautiful, sunny weather, and we enjoyed walking on the trails and seeing the lovely views.

Long trip home

On Sunday morning, we received the news that our Lufthansa flights back home were cancelled due to the strike of the Lufthansa flight attendants. Therefore, we skipped our final San Francisco sight-seeing trip and went directly to the airport.

After waiting four hours in the queue, we were finally re-booked on new flights to London, then to Istanbul, and then to Riga. We spent two nights in the plane, many hours in several airports, and were quite exhausted when we finally got home!

But, it was the only unplanned bad thing that happened, so overall we were very satisfied with our trip to the Atlassian Summit and San Francisco.