SEI Onboarding guide
Harness SEI analyzes data from over 40 DevOps tools to compute DORA metrics and over 100 other insightful metrics that provide the missing insights to help you deliver software faster with better quality.
This guide explains what you need to know to get started using Harness SEI
Complete Harness Platform onboarding
If you're new to Harness, review the Harness Platform onboarding guide and Harness Platform key concepts before onboarding to SEI.
Propelo and Harness
If you're migrating to Harness SEI from Propelo standalone application, review the SEI migration guide for useful information about changing your existing user roles to the available SEI roles on Harness.
Onboarding Path
Phase 1: Setup your Harness account
| Step | Details | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Review Key Concepts | Learn about the basic concepts of SEI | Click here |
| Account and Project setup | Create projects and invite users | Click here |
Phase 2: Single Sign-On (Automate onboarding of users from external sources)
| Step | Details | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Configure SSO | Automate the onboarding of users from external sources | Click here |
| API Guide | Learn about how you can create any resource on SEI using Rest APIs | Click here |
Phase 3: Integration Mapping
| Step | Details | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Create Integrations (Cloud) | Learn how to create cloud integrations for third-party tools | Click here |
| Ingestion Satellite Overview | Use the Ingestion Satellite to connect SEI with on-premise tools | Click here |
| Create custom CI/CD integrations | Learn how to create custom CI/CD integrations | Click here |
| Integration Mapping | Map integrations to your project | Click here |
| Integration Monitoring | Monitor the health status of the integrations | Click here |
| Configure GitHub Integration | Create and configure the integration for GitHub Cloud or GitHub Enterprise | |
| Configure GitHub Integration - Enhanced User Experience | Create and configure the integration for GitHub Cloud or Enterprise with additional support for GitHub App | Click here |
| Configure Jira Integration | Create and configure the integration for Jira Cloud or Jira Data Center | Click here |
| Configure Jira Integration - Enhanced User Experience | Create and configure the integration for Jira Cloud or Jira Data Center with additional support for Jira Connect App | Click here |
| Azure DevOps Integration | Create and configure the integration for Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos and Azure Boards | Click here |
Phase 4: Collection Setup
| Step | Details | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Collection Hierarchy | Learn how to use collection-level hierarchies to keep data in SEI organized | Click here |
| Manage Collection Categories | View, add, edit, enable/disable collection categories | Click here |
| Manage Collections | View, add, edit and remove collections | Click here |
| Manage Contributors | View, add, edit and remove contributors | Click here |
Phase 5: Profiles Setup
| Step | Details | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Configure Investment Profile | Learn how to create/edit an investment profile | Click here |
| Configure Workflow profile for DORA | Learn how to create/edit a workflow profile for measuring DORA metrics | Click here |
| Configure Workflow profile for Lead Time | Learn how to create/edit a workflow profile to measure Lead Time metrics | Click here |
| Configure Trellis profile | Learn how to create/edit a Trellis profile | Click here |
Phase 6: Insights Creation
| Step | Details | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Create a new Insight | Learn how to create a new Insight on SEI | Click here |
| Add reports | Configure widgets on the Insight | Click here |
| Manage Insight association | Associate or Disassociate Insights with collections | Click here |
| View Insight | View existing Insights | Click here |
| Explore Insight data | Derive value out of the widget data on the Insights | Click here |
| Create DORA Insight | Learn how to create a DORA Insight using various DORA widgets | Click here |
| Create Trellis Insight | Learn how to create a Trellis Insight using various Trellis widgets | Click here |
| Create Sprints Insight | Learn how to create a Sprints Insight using various sprint metric widgets | Click here |
| Create Developer Insight | Learn how to create a Developer Insight using SCM metric widgets | Click here |
Phase 7: Role-Based Access Control
| Step | Details | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| RBAC Overview (Roles and Resource Groups) | A brief overview of RBAC support for Harness SEI | Click here |
| Create Resource Groups | Learn how to create resource groups | Click here |
| Create User Groups | Learn how to create user groups | Click here |
| Manage access control for SEI Insights | Configure and manage access control for Insights on Harness SEI | Click here |
| Manage access control for SEI Collections | Configure and manage access control for Collections on Harness SEI | Click here |
| Manage access control for SEI Configuration Settings (Account Level Resources) | Configure and manage access control for all account-level SEI module resources | Click here |
Phase 1: Setup your Harness account
SaaS
Harness Platform is purpose-built to help developers and DevOps teams deliver software with the highest velocity, quality, security, reliability, and resilience as well as the lowest cost possible while remaining inside the governance guardrails necessary for meeting organizational goals.
Harness SaaS is a fully managed cloud version of Harness Platform that is accessible via multiple plans.
Team & Enterprise Plans: You must have received an invitation email from your Account Administrator. Reach out to support@harness.io if you need more information or if you do not know who your Account Administrator is.
After your account has been created, you can sign in to your Harness account here.
Self-Managed Enterprise Edition
Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition (aka SMP) is a self-managed, Kubernetes-native version of Harness Platform that runs on your own public or private cloud infrastructure. This option requires access to a Harness SMP license key as well as the ability to download Harness SMP software (container images & Helm Chart). Reach out to support@harness.io if you do not have access to either the license key or the download location.
- After you have access to the license key and the software, you will have to first install and configure an instance of Harness SMP by following the instructions listed at Install Harness SMP using Helm Chart.
- After you install, follow these instructions to create your Harness Account on SMP.
You can sign in to your Harness Account on SMP anytime at http://\<YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME>/auth/#/signin.
Step 1 - Review key concepts
If you're new to Harness, review the Harness Platform onboarding guide and Harness Platform key concepts before onboarding to SEI.
Review the following resources to learn about the features, components, and key concepts of Harness SEI.
- SEI overview: Learn about Harness SEI module and key features.
- SEI key concepts: Get definitions of common components and integrations you'll encounter in Harness SEI, such as Ingestion Satellite, Integrations, Insights, Collections, and more.
Step 2 - Create a sample project and invite collaborators
Projects, in addition to the roles they serve elsewhere in the Harness Platform, provide an umbrella for you to organize the Collection hierarchy and access Insights associated with specific Collections.
Collection categories and Collections exist under their associated project; they don't span across projects. While multiple projects can have Collection categories and Collections with the same name, these are distinct groups under their designated project.
Prerequisites
- Make sure you have the Create permissions for Project to create a Project.
Create a project
You can create Projects in custom Org from the projects section of Harness, or from within the default org. In this example, we'll create projects in default.
- In Harness, go to Home and click Projects.
- Click +Project.
- Name the project, and select a colour. The
IDof the project is generated automatically. See Harness Entity Reference. - In Organization, keep the org as
default. - Add a description and tags, and then click Save and Continue.
- In Invite Collaborators, type a member's name and select it.
- Select a role for the member, and click Add.
- Click Save and Continue to create the project.
Add modules
Next, select the Module selection icon at the top right in the Navigation menu.
- Select the Modules you want to use in your project. You can select more at any time.
- Close the modules and open your Project in projects or in the
defaultorganization. - When you open the project, all the modules are displayed.
- Pick the SEI module and you will automatically be redirected to the Integration Mapping page.
Project FAQs
Can I move resources between projects?
Harness does not support moving resources between projects or organizations at the moment.
What is the best way to decommission a project while retaining its history?
Harness recommends removing RBAC access to the project and only allowing users to view it or hiding it from most users. Admins are the only ones who can view configurations and deployment history in a project. Deleting a project will also delete its deployment history. To keep your history, it is better to leave the project available but block access and usage.
Is there a limit on how many orgs or projects I can create in my account?
There is no limitation on the number of projects that you can create in an account. For organizations, we recommend you to use the default organization while using SEI.
Phase 2: Single Sign-On (Automate onboarding of users from external sources)
You can automate the onboarding of users from external sources along with their user group memberships & role assignments.
Harness supports Single Sign-On (SSO) with SAML, LDAP (including Active Directory and OpenLDAP), and OAuth integrating with your SSO provider to enable you to log your users into Harness as part of your SSO infrastructure.
- Authentication overview
- Single Sign-On (SSO) with SAML
- Single Sign-On (SSO) with LDAP
- Single Sign-On (SSO) with OAuth
- Two-factor authentication
- Provision users and groups with Okta (SCIM)
- Provision users and groups using Microsoft Entra ID (SCIM)
- Provision users and groups with OneLogin (SCIM)
- Just-in-time user provisioning
API
Use the API quickstart to get started.
Phase 3: Integration Mapping
After you have created your project, you can begin setting up and mapping integrations as an Admin.
To learn more, go to Integration Mapping.
Integration Overview
To calculate metrics, you must integrate your SDLC tools with SEI. SEI integrations are handled through SEI integrations. SEI integrations contain the information necessary for the Harness Platform and modules to integrate and work with SDLC tools, such as Git providers, issue management systems, communication tools, and more.
Harness SEI supports integrations with both Cloud and On-Prem third-party tools. To learn more about the supported integrations on Harness SEI, go to What's Supported.
Cloud Integrations & On-Prem Integrations
SEI integrates with several third-party providers to provide centralized visibility on engineering work.
If you want to integrate SEI with your on-premise tools, you can use the Ingestion Satellite to configure the integration. Ingestion Satellite is used to integrate your on-premise tools and custom integrations into your SEI project.
It enables data ingestion and integration with various third-party applications and services. Satellites are configured while installing the SEI integrations in the integration configuration, within the Data Settings. Now we can configure the satellite for a supported, application-specific integration or a Custom CI/CD integration. SEI does not store satellite credentials.
To learn more about how to use the satellite to configure an integration, go to Ingestion Satellite.
You can also create custom CI/CD integration. Find the instructions to create a custom CI/CD integration on SEI here.
The required credentials and method of authentication vary with the integration type and the third-party tool. To learn more about how to configure the integration on SEI, refer to the integration-specific documentation.
Phase 4: Collection Setup
Collections are groupings representing subdivisions of a Collection category. By default, each Collection category has one root, or All, Collection. For example, the Teams category automatically has an All Teams Collection. Under the root Collection, you can create any number of Collections and Collection levels.
Review the following resources to learn more about Collection Categories and Collections hierarchy.
- Project and Collection Hierarchy: Learn about how the collection hierarchy is defined on Harness SEI
- Manage collection categories: Learn how you can add, view, edit, and enable/disable Collection categories
- Manage collections: Learn how you can add, view, edit, and manage Insight associations with a collection
- Manage contributors: Learn how to add contributors and configure the contributor attributes
Phase 5: Profiles Setup
A Profile in SEI represents an entity where users define a different set of metrics, criteria, or parameters. It is used to define their software development process that helps in measuring different aspects of software engineering performance, and productivity.
SEI provides 3 different types of profiles:
- Investment Profile / Business Alignment Profile: Business Alignment profiles help you understand where engineers are allocating their time through effort investment metrics. It is one of the most critical components of engineering metrics by connecting engineering to business value.
- Trellis Profile: The Trellis Scores feature on SEI provides a proprietary scoring mechanism to evaluate and understand your engineering team's productivity. The Trellis Profile is the entity that lets you customize the standards and thresholds for calculating the Trellis Score.
- Workflow Profile: Workflow profile is an entity in SEI where users define the stages, events, and measurement criteria to assess the entire development process lifecycle using Lead Time and DORA metrics. You can use these profiles to derive insights on the time taken to ship changes or the time taken for bug fixes to reach production etc.
Phase 6: Insights Creation
Insights are dashboards that make it easy to visualize and interpret metrics that are captured by SEI. With a variety of out-of-the-box widgets, you can create Insights that show the data you care about most and help you understand your engineering team's effectiveness and efficiency.
Create and Manage Insights
Review the following resources to learn more about creating and managing Insights.
- Create a new Insight
- Add reports to Insights
- Manage Insight association
- View Insight
- Explore Insight data
Tutorials
Phase 7: Role-Based Access Control
Harness RBAC includes Roles and Permissions that enable you to control access to the SEI resources in your Harness account.
Harness SEI has three built-in user roles:
- SEI Admin
- SEI Collection Admin
- SEI Viewer
Review the following resources to learn more about defining and managing access control on SEI module resources using Harness RBAC.
- SEI Roles and Permissions
- Manage access control for SEI Insights
- Manage access control for SEI Collections
- Manage access control for SEI Configuration Settings
Training & Knowledge
Find the list of demos for the latest Harness SEI features.
| Topic | Video | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Insights on Harness SEI | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| Role-Based Access Control on Harness SEI | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| Account Level Settings on Harness SEI | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| Project Level Settings on Harness SEI | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| Business Alignment 2.0 - BETA | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| Trellis Scores - Reimagined - BETA | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| DORA Metrics Explained | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| Dev Insight Explained | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| Sprints Insight Explained | Watch on YouTube | Click here |
| Collections Walkthrough | Watch on YouTube | Click here |