When and why to use Scorecards

Service maturity isn’t one-size-fits-all, which is why we allow customers to build service standards into the centralized Rubric, individual scoped Scorecards, or a combination of both. Our model gives you flexibility where you want it, and consistency where you need it to gauge service health adequately. Here, we’ll show you how Scorecards work, when to use them, and how they help you achieve service maturity.

Looking for technical guidance? You can find our Scorecards docs here. 

What are Scorecards and how do they work?

Scorecards are a set of checks scoped to a specific team, group, category, or whatever else makes sense for your organization’s Service Maturity model.They’re designed to give you insight into your services’ current maturity levels and what’s needed to improve them. Scorecards give teams the autonomy to create their own service standards, without impacting the global Rubric.

To see how any given service is tracking against all relevant Scorecards, check out its Maturity Report page. 

How are Scorecards different from the Rubric?

While Scorecards and the Rubric both give you insight into service health, Scorecards aren’t global in nature—meaning they won’t apply to the entire organization. You can have multiple Scorecards across different services, teams, and cross-functional groups versus just one org-wide Rubric.

Though Scorecards offer team autonomy, they are built on a shared taxonomy with the Rubric (i.e., the underlying concept of what makes something “Bronze” is universally applied and understood). This means you can have apples-to-apples reporting between Scorecards and the Rubric, and as teammates switch services or teams, they don’t have to relearn anything.

Why OpsLevel’s Scorecards are ideal

By having Scorecards and a global Rubric, OpsLevel simultaneously provides team autonomy and global standardization, making it easier to scale and grow your Service Maturity program. Additionally, Scorecards and the Rubric are built on a shared taxonomy, meaning:

• You can have apples-to-apples comparisons across teams and Scorecards for reporting (i.e., while the individual checks comprising any given “Bronze,” “Silver,” and “Gold” levels are different, the underlying concept of what makes something “Bronze” is universally understood and applied).
• As teammates switch between services or teams, no context is lost and they don’t have to relearn a new grading system.

Scorecard use cases and examples 

1. Let teams go at their own pace

If you’re just getting started or Rubric administration is limited to specific users, or requires org-wide and leadership approval, Scorecards can help your teams start rolling out maturity faster, and feel a little less intimidated to get started.

2. Create scoped standards

Sometimes specific dev teams or guilds have unique standards they want to set and track, outside of a global view.

3. Perfecting your rubric

In other instances, using Scorecards can help you to perfect and improve your rubric overall

With an idea of how and when to use Scorecards, you can start to determine where it makes the most sense to use them for your organization. Paired with the guidance in our Rubric article, you’re set up for a smooth and scalable service maturity program from day 0, giving you org-wide and team-specific coverage all at once.