Issue lists allow you to capture data issues in problematic records, allocate owners and collaborate on a resolution.
Start by creating an Issue list from the left-hand menu. Give it a name, an optional summary and description. Optionally, set an issue status (you can change this later). There are three default ones:
To allow flexibility in tracking data quality issues, you can also create a custom status. For example: Priority, Defer to next cycle, Not an issue and so on.
Each status has the option to be treated as closed and exclude from metrics which means it won't be included in reporting, such as the open issues count or the Issues Dashboard widget.
Use a Workflow with the Track issues step to start capturing issues in your Issue list. This step can use any Workflow step as an input (such as Filter or Group) but is most likely to be used with the Validate step, specifically the ‘Failing rows’ output. This will make sure that any record failing one or more rules will be tracked as an individual issue.
Use the Track issues Workflow step tp ensure that issues are recorded in the correct list with the correct details:
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Issue list | Choose an existing list to add newly found issues to. |
| Record key | A unique value that will identify each issue. This will update the issue in future when the Workflow is re-run. If the unique value is no longer present, Data Studio will assume that this specific issue has been resolved. |
| Origin | An optional field that can be used in conjunction with Record key to identify an issue if multiple Workflows are writing to the same Issue list. This ensures that the correct issue is being updated. |
| Name | Choose the column(s) that will form the title of the issue. |
| Useful columns | Choose the columns that contain values needed to investigate the issue for each specific record. These values will be included in the issue details shown to any users with access (including Consumer users). |
| Owner | The username/email of the user assigned to investigate the issue. This can be any existing user (Designer or Consumer). Note that using the Lookup step with a reference table can create an Owner column in the input step, which will assign issues accordingly. |
Run the Workflow to populate your Issue list with the issues and assigned owners.
Executing the same Workflow used to track issues will:
An existing Issue list can be used as the source date for a Workflow.
Go to the relevant Issue list, find the required issue to see the full details, such as the creation date or when it was last updated.
While Consumer users don’t have access to navigate to Issue lists directly, with the ‘View and update issues’ role, they can add the Tracked Issues widget to a Dashboard they have access to. This widget will show a count of issues and link to the relevant Issue list.
An individual issue can be updated by clicking into it to view full details. The Owner can be changed to re-assign the issue to someone else. The Status will be New until manually set to Active or a custom status. An External ID field can be used to track a ticket/record in a third-party system, relevant to this issue. Finally, Comments can be added by any user collaborating on the issue resolution.
Sometimes, it might be useful to update several issues in one go. For example, you want to re-assign a number of issues from user A to user B. Instead of updating each issue individually, you can use a Workflow with the Update issues step. The setup of this step is similar to the Track issues step, but instead of connecting to the Validate step, use the Source step with the Issue list as the 'source'.
Use this Update issues Workflow step to ensure that issues are updated in the correct list with the correct details:
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Issue list | Choose the list containing the issues you want to update. |
| Record key | Select the record key that uniquely identifies the issue. |
| Origin | An optional field that can be used in conjunction with Record key to identify an issue if multiple Workflows are writing to the same Issue list. This ensures that the correct issue is being updated. You can update this field if it requires changing. |
| Owner | The email of the user assigned to investigate the issue. This can be any existing user (Designer or Consumer). If the user doesn't exist in the source data, you can map them to it using the Lookup step. |
| Status | Select the status that will be applied to the updated issues. |
| External Id | An optional field that can be used to track a ticket/record in a third-party system that's relevant to this issue. |
