The 7-Minute Brief

•  Four to six high-level KPIs with card-style layout:
  
  • 🔢 Open Tickets - Incident and Problem Management module
  • 📝 Completed Tasks - Sprint/Board Metrics
  • 📅 Weekly SLA Compliance - % met/SLA Report
  • 💳 Cash on Hand - Cash Flow and Balance Sheet Reports
  • ⏱ Average Resolution Time - Ticket Resolution Time Reports
  • 📊 Forecast Variance - (optional) Excel, Power BI, or QuickBooks Forecasting tools

• Clean, color-coded indicators (green = on track, yellow = watch, red = off track)

• Trend line or stacked chart by priority level (e.g., P1, P2, P3)
• Expanded Commentary:
  "Total open tickets declined by 18% over the past three weeks. Priority 2 tickets saw the sharpest drop (30%) after incident triage protocols were improved and the root cause of repeat failures was addressed. Priority 1 tickets held steady at under 5, aligning with internal targets."
• Decision Implication: Continue investment in automated triage and maintain shift coverage that correlates with P2 ticket surges.

• Line or bar chart showing weekly task completions, grouped by epic or sprint
• Expanded Commentary:
  "Week 28 saw a 44% increase in completed tasks due to accelerated backlog grooming and focused delivery alignment with Product. Team velocity increased by 2.1 story points per developer."
• Decision Implication: Maintain current sprint cadence and explore automation of manual QA tasks to further boost velocity.

• Column chart showing % of tickets resolved within SLA over time
• Expanded Commentary:
  "SLA compliance rose from 86% to 92% this month, reflecting success of stricter resolution SLAs and better prioritization at intake. However, two weeks dipped below the 90% threshold due to holiday staffing."
• Decision Implication: Lock in intake protocols and evaluate shift augmentation during holidays to avoid dips.

• Line graph showing daily or weekly cash balance, net inflow/outflow
• Expanded Commentary:
  "Cash reserves increased 12% in July, driven by early collections from key clients and lower operational spend due to renegotiated vendor contracts. Net cash flow was positive for the third month in a row."
• Decision Implication: Allocate 20% of monthly positive cash flow to reserve fund and reinvest remaining into backlog-clearing initiatives.

• Trend line or rolling average graph showing median time to resolution (by priority or type)
• Expanded Commentary:
  "Average resolution time improved from 3.2 days to 2.4 days, largely due to adoption of new triage workflow and reduction in reassignments. P3 tickets now average 36 hours, below the internal benchmark of 48."
• Decision Implication: Standardize new triage workflows across all regions and consider revising SLA benchmarks for P3 and P4 incidents.

• Bar/line combo chart showing forecast vs. actual revenue or cost
• Expanded Commentary:
  "Q3 forecast variance held within a +/- 3% window, which reflects stable revenue and improved expense predictability. However, unexpected AWS cost spikes (+9%) skewed infrastructure line items."
• Decision Implication: Implement more granular cloud spend tracking and build buffer into Q4 forecasts.

• Highlight key observations from the charts
• 2-3 key business decisions made from this data (e.g., headcount changes, sprint reprioritization, vendor delay mitigation)

Example:

• Decision to delay feature rollout to focus on bug backlog
• Approved additional contractor budget due to SLA trendline
• Reduced AWS provisioning based on usage efficiency improvements
• Reallocated cash reserves to accelerate platform integration
• Standardized triage workflow across support teams for faster resolution