Software metrics are essential for engineering leaders—they provide valuable insights to assess project performance and efficiency. But agreeing on key performance indicators (KPIs) can be tricky since different professionals have different perspectives on what really matters.
Our goal here is to highlight and break down the key metrics that help engineering leaders make better decisions and optimize their processes.
The Four Pillars of Software Metrics
To properly evaluate software projects, it’s crucial to analyze four key areas: workload, task delivery time, final output quality, and actual costs.
Workload refers to the number of tasks and activities completed by developers. Having a clear view of this helps engineering leaders spot bottlenecks and optimize resource allocation.
Task delivery time is about how fast teams can complete their work. Tracking this metric helps identify delays and implement strategies to improve project agility.
Final output quality covers aspects like stability, security, and usability. Keeping an eye on quality is crucial for user satisfaction and product success.
Actual costs involve the financial investment needed to develop, maintain, and enhance the software. Understanding these costs helps leaders make informed decisions about ROI and project feasibility.
Productivity and Efficiency Metrics
Productivity and efficiency metrics are key for assessing development team performance and spotting improvement opportunities. Some of the most relevant ones include merge request rate, throughput, and cycle time.
Merge request rate measures productivity and efficiency by comparing the number of monthly merge requests associated with projects and teams. This metric helps pinpoint bottlenecks in the development process and optimize resource allocation.
Throughput represents the number of pull requests merged over a given period, helping gauge workload volume and team efficiency.
Cycle time tracks the time from project start to delivery, revealing development speed and quality. Keeping tabs on cycle time is crucial to catching delays early and boosting project agility.
Quality and Performance Metrics
Beyond productivity and efficiency, it’s critical to track quality and performance metrics to ensure stable, secure, and high-quality software. Key indicators here include code churn, change failure rate, and review depth.
Code churn refers to how often code gets changed within a given period. High churn can signal instability, while low churn suggests a more stable and mature codebase.
Change failure rate is the percentage of code changes that result in issues like bugs or security flaws. This metric is crucial for assessing software reliability and quality.
Review depth measures how many reviews a team conducts over time. A high review depth means a more rigorous review process, which typically leads to better software quality.
Another crucial aspect of quality and performance is refactoring and technical debt. Technical debt is the cost of taking shortcuts in development, like temporary fixes or skipping tests. Refactoring is the process of restructuring code to improve quality and reduce technical debt.
Engineering leaders need to define an acceptable level of technical debt and involve both team members and business stakeholders in making decisions about it. This ensures the project maintains a healthy balance between quality and speed.
User Experience Metrics
User experience (UX) metrics are essential for understanding user satisfaction and software success.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely used metric that measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of them recommending the product. A high NPS means a positive user experience, while a low NPS signals room for improvement.
Beyond NPS, usability and accessibility metrics are also crucial to ensure the software is easy to use and accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities or limitations. Tracking these metrics helps identify areas that need improvement and ensures the software meets the needs of its target audience.
User satisfaction is a critical factor in software success. Software that meets user expectations is more likely to be adopted and recommended, which can drive customer growth and business success. That’s why engineering leaders should consistently monitor and prioritize UX metrics throughout the development process.
The Importance of Tracking the Right Metrics
Choosing and tracking the right metrics is key to aligning engineering leaders with business executives. This helps development teams focus on metrics that create customer value and align with company goals.
Avoid anti-KPIs like team velocity, lines of code, code commits, or completed Jira tickets—these don’t provide meaningful insights into the quality or value delivered to customers. Instead, focus on metrics that reflect efficiency, focus, and the actual impact of the development team’s work.
Metrics should be adjusted based on the organization’s goals and needs. This could mean tracking different metrics at various project stages or adapting existing ones based on business priorities.
