Usage Comparison Plot

This graph simplifies the complex reports generated by checkout statistics page.

This graph accompanies the checkout statistics page, which has complex report-by and filter options. This plot compares the utilization average over time, broken down by the selected option. You can choose different teams, departments, tags, users or groups. It shows which is used the most and which is used the least, and this gives you an idea of how to distribute resources and when to distribute them.

This example plot specifically shows the overall usage of the two features – MATLAB and Calibre – MATLAB gets more use than Calibre, during the second quarter of the year.

As a general rule, the stacked view option can be used when a graphical view of the total usage is desired. For example, in an environment where there are two different synthesis tools available and a report is needed that shows the total synthesis usage while also showing how each tool's usage varies over time, the stacked view would be useful. If a simple comparison of the usage of each tool is desired, the default unstacked view should be used. When using the stacked view, the total usage statistics are also shown at the bottom of the legend.

The report defaults to showing the top five objects that are reported by a group - in this example, reported by users. All other objects, if applicable, are combined into an "others" group.

The report uses a dynamically calculated averaging interval (referred to as the "binning" interval), based on the specified report period. For example, a 1-week report would result in a 4-hour interval, whereas a 1-month report period would result in a 1-day averaging interval.

The options box on the left side of the page provides controls to setup any desired filters, the report-by option, the smoothing basis, and plot customization parameters.

The report can be driven by usage data that has been smoothed according to the peak usage (default) or the average usage. If using the peak, the plot will visualize the usage considering the peak usage, and the statistics in the legend will contain both the peak and average of all peaks found across all of the binned intervals. If using the average usage, the plot will visualize the average usage over time, and the legend statistics will include the peak and average of all averages found across all of the binned intervals. Note that when using the average usage, peaks will be obscured based on the averaging interval. For example, a peak of 30 minutes will not show up in a 1-week report because that usage will be factored into the average.