Showing number of issues opened and closed in one chart for a time period

[GregBe1]

We're trying to create a chart that shows all issues that were either opened or closed within the last 3 weeks. We want to chart this, so for each week, we display 2 bars - one representing those opened, and one for those that were closed. So on X-axis should be the date (by week) for only the last 3 weeks. One of the issues we're facing is that the week that shows go farther than 3 weeks ago, because those that were closed 3 weeks ago, may have been opened many weeks ago. Since we're grouping by Entry Date, it causes a problem. How can we show just the last 3 weeks?

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Greg, I don't think two competing timelines (Entry Date and Closed Date) on the x-axis is possible within the Workfront reporting structure. You could use two charts (meh), or -- bear with me -- create a calculated date field behind every Issue that is the max of the two, filter on that field (so, only Issues with "the max of" within the last 3 weeks), then stack the Issue bar by Status (e.g. 2 weeks ago, 7 were Entered -- and still are -- but 3 were closed). However, in Workfront reports, a given Issue cannot be in two places at once, so one that was entered 3 weeks ago and got closed this week, it would "jump" to this week, and kind of ruin the historical nature of the stats. So! Thinking it through as I type, I'd actually stick with grouping by Entry Date, stacking by Status, filtering for Entered within the past 3 weeks, BUT also "OR'ing" the idea of "...any Issue that's still not closed". This will bring in the last 3 weeks of interest, PLUS any straggler Issues that are older than that, and really ought to be dealt with. That said, if you're interested in a custom report to do it a different way (e.g. 2 date axis competing with each other on a line chart to see the "response lag" as the delta between the two lines), I'd be happy to chat offline at doug.denhoed@atappstore.com. Regards, Doug

[GregBe1]

Hi Doug, Thanks for the response. After I posted this, I thought about it more and actually realized the same as you in your 2nd paragraph. I've passed this on to the PM who had this need, and I'll see what he comes back with. I think it was a one-time need for him, so I don't think he's going to put a lot of effort into it - my guess is he may export the 2 reports (one for open, one for closed), and do a graph in Excel. We'll see - thanks for the response!

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Greg, I've been giving this visualizing issues over time challenge some more thought. Last month, I posted a way to track Issues with Bubble Charts , but -- although kind of cool -- such charts quickly become unreadable. So instead, I'm considering adapting our UberGantt to display Issues as Gantt Bars. Similar to the Task version, I would pick an optional Project, Task and (new) Issue filter, a daterange, and a Grouping (e.g. Assignee, Entered By, Status, etc.) and run. The resulting UberGantt would show a Gantt Bar for each Issue that matched all the filter and daterange. As with our Task version, the color of each Gantt Bar would be driven by a calculated custom parameter on the Issue (e.g. Status, Priority, Assignee Manager's Personal Hex Color Code, etc.). Eventually, I might expose a dropdown to choose among several such color sources at runtime. Any Issue that lacks that color instruction will appear in gray. The "footprint" of the bar would be from the Planned Start Date to the Actual Completion Date, or "now" for any Issue that is not yet complete. Eventually, I might add a Gantt Bar to show the difference between the Entry Date and the Planned Start Date (e.g. the planned response time), another for the Planned Start Date plus the Planned Duration (e.g. the expected completion date), another from that date to the Actual End Date (e.g. the perceived lateness), and another for the signoff Approval, if any (e.g. the paperwork delay). This took about an hour to mull through as I wrote it up, and I'm excited to experiment with this new (but familiar) way of visualizing Workfront Issues! If anyone has other suggestions, or would be interested in beta testing, please leave a post here or email me at doug.denhoed@atappstore.com. Regards, Doug