Tracking goal progress

Community Platform

With runZero goals, users are able to create and monitor progress toward achieving security initiatives. All goal types are supported by the robust query language on the backend. All types of inventory queries are supported by the goal tracking feature.

There are two types of goals:

• Saved query - a goal based on the results of a user-defined or runZero system query against all inventory.
• Baseline - a goal based on the results of a user-defined query against a subset of inventory, specified by another user-defined query.

Goal creation

New goals can be created by users whose default role is user or greater from the Goals page in the console. Users with viewer-level or greater access will be able to view the goals page and see the goals that apply to organizations they have access to.

To create a new goal, click the New goal button on the Goals page in the console.

Creating saved query goals

1. On the Goal type tab, select the Saved query type.
2. On the Build goal tab, complete any desired fields:
   • Name: Provide a name for your goal.
   • Description: Provide a description for the goal.
   • Notes: Add relevant notes about this goal.
   • Organization access: By default, a goal will be created for the currently selected organization, but you may select additional organizations as desired. Goals are editable by any user with User role access to every organization associated with the goal, and can be read by any user with Viewer role access to at least one organization.
   • Query: Determine the query you want to use to track progress for this goal by selecting the query from the table. If needed, use the search field to find the query you wish to use.
   • Threshold: Select whether goal progress will be calculated as Greater than or equal or Less than or equal, whether goal progress will be calculated as a percent or fixed number, and then set the desired threshold value.
   • Target date: Provide an optional target date for achieving this goal.
3. To see a preview of the goal’s current state, click Preview.
4. Click Save when you’re ready, or make changes as needed.

Creating baseline goals

1. On the Goal type tab, select the Baseline type.
2. On the Build goal tab, complete any desired fields:
   • Name: Provide a name for your goal.
   • Description: Provide a description for the goal.
   • Notes: Add relevant notes about this goal.
   • Organization access: By default, a goal will be created for the currently selected organization, but you may select additional organizations as desired. Goals are editable by any user with User role access to every organization associated with the goal, and can be read by any user with Viewer role access to at least one organization.
   • Inventory dataset: Select which inventory type should be searched by the target and baseline queries.
   • Target query: Compose the query for what the goal is targeting. The count this query returns becomes the numerator of the fraction representing the state of the goal, which the threshold is then compared to in order to determine goal progress.
   • Target label: Provide a label for the target query to appear in the goal breakdown. if a label is not provided, a default will be used.
   • Baseline query: Compose the query that defines the scope of the goal. The count this query returns becomes the denominator of the fraction representing the state of the goal, which the threshold is then compared to in order to determine goal progress.
   • Baseline label: Provide a label for the baseline query to appear in the goal breakdown. if a label is not provided, a default will be used.
   • Threshold: Select whether goal progress will be calculated as Greater than or equal or Less than or equal, whether goal progress will be calculated as a percent or fixed number, and then set the desired threshold value.
   • Target date: Provide an optional target date for achieving this goal.
3. To see a preview of the goal’s current state, click Preview.
4. Click Save when you’re ready, or make changes as needed.

Goal progress calculation

Once a goal has been created, the progress will be calculated once a day and when tasks complete. As a result, you may see a different number of metric calculations in the historical line chart depending on the number of tasks that are completed on a given day.

The overall status noted in the Goal details card on a goal details page reflects the progress toward goal completion for all the configured organizations that you have access to. This may differ for a user with more or less per-organization access.

Note: When a goal applies to multiple organizations, progress is calculated per-organization and extrapolated across all applicable organizations.

Goal events and notifications

The events system includes the following events related to goals:

• goal-created: This event fires when a goal is created and saved.
• goal-updated: This event fires when a goal is modified and saved.
• goal-completed: This event fires when the progress of a goal crosses the completion threshold.
• goal-lapsed: This event fires when the progress for a previously completed goal falls below the completion threshold.
• goal-removed: This event fires when a goal is deleted.

These events can be used with channels and rules to receive notifications about a change in goal status. After a notification channel has been created, create a rule for the desired event and select the channel you wish to receive the notification through.