Health Dashboard - Appmarq Insight

Created by James Hurrell, last modified on Apr 24, 2023


Summary: This page provides a description of the Appmarq Insight feature in the Health Dashboard.

Introduction

Appmarq data (anonymous statistics collected from a large range of industry-wide applications) is integrated into the CAST Health Dashboard. This integration allows you to compare the application health and delivery performance of your applications against data from a wide-range of industry peers.

Enabling/disabling AppMarq data integration

Out-of-the box, AppMarq data integration is already enabled. If you would prefer not to see this data, see Health Dashboard json configuration options for more information about the "appMarq": true, option in cmp.json file.

What data is available?

When Appmarq data integration is enabled, the following can be seen in the CAST Health Dashboard:

Quartile information in Quick Facts section

At single Application level, a Quartile indicator will be visible in the Quick Facts section when drilling down from a Health Measure tile (such as TQI, Robustness, Security, Efficiency etc.):

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The Quartile indicator is a quick visualization using a "traffic light" system of how the current Application compares to all Applications currently managed in Appmarq for the specific Health Measure in question. For example, in the image above the fourth Quartile is shaded red, this means that the current Application has a grade for this Health Measure that is in the bottom 25% of the compliance ratios of all Applications currently managed in Appmarq - in other words, the current Application is performing poorly for this specific Health Measure compared to Appmarq data.

Quartile thresholds are based on the Appmarq data using a percentage scale for each Health Measure - the thresholds can therefore vary when new Appmarq data is integrated into the dashboard. The current Application's compliance ratios for all rules attached to the current Health Measure are totalled and an average value is produced. This average value is then compared with the Appmarq data for the same Health Measure and is ranked as follows:

  • If the average falls between the upper and max thresholds, it will be marked as 1st Quartile and displayed with a green color
  • If the average falls between median and upper thresholds, it will be marked as 2nd Quartile and displayed with an amber color 
  • If the average falls between lower and median thresholds, it will be marked as 3rd Quartile and displayed with a with red color
  • If the average falls between min and lower thresholds, it will be marked as 4th Quartile - displays with dark red color

Industry and Gap data for Rules in Risk Profile section

At single Application level, a Industry and Gap data columns will be visible in the Risk Profile section when drilling down from a Health Measure tile (such as TQI, Robustness, Security, Efficiency etc.):

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IndustryThis column displays the average Appmarq compliance ratio for the specific Technical Criteria or Rule - i.e. the average compliance ratio across all Applications currently managed in Appmarq. Note that "N/A" will be displayed if the filters Only critical rules and Only rules with violations are active.
Gap

This column shows the % difference between the % Compliance column (i.e. the compliance ratio for the specific Technical Criteria or Rule for the current Application in the current snapshot) and the Industry column. In other words you can quickly see if your Application is performing better or worse than the average for all Applications currently managed in Appmarq:

  • A positive difference is highlighted in green - i.e. this shows that the current Application is performing better than the Appmarq average
  • A negative difference is highlighted in red - i.e. this shows that the current Application is performing worse than the Appmarq average

Appmarq data validity period

Appmarq data is provided with the CAST Health Dashboard (in the form of a .json file): this data will be marked in the dashboard as "up-to-date" for three months from first use:

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After this period of time, the Appmarq data will be marked as out-of-date - but you can continue to use it:

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If you want to use fresh and up-to-date Appmarq data, you will need an Appmarq subscription which will give you the option to download new data and integrate it into the dashboard - see section below.

Refreshing out-of-date Appmarq data

Appmarq data is provided in the following file:

WAR 1.x
CATALINA_HOME\webapps\CAST-Health\portal\resources\appMarqStats.json

WAR ≥ 2.x
≥ 2.3 CATALINA_HOME\webapps\CAST-Health\WEB-INF\classes\config\hd\appMarqStats.json
≤ 2.2 CATALINA_HOME\webapps\CAST-Health\static\portal\resources\appMarqStats.json

ZIP ≥ 2.x The file is located in a compiled JAR file located at the root of the unpacked ZIP. This JAR file will need to be unpacked, the .json file modified and then the JAR repacked:
≥ 2.3 <unpacked_jar>\BOOT-INF\classes\WEB-INF\classes\config\hd\appMarqStats.json
≤ 2.2 <unpacked_jar>\BOOT-INF\classes\static\portal\resources\appMarqStats.json

To refresh the Appmarq data if it is marked as out-of-date, replace this file with a new one (available from Appmarq with a subscription). There is no need to restart the web application server to ensure the new data is taken into account, however, please ensure you empty your browser cache and reload the page.

You can download a new Appmarq .json file from the following location once logged in to Appmarq:

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