Evaluate a model

Backtest results provide you with a summary of model performance in a specified timeframe. This can be used to measure model performance on a separate time range from that used in training, or also over time to check for performance degradation.

How to backtest

To create a BacktestResult resource, see Create and manage backtest results.

In particular, you need to select the following:

  • The data to use for backtesting:

    Specify a dataset and an end time within the date range of the dataset.

    Training uses labels and features based on complete calendar months up to, but not including, the month of the selected end time. For more information, see Dataset time ranges.

    Specify how many months of labeled data to use for backtesting (that is, the number of backtest periods).

  • A model created using a consistent dataset:

    See Configure an engine.

Backtest periods

The backtestPeriods field specifies how many consecutive calendar months to use features and labels from in the performance evaluation of this model.

The following apply to backtest data:

  • The months used in evaluation are the most recent complete calendar months prior to the specified endTime. For example, if endTime is 2023-04-03T23:21:00Z and backtestPeriods is 5, then the labels from the following months are used: 2023-03, 2023-02, 2023-01, 2022-12, and 2022-11.
  • You should use the most recent available data for backtesting when evaluating a model in preparation for production use.

  • Backtest periods must be set to 3 or greater. Two months of the backtest period are reserved to account for repeat alerts, and the remaining months are used to generate positive labels for performance evaluation.

  • Avoid using overlapping months for training and backtesting as this risks overfitting. Make sure backtest and training end times are at least backtestPeriods apart. That is,

    (backtest results end time month) >= (model end time month) + backtestPeriods

Optionally, you can also create prediction results for a model and conduct your own party-level analyses of model performance.

Backtest output

The backtest results metadata contains the following metrics. In particular, these metrics show you the following:

  • How the model performs compared to labels from a separate time period and for a variety of different investigation volumes or risk score thresholds

  • Any large changes in which feature families the dataset supports (between engine tuning, training, evaluation, and prediction)

Metric name Metric description Example metric value
ObservedRecallValues Recall metric measured on the dataset specified for backtesting. The API includes 20 of these measurements, at different operating points, evenly distributed from 0 (not included) until 2 * partyInvestigationsPerPeriodHint. The API adds a final recall measurement at partyInvestigationsPerPeriodHint. 
{
  "recallValues": [
    {
      "partyInvestigationsPerPeriod": 5000,
      "recallValue": 0.80,
      "scoreThreshold": 0.42,
    },
    ...
    ...
    {
      "partyInvestigationsPerPeriod": 8000,
      "recallValue": 0.85,
      "scoreThreshold": 0.30,
    },
  ],
}
Missingness

Share of missing values across all features in each feature family.

Ideally, all AML AI feature families should have a Missingness near to 0. Exceptions may occur where the data underlying those feature families is unavailable for integration.

A significant change in this value for any feature family between tuning, training, evaluation, and prediction can indicate inconsistency in the datasets used. 

{
  "featureFamilies": [
    {
      "featureFamily": "unusual_wire_credit_activity",
      "missingnessValue": 0.00,
    },
    ...
    ...
    {
      "featureFamily": "party_supplementary_data_id_3",
      "missingnessValue": 0.45,
    },
  ],
}
Skew

Metrics showing skew between training and prediction or backtest datasets. Family skew indicates changes in the distribution of feature values within a feature family, weighted by importance of the feature within that family. Max skew indicates the maximum skew of any feature within that family.

Skew values range from 0, representing no significant change in the distribution of values of features in the family, to 1 for the most significant change. A large value for either family skew or max skew indicates a significant change in the structure of your data in a way that may impact model performance. Family skew takes the value -1 when no features in the family are used by the model.

For large skew values, you should do one of the following:

  • Investigate changes in the data used by that feature family (see model governance support materials) and fix any input data issues
  • Retrain a model on more recent data

You should set thresholds for acting on family and max skew values based on observing the natural variation in skew metrics over several months. 

{
  "featureFamilies": [
    {
      "featureFamily": "unusual_wire_credit_activity",
      "familySkewValue": 0.10,
      "maxSkewValue": 0.14,
    },
    ...
    ...
    {
      "featureFamily": "party_supplementary_data_id_3",
      "familySkewValue": 0.11,
      "maxSkewValue": 0.11,
    },
  ],
}