Building Compliance Dashboards

Jira dashboards provide at-a-glance visibility into your compliance status. This guide shows you how to create dashboards that track violations, monitor trends, and prepare for audits.

Why Build a Compliance Dashboard?

A well-designed dashboard helps you:

• Monitor in real-time: See new violations as they're detected
• Track trends: Identify whether compliance is improving or declining
• Prepare for audits: Have evidence ready when auditors ask
• Communicate status: Share compliance posture with stakeholders

Creating Your First Dashboard

Step 1: Create the Dashboard

1. Click Dashboards in the Jira navigation
2. Click Create dashboard
3. Enter a name (e.g., "SOC2 Compliance")
4. Set visibility (Private, Team, or Public)
5. Click Create

Step 2: Add Gadgets

Gadgets are widgets that display data on your dashboard. Click Add gadget to browse available options.

Recommended gadgets for compliance dashboards:

Gadget	Purpose
Filter Results	List violations matching a filter
Pie Chart	Show violations by severity or status
Two Dimensional Filter Statistics	Cross-reference violations by multiple fields
Created vs Resolved Chart	Track violation resolution rate
Heat Map	Visualize violations by repository and severity

Essential Saved Filters

Before adding gadgets, create saved filters for your common queries. These filters power your dashboard gadgets.

Creating Saved Filters

1. Go to Filters → Advanced issue search
2. Enter your JQL query
3. Click Save as and give it a name
4. Set permissions (share with your team)

Recommended Filters

Create these filters (replace COMPVIOL with your project key):

Open Violations

project = COMPVIOL AND status = Open ORDER BY priority DESC, created DESC

Shows all unresolved violations, highest priority first.

High Severity Open

project = COMPVIOL AND status = Open AND priority = High

Critical issues requiring immediate attention.

This Week's Violations

project = COMPVIOL AND created >= startOfWeek()

New violations detected this week.

This Month's Violations

project = COMPVIOL AND created >= startOfMonth()

Monthly violation count for reporting.

Resolved This Month

project = COMPVIOL AND status = Resolved AND resolved >= startOfMonth()

Track resolution progress.

By Repository

project = COMPVIOL AND summary ~ "repo-name"

Violations for a specific repository.

Commit Violations Only

project = COMPVIOL AND labels = "commit"

Focus on commit-related issues.

PR Violations Only

project = COMPVIOL AND labels = "pull-request"

Focus on pull request issues.

Dashboard Layout Examples

Executive Overview Dashboard

A high-level view for leadership and stakeholders.

Layout:

Left Column	Right Column
Pie Chart: Violations by Status	Pie Chart: Violations by Severity
Created vs Resolved Chart (30 days)	Filter Results: High Severity Open (top 5)

Gadget configurations:

1. Pie Chart - By Status

   • Filter: All violations (project = COMPVIOL)
   • Statistic Type: Status

2. Pie Chart - By Severity

   • Filter: Open violations
   • Statistic Type: Priority

3. Created vs Resolved

   • Filter: All violations
   • Period: Last 30 days
   • Shows if you're keeping up with new violations

4. Filter Results - Critical Issues

   • Filter: High Severity Open
   • Columns: Key, Summary, Created
   • Number of results: 5

Daily Operations Dashboard

For compliance team members reviewing violations daily.

Layout:

Left Column	Right Column
Filter Results: Open Violations	Two Dimensional Stats: Severity × Repository
Filter Results: This Week's New	Pie Chart: By Type (commit/PR)

Gadget configurations:

1. Filter Results - Open Violations

   • Filter: Open Violations
   • Columns: Key, Summary, Priority, Created
   • Number of results: 15

2. Two Dimensional Filter Statistics

   • Filter: Open violations
   • X Axis: Labels (shows commit vs pull-request)
   • Y Axis: Priority
   • Shows where violations concentrate

3. Filter Results - New This Week

   • Filter: This Week's Violations
   • Columns: Key, Summary, Priority
   • Number of results: 10

4. Pie Chart - By Type

   • Filter: Open violations
   • Statistic Type: Labels

Audit Preparation Dashboard

Evidence-focused view for SOC2 audits.

Layout:

Left Column	Right Column
Created vs Resolved (12 months)	Two Dimensional: Month × Status
Filter Results: Resolved This Quarter	Pie Chart: Resolution Status

Gadget configurations:

1. Created vs Resolved Chart

   • Filter: All violations
   • Period: Last 12 months
   • Shows year-over-year improvement

2. Two Dimensional Filter Statistics

   • Filter: All violations in audit period
   • X Axis: Created (by month)
   • Y Axis: Status
   • Shows resolution rate by month

3. Filter Results - Resolved

   • Filter: Resolved violations in audit period
   • Shows evidence of remediation

Advanced Configurations

Tracking by Repository

Create repository-specific filters:

project = COMPVIOL AND summary ~ "backend-api"

Add multiple Filter Results gadgets, one per critical repository.

Tracking by Team

If your repositories map to teams, create team-based views:

project = COMPVIOL AND (summary ~ "team-a-repo1" OR summary ~ "team-a-repo2")

Violation Aging

Track how long violations stay open:

project = COMPVIOL AND status = Open AND created < -7d

Shows violations open more than a week.

project = COMPVIOL AND status = Open AND created < -30d

Shows violations open more than a month (needs attention).

Trend Analysis

Use the Created vs Resolved Chart gadget to identify:

• Upward trend in created: Rules may be too strict, or process compliance is declining
• Downward trend in created: Teams are improving compliance
• Resolved > Created: You're catching up on backlog
• Created > Resolved: Backlog is growing

Sharing Dashboards

With Your Team

1. Edit the dashboard
2. Click Share
3. Add users, groups, or projects
4. Set permission level (View or Edit)

With Stakeholders

For executive reporting:

1. Create a dedicated "Executive Compliance" dashboard
2. Share as View-only with stakeholder group
3. Schedule a weekly email summary using Jira automation

Public Dashboard

For organization-wide visibility:

1. Set dashboard visibility to "Public"
2. Anyone in your Jira instance can view it
3. Useful for transparency and accountability

Dashboard Best Practices

Keep It Focused

• Don't overload dashboards with too many gadgets
• Create separate dashboards for different audiences
• Use clear gadget titles

Maintain Your Filters

• Review saved filters regularly
• Update filters when project keys or labels change
• Delete unused filters to reduce clutter

Set Refresh Intervals

• Dashboard gadgets auto-refresh periodically
• For real-time monitoring, set shorter intervals
• For reporting dashboards, default intervals are fine

Document Your Setup

• Add a text gadget explaining what each visualization shows
• Include links to documentation or runbooks
• Note the JQL queries used for reference

Next Steps

• Working with Violations - More JQL examples
• End-to-End Workflow - Complete compliance process
• Configuration Guide - Adjust rules to reduce false positives