Suitability of Grafana and Kibana for VISDOM-type visualizations

Abstract

This paper aims to find out whether it is possible to convert the existing visualization dashboards of the VISDOM-project, that is using the d3.js library for its visualization component, to a more recent software (Kibana or Grafana). VISDOM-project is a relatively new innovation in the field of data visualization, with a focus on providing visualizing tools for software development projects. The research in this paper was done by first obtaining the data that is needed to be visualized and examining it to find out whether there needs to be any pre-processing, which will be addressed during the implementation. Afterwards, a comparison will be made between potential data visualization tools to single out the best candidate to be tested, and its requirements and functionalities will be thoroughly studied. Finally, all the steps necessary for the data as well as the tool will be performed, until the visualizations are yielded as a result. The result is then compared to the original figures taken from VISDOM-project to determine if the resulting implementation are satisfactory. Ultimately, a final conclusion will be drawn by means of comparison between the original and replicated visualizations, combined with various other factors such as complexity, replicability and how manual the new implementation is. For this research, it has been determined that it is only possible to implement a part of the required visualizations, and thus the best option is to stick to the current d3.js implementation until further developments are made in the field of data visualization.