Defining KPI models

The key performance indicator (KPI) model defines KPI contexts, which group KPIs with their associated triggers and events. To send outbound events based on the value of the KPI relative to its target or ranges, create triggers and outbound events in the KPI context.

  • Defining KPI contexts
    A KPI context is a container for key performance indicators (KPIs) and their associated triggers and events.
  • Defining key performance indicators (KPIs)
    Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measurements of the improvement or deterioration in the performance of an activity critical to the success of a business. A KPI can have a target, a set of ranges, or both, which measure how well a business is achieving its objectives. A KPI obtains its value either from aggregating a metric or from a calculation based on other KPIs or user-defined XML Path Language (XPath) functions.
  • Defining inbound events for KPI contexts
    You can define an inbound event to specify that you want a key performance indicator (KPI) context to subscribe to a particular event. For example, you might want to know every time a KPI is outside a desired range. You create a trigger that is evaluated each time the inbound event arrives and have the trigger reference the KPI in its expression, for example, by verifying that the KPI has not exceeded a certain range.
  • Defining triggers for KPI contexts
    To send an outbound event based on a key performance indicator (KPI), you must define a trigger that causes the event to be sent.
  • Defining outbound events for KPI contexts
    You can define an outbound event that will be sent by this KPI context when a business situation is detected. Situations can be detected based on the number of target or range violations per time period. Outbound events with an extended data element named BusinessSituationName can be received by the Monitor action services, which allows an administrator to specify the actions to take in response to an event. For KPIs, alerts can be created directly in the dashboards, but you might want to create outbound events for sending a message by email or pager, or invoking a web service.
Parent topic: Creating monitor models