What is change detection? 

Change detection is an automatic process that Viz runs to check for new or updated artifacts with your source system.  The frequency can vary based on your specific setup and data volume.  

The basic process is: 

• Viz identifies the projects listed in the Artifact Sets 

• Viz queries the source tool for all new or changed artifacts 

What is descoping? 

Descoping in Viz refers to the process of removing or excluding certain artifacts from your Viz metrics. This typically happens when: 

• An artifact is deleted from your source system (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps) 

• An artifact is moved to a project or area that is not being tracked in Viz 

• A project is removed from all artifact sets in the Product Modeling 

Descoping is important as it ensures that your Viz data accurately reflects the current state of your work items in your source system. 

Note: Viz is designed to preserve the historical record of Flow Metrics even if the original contributing artifacts have been moved or deleted after they have been completed. When an artifact is descoped, it will not change the Flow Metrics except that descoped artifacts will no longer count towards the current Flow Load. Descoped artifacts will also no longer appear in the Flow Item Analyzer unless their most recent Flow State was Done. 

How does descoping work? 

Viz uses a 6-month monitoring window for descoping.  

This means: 

• Viz can only detect that an artifact moved out of scope if it was modified in the last 6 months, before it was moved or deleted 

If an artifact is moved or deleted without being modified in the last 6 months, then that artifact will continue to appear in Viz in the state that it was last seen in. This happens infrequently, and when it happens, there is typically no impact to the Flow Metrics in Viz unless the artifact was in an Active Flow State when Viz last observed it.  

In that case: 

• The artifact will continue to count towards the value stream’s Flow Load 

• This can also impact the Neglected WIP Insights, which use Flow Load in their calculation 

• The artifact will continue to appear in Flow Item Analyzer and the Age of the artifact will continue to increase 

Note: Descoping is run at the end of change detection. To ensure that Viz does not mistakenly descope artifacts that are still present, descoping will not be run if there are errors retrieving some of the artifacts or if Viz is unable to connect to some of the projects that have been added to the tool connection. If errors occur, it is important to resolve them quickly to ensure that descoping is able to run successfully with every change detection.

How does Viz handle out-of-scope artifacts?

If an artifact is descoped when it's already been moved to a Done or Canceled state, the following will occur:

• The artifact will still be counted and displayed in the Flow Item Analyzer
• The artifact will still be counted in the Flow Velocity on the Flow Metrics screen
• The artifact's Flow Time will remain the same as it was when it was Done or Canceled
• The artifact counts in the Flow Item Analyzer and Flow Metrics screens will be consistent.
• The state of the artifact will remain in a Done or Canceled state, even if the artifact state changes.

To better understand how Viz handles out-of-scope (descoped) artifacts, let's look at an example. 

• At the end of October, Viz ingested a Feature Flow Item named 'Advanced Filtering Options' with a 'New' Flow State from Jira.
• On November 26th, there were 12 features contributing to the Flow Velocity metric.
• On November 30th, the 'Advanced Filtering Options' feature was moved to 'Done' in Jira.

As a result, Viz updated the Flow Velocity for November to 13 features. Additionally, the Flow Item Analyzer displayed 13 features, with the 'Advanced Filtering Options' feature showing a Flow Time of 36 days.

Now, let's assume that the 'Advanced Filtering Options' feature was subsequently moved to another project in Jira, rendering it out-of-scope.

In this scenario, Viz will still count the 'Advanced Filtering Options' Flow Item in the Feature Flow Velocity and display it in the Flow Item Analyzer. The Flow Time of this Flow Item will remain unchanged, even if the state changes in Jira. However, the Flow State of the 'Advanced Filtering Options' Flow Item will remain in the 'Done' state within Viz, regardless of any subsequent state changes in Jira.

Common Scenarios and Their Outcomes 

Deleting an item that has been modified in the last 6 months 

• Outcome: The item will be descoped. 

Moving an item to a different project in the last 6 months 

• Outcome: If the new project is not tracked in Viz, the item will be descoped. 

Deleting or moving an item after 6 months of inactivity 

• Outcome: The change may not be detected, and the item might not be descoped.

If you have any additional questions about descoping, please reach out to customer care.