[Feature] Cumulated metric starting from another metric #1853
Description
Is this your first time submitting a feature request?
- I have read the expectations for open source contributors
- I have searched the existing issues, and I could not find an existing issue for this feature
- I am requesting a straightforward extension of existing metricflow functionality, rather than a Big Idea better suited to a discussion
Describe the feature
At the moment, it is not possible to create a cumulative metric on another metric but only on measures. This is a limitation and forces the users to create complex measures, creating code redundancy.
Let me give a real example. In SaaS companies that sell subscriptions, one of the main metric is the ARR and its variations, usually grouped in ARR Expansions and ARR Contractions. These are metrics, by nature, that should be cumulated other time and are, therefore, composed by metrics defined on top of measures with aggegation function "sum".
It is important ARR Expansions and Contractions are defined as metrics because they are both composed by many components (Contractions can come from amendments, churns, early terminations, etc and each of these metrics could be untangled again in finer metrics) and we want to see in the DAG how these metrics are built.
Now, there are a number of complex metrics that rely on either Expansions or Contractions or both. Some of them might need to pre-aggregate the value of Contractions over a year. Example: Gross Dollar Retention Rate, that is explained in this ticket: #1850.
Since we need to calculate, for every metric_time value, the cumulate effect of the contractions over the past year, a cumulated metric has to be created.
Since this metric can not be calculated starting from another metric (ideally, ARR Contractions), we need to create a measure that is actually the same as Contractions, just to be used to calculate the cumulated metric used in the GDRR definition.
Describe alternatives you've considered
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Who will this benefit?
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Are you interested in contributing this feature?
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Anything else?
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