Skip to main content

Annotations

Annotations#

Annotations allow users to share context, information about an anomaly, or interpretations of a metric's behavior with the rest of the organization to build a knowledge base around that metric. There are many scenarios where a notable spike or dip is present in the data, but the knowledge about those events is siloed. Annotations aim to change the paradigm so anyone - including both onsumers or producers of data - can get the context that they need about a metric value.

Adding Annotations#

Use "Add Annotation" to post a new annotation. There are several inputs required:

  1. Annotation name: desired name for the annotation
  2. Start/End Date: timeframe during which the metric was affected
  3. Description: explanation of context around annotation, how this information is known to the organization
  4. Expected Outcome: how the annotation will impact the metric
  5. Metrics and dimensions affected (optional): one or more metrics affected by this annotation, pinned to certain dimensions (if applicable)
  6. Severity: the grade of impact the annotation has on the metric(s), ranging from Low (green) to Critical (red).

All annotations are present underneath the metrics chart directly on a metric page. Organization administrators and authors of annotation can edit and delete existing ones.

Note: If a user doesn't provide a set of dimensions that the annotation applies to, we assume it applies to all dimensions for the metric.

Viewing annotations on the Graph#

Annotations are exposed on the metric chart for all metrics affected through an icon at the top of the graph. They are shown by default and you can optionally hide them by using the graph toggle. Clicking into the annotation on the graph will show you a summary of the annotation.

If there are multiple annotations for the same time period, the icon will indicate that there are many for a given day and they will be organized by annotation impact.

If specific dimensions are chosen in the Annotations form, and the user filters those out using the filter functionality, we will no longer display the annotation on the chart.