Survey for monitoring feature prioritization

Links

• #882 (closed) Research request
• #883 (closed) Recruitment request
• Project folder with Research plan, Survey and Features list
• Survey
  • Version 1 (Please input Test into the Job title field if you don't want us to analyze your answer)
• Analysis spreadsheets
  • Internal – GitLab SREs
  • External – Firstlook
• Dovetail project

Checklist

Design survey

• Draft the survey
• Create a list of features
• Transfer the survey questions to Qualtrics @akiripolsky

Pilot survey

• Fill the survey and fix any problematic pieces in the MR
• Fix the survey in Qualtrics @akiripolsky @nadia_sotnikova

Collect responses – Round 1 – Internal

• Distribute the survey to GitLab SRE team @dhershkovitch
• Improve the questionnaire based on the feedback from SREs @akiripolsky
• Input the data collected to the analysis spreadsheet @akiripolsky

Collect responses – Round 2 – External

• Open a Recruiting request issue. Assign it to the relevant Research Coordinator @dhershkovitch
• When the survey is ready, ask Emily in the recruitment issue to send the survey to external participants from FirstLook @akiripolsky
• Notify Research Coordinator of survey closure. @akiripolsky

Document findings

• Analyze the data @akiripolsky
• Document the results @dhershkovitch
• Document insights in Dovetail
• Create actionable insight issue
• Update Metrics direction page
• Update the Problem validation research issue. Link to findings in Dovetail. Unmark as confidential if applicable. Close issue.

Survey about requirements for monitoring/Features list.md

+# Metrics (Dashboards) – Features list
+
+Descriptions of features that we will present to the respondents. Guidelines for writing feature description can be found in [Feature description guidelines](/Feature description guidelines.md).
+
+## JTBD
+When analyzing application performance, I can see the important health and performance indicators for my application, so that I am informed when taking the next steps. ([Source](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/216479#note_365899872))
+
+## Current features
+
+Before we jump to the rest of our questions, please familiarize yourself with how does the feature look now:
+ 
+Dashboards are one of the monitoring features offered currently in GitLab. Configuration of a dashboard is done by editing the dashboard's yaml file. Dashboard consists of several panels. Each panel can contain a chart, a numerical indicator or a static markdown text. When users create an alert for some of the metrics that are displayed on a dashboard, it is visualized on the metric chart.
+ 
+Bellow you can see a screenshot of how does an example dashboard and configuration YAML file currently look in GitLab. 
+
+<img src='./image_9.png' width=600px />
+<img src='./image_10.png' width=600px />
+
+## New features
+
+### Dashboard level
+
+##### ⭐Dashboard templates
+
+Templates for YAML configuration files
+that you can choose when creating new dashboards. 
+Templates contain basic file structure, configuration examples, and comments
+to speed up the dashboard creation process and improve consistency across dashboards.
+
+##### ⭐Variables
+
+Instead of the time-consuming and repetitive task of recreating similar dashboards multiple times, you can create a single dashboard and use variables to change the data you view in it.
+
+<img src='./image_7.png' width=600px />
+
+##### ⭐OOTB dashboards
+
+A set of out-of-the-box dashboards for the most common technologies and services
+that are configured automatically when you set up monitoring in GitLab. 
+It will improve the experience of users that just started using the monitoring 
+features of GitLab. 
+
+##### ⭐Folders
+
+You can add dashboards to folders to make the dashboards list more organized.
+
+##### ⭐Tags
+
+You can tag dashboards with keywords to make the searching for dashboards faster. 
+
+##### ⭐Dashboard hyperlinks list
+
+A special horizontal list of custom hyperlinks
+so you can drill down to a tool of your choice (e.g. another dashboard or external tool) right from the dashboard UI 
+what can speed up switching between different tools.
+
+<img src='./image_11.png' width=600px /> 
+
+##### ⭐Rearange panels with cursor
+
+You can rearrange panels using drag and drop rather than by editing the YAML file. 
+
+<img src='./image.png' width=600px />
+
+##### ⭐Resize panels with cursor
+
+You can resize panels using cursor rather than by editing the YAML file.
+
+### Panel level
+
+##### ⭐Panel hyperlinks list
+
+Custom hyperlink in the options menu of a panel,
+so you can drill down to a tool of your choice (e.g. another dashboard or external tool) right from the relevant panel
+that can speed up switching between different tools.
+
+<img src='./image_2.png' width=600px />
+
+##### ⭐Annotations
+
+Annotation, a dashed vertical blue line in a chart that displays a custom message on hover,
+that you can add to highlight an important point within the chart.
+To improve collaboration and informativeness of the chart.
+
+<img src='./image_3.png' width=600px />
+
+##### ⭐Threshold lines
+
+Threshold line, a solid horizontal red line in a chart,
+that you can add to visualize threshold without triggering an alert.
+
+<img src='./image_8.png' width=600px />
+
+##### ⭐Alert config modal
+
+A contextual alert configuration modal openable from within the metric chart
+where you can configure alerts without the necessity to navigate to a dedicated alert configuration page.
+It will improve the speed of alert configuration and provide better awareness of the underlying metric.
+
+<img src='./image_6.png' width=600px />
+
+##### ⭐Line appearance editing
+
+You can change the appearance of lines on a chart – color, width, type of line (solid, dotted...).
+
+##### ⭐Homepage dashboard by admin
+
+As an admin or a maintainer of a project, you can set a dashboard as the Metrics home page which will be the default landing page for Metrics for all users.
+
+##### ⭐Homepage dashboard by user
+
+As an individual user, you can set the dashboard they use the most as the Metrics home page, which will override the default admin setting.