S2: Server - mandatory meta-tagging

[SeanAdams]

When a user adds a canvas to the gallery - we need to be able to ask for a set of mandatory attributes on every canvas which are tied to meta-data.

So - in our world, these would be:

- Which business line does this belong to (pick from a list)

- What business process does this belong to (multi-select from a tree)

- Which part of the organization does this belong to (multi-select from an org tree).

- Who is the canvas owner as a developer; and as a Line-of-business owner (there are two different versions of the word "Owner" to us)

Every canvas that's booked into the gallery needs to have these fields added to the canvas so that we can inform the right person if a canvas fails, understand which part of our business is impacted, look at velocity & density analytics; etc.

This then requires a few pieces to be set up on the server up-front:

- Define your meta-data elements (tree; drop-down list; etc).   Admin will need to set this up in the beginning

- Define which meta-data elements are mandatory; and which are optional for every canvas.

- When these meta-data structures change - there needs to be a process that forces the owners to update them again.   For example if we change our org structure, that will invalidate some of the meta-data tagging on assets.

- If a user leaves the firm, owner information needs to be forced to be updated

Happy to talk this one through - for any large corporate env, tagging assets like this is super-critical, and this would need to be flexible because every org has a different set of tagging needs.

cc: @Deeksha @avinashbonu @revathi 

[avinashbonu]

Thanks @SeanAdams. This is indeed extremely critical for us for effective governance.

On a related note, we also need additional information to be captured about canvases/workflows and their runs on the designer environments. As of today, information is logged only for server runs (both scheduled and gallery)

But from governance standpoint, it is very critical for us to monitor the user desktop activity as well implicitly - govern the development pipeline, offer help to users, encourage promotion of canvases to production. 

Guessing that Desktop automation add-on would be logging canvas details - can it be extended to all adhoc runs on the desktop as well? Could you please suggest if there are any other potential solutions / workarounds / work in progress. 

Thanks in advance

@Deeksha @revathi

[MattB]

Thanks @SeanAdams and @avinashbonu for the idea and detail. Regarding requiring metadata info as part of publishing to Server, I have not seen this specific request before and will need to follow up with you to discuss in more detail.  It is not currently on our roadmap. Regarding Designer information, I see that you already talked with @BenG about adding more info into the Designer phone home to Server.

Just to double check, is canvas synonymous with workflow or analytic app?

[SeanAdams]

cc: @TanyaS 

To extend the idea above:

Administrator:

• Each company will have their own needs for different metatags.   Some will need just a general "tag this" like you have in connect; others will need classification based Division; Process; Product etc.
• So the Administrator's first job is to say "what tags / metadata / classifications are mandatory and/or optional for every asset"
• Let's assume that for this example - the Admin decides that 4 tags are mandated on every asset and one optional on every asset
  • Mandatory: Division.   This will be a tree of options, single select
  • Mandatory: SoX Impacting: This is a yes/no box
  • Mandatory: Business process: This is a multi-select from a list.
  • Mandatory: Business Owner.   This is a person, from the user list / person list on the server - has to have 2 or more
  • Optional: OtherTags / notes
• The admin then needs to give the allowed values for Division; SoX Impacting; Business Process
• Admin also then needs to define who can update / change these allowed values (generally only Admins)

Types of metadata tags would be (based on real usage today):

• Tree (multi / single)
• List (multi/single)
• Binary
• Person
• Date

User:

• User then loads a canvas up on to the Alteryx Server
• They will not be able to complete the upload until they have picked at least 1 division; they have selected a value for SoX impacting; they have selected at least 1 business process; and 2 business owners
• If they need to - these tags can be changed later, with audit trail & history

Later Features:

• Flexible search & filter by categories & metadata (tags) - both through UI and API; and boolean combinations thereof
• Ability to add a new metadata category later (e.g. we realise that we also need to track "Legal Entity") with proactive treatment for defaults and updating legacy assets

Note: 

• If this tagging / metadata infrastructure is built flexibly - it allows for many of the other types of behaviour in Connect (e.g. certification of assets; asset types; asset dependency; etc)

[KylieF]

Updating this idea's status back to Under Review, to be in line with past product updates.