Create relations between elements of a breakdown

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read

    • Use a breakdown relation to set up navigation between a hierarchy of elements within the same breakdown. A field in the breakdown records must identify the hierarchical relationship of one record to another.

    Before you begin

    Review the use cases for breakdown relations in Navigating breakdown elements with breakdown relations.
    Important:
    To show breakdown relations on Platform Analytics, you have to create a dashboard with an indicator scorecard and a filter. KPI Details does not support breakdown relations.

    Role required: pa_data_collector, pa_power_user, admin

    Note:
    While a business analyst, typically with the pa_power_user role, is most likely to know what breakdown relations to create, creating them requires the knowledge and access to tables of a technical expert with pa_data_collector. A pa_admin is likely to understand both. Consider having either a pa_admin create the relation or have a collaboration between a pa_power_user and a pa_data_collector.

    About this task

    You can create breakdown relations to navigate the following hierarchical relationships between elements of a breakdown:
    • Child relations, to navigate from a parent element to its children
    • Parent relations, to navigate from a child element to its parents
    • Sibling, or peer relations, to navigate between elements that share the same parent element

    In a breakdown with a hierarchical relationship between elements, one field in the element record identifies the position of the element in the hierarchy. Typically this field is Parent, and identifies the parent element. Elements that are the parent of one element can themselves have a parent element.

    Note:
    Breakdown relations are one-way relationships. Define multiple breakdown relations to create a bi-directional relationship.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > Breakdowns > Breakdown Relations and click New.
    2. In the Breakdown and Related breakdown fields, select the breakdown whose elements you want to navigate between.
      These fields have the same value when you're creating a hierarchical relation between elements of the same breakdown.
    3. In the Table field, select the same table as the breakdown source facts table.
    4. Fill in the rest of the form, depending on whether you're creating a child, a parent, or a sibling/peer relation.
      Table 1. Breakdown Relation form
      Field Child relation Parent relation Sibling/peer relation
      Breakdown field Select the field that identifies the parent element.

      For the Location breakdown, select Parent.

      		 Select the unique identifier field for elements of this breakdown.

      For the Location breakdown, as for most breakdowns, select Sys ID

      		 Select the unique identifier field for elements of this breakdown.

      For the Location breakdown, as for most breakdowns, select Sys ID
      Related breakdown field Select the unique identifier field for elements of this breakdown.

      For the Location breakdown, as for most breakdowns, select Sys ID

      		 Select the field that identifies the parent element.

      For the Location breakdown, select Parent.

      		 Select the unique identifier field for elements of this breakdown.

      For the Location breakdown, as for most breakdowns, select Sys ID
      Common field Leave empty. Leave empty. Select the field that identifies the parent element.

      For the Location breakdown, select Parent.
    5. Under Conditions, define any further conditions that a record must fulfill to appear as a related breakdown for this relationship.

    Parent group of Assignment Groups

    These instructions create a parent group relation for the Assignment Group breakdown and displays the relation in a dashboard. To display the breakdown relation in a dashboard, you need two dashboard elements:
    • A filter
    • An indicator scorecard

    The filter is the starting point. It acts as a source, and the breakdown configured for the indicator scorecard acts as a target. The breakdown relation record defines how these two elements are connected.

    1. Navigate to All > Breakdowns > Breakdown Relations and tap New.
    2. Name the relation Parent Group.
    3. For both Breakdown and Related Breakdown, select Assignment Group.
    4. For the Table, select Group [sys_user_group].
    5. Select SysID for the breakdown field.
    6. Select Parent for the related breakdown field.
    7. Do not select a common field.
    8. Define [Active][Is][True] as the condition.
    9. Tap Update.

    You now have a hierarchical breakdown relation. To display it, you need a dashboard with an indicator scorecard.

    1. Navigate to Platform Analytics > Library > Dashboards
    2. Tap Create dashboard.
    3. Create a Next Experience dashboard in the In-line editor and name it Hierarchical relation.
    4. Tap Add new element
    5. Select Data visualization and create a visualization.
    6. Configure the visualization as follows:
      Field Value
      Visualization type Indicator scorecard
      Scorecard type List
      Data > Indicator > Source definition Manually selected
    7. Tap Indicator > Add.
    8. Select the Number of open incidents indicator.
    9. Tap Breakdown > Add
    10. Select Assignment Group.
    11. Turn on Follow breakdown relation.
    12. Select the Parent Group relation.
    13. Save.

    Lastly, you need a filter on the same breakdown.

    1. Tap Add new element.
    2. Select Filter > New Filter.
    3. Label the filter Assignment Group.
    4. Tap Add source and select the Group [sys_user_group] table.
    5. Tap Apply
    6. Under Data to filter, tap Add.
    7. Select indicators with the breakdown Assignment Group.
    8. Tap Apply.

    Save the dashboard and start selecting values in the filter. When you select a child value, like Database Atlanta, you roll the result up into the parent value, like Database.

    What to do next

    View examples of breakdown relations that are shipped by default in every instance.