Every metric on the dashboard earns its place by answering one question a stakeholder actually asks. A number nobody can act on is decoration; a missing number everyone needs is a blind spot. The table below is the recommended minimum set — small enough to read, complete enough to steer.
Metric | Question it answers | Healthy direction |
|---|---|---|
Open findings by class | Where is the defect risk concentrated? | Falls, highest-severity classes first |
Fixed versus waived | Is progress real fixes or permissions? | Fixed rises; waived stays flat and evidenced |
Waiver age and revision currency | Are waivers still valid on this revision? | No waiver older than its revision; stale count at zero |
Open owners | Who holds the remaining work? | Every open item names an owner and a date |
Constraint changes since last review | Has the intent moved under the results? | Reviewed to zero after each change |
Setup version per run | Are these runs even comparable? | Constant across the trend window |
Different readers need different rows. Designers watch open findings by class in their own blocks; the signoff owner watches waiver age and constraint churn across the project; management watches the burn-down slope and the severe-class count. One dashboard serves all three only if each row is labelled with its reader — otherwise the severe-class count that a designer acts on gets averaged into the percentage a manager forwards.
Resist the single percentage “CDC complete”. A percentage averages severity away: ninety-five percent complete with the remaining five percent all unsynchronised resets is a red project wearing a green number. Report the classes separately and let the severe ones dominate the conversation, exactly as triage order demands.
Because they mean opposite things: a fix removes risk while a waiver accepts it with evidence. Merging them lets permissions masquerade as progress.
Open findings by class with severity first. A percentage averages severity away and can show green while the highest-risk defects are all still open.