In this article:
1. Introduction to the Blocker Clustering Chart
2. Additional Controls for This Chart
3. What Is the Chart Telling Us?
The Blocker Clustering Chart comes in handy when you want to know which blockers you and your team are using, how long cards stay blocked, and how often that happens. To get started on the Analytics module in Businessmap, please refer to our dedicated Analytics guide.
1. Introduction to the Blocker Clustering Chart
The Blocker Clustering Chart is a graphical representation of the time and number of times cards have been blocked. It is a heatmap that uses various shades of different colors to help visualize the collected blocker data.
To access the Blocker Clustering chart, navigate to the Analytics module and choose the Blockers tab, as shown below:
The chart is organized as follows:
- On the "x" axis there are two columns: Block Time and Block Count
- On the "y" axis, you have all the different blockers for the selected board.
2. Additional Controls for This Chart
Located to the right, the Blocker Clustering Chart Controls panel has the following settings:
- The Calculate Block Metrics by (1) menu lets you select the data aggregation type for your chart. You can select to aggregate data by:
- Percentiles — choose between 50, 70, 85, and 95. For instance, if you select the 85th percentile, the chart will show you the block times for 85 percent of the results in your dataset, as well as the block count 85% of the time. So, if you have a result of 7 days block time and 5 block count for a particular blocker, it means that 85% of the time, cards were blocked for a week, and the respective blocker was used 5 times.
- Average — selecting this option will show the average block time/block counts across all cards.
- Total — the chart will display the cumulative time and count that cards have been blocked. By default, all new Blocker Clustering Charts show the total blocked time.
- Color Palette (2) — choose the colors of your chart.
- Block Time Filter (3) — choose whether to include weekends or use only working days. The Blocker Clustering Chart allows for recalculation based on working days. Let's say we have a card that was blocked on Friday and was unblocked on Monday, and the team works from Monday to Friday.
- If no working days are selected (the filter is not enabled), the card's blocked time will be calculated as 4 days.
- If working days are selected (Mon-Fri) for the Blocker Clustering Chart, the blocked time for the example card will be 2 days only (Monday and Friday).
- Time Units (4) — by default, the chart results are shown in calendar days, but you can adjust the time units to minutes, hours, weeks, months, quarters, and years.
- Item Filter (5) — use the Item Filter to configure which cards the blockers should be visualized for (e.g., only blockers for cards where the Owner is George and the Priority is High).
- Blockers menu (6) — select the blockers you want to include in the graphic.
3. What Is the Chart Telling Us?
If a blocker on the Blocker Clustering Chart is colored in the deepest color, it signals that this blocker is responsible for either a high amount of blocked time or a high number of blocks and this part of your process needs attention. This visualization helps you easily find out the most common block reasons and is a good way to visualize bottlenecks in the process.
In the example above, we can see that the Blocker Working on a Card with Higher Priority is responsible for 13.04 days of blocked time and was used a total of 13 times. If you click on any of the cells, the system will provide a list of all cards that have received this blocker, as well as how long and how many times it was used on the card(s). Hover on any Card ID to open the respective "Work Item Details" box. It contains specific information relevant to the card.
To learn more about blockers and how to use them, please refer to our Card Blockers guide.