from Hacker News

Software Engineer KPIs: Good, Bad, or Just Unintended Consequences?

by heymijo on 1/23/25, 1:16 PM with 1 comments

I'm curious to hear from those in the trenches:

What KPIs are you measured against?

Where would you rank them on the spectrum from: measurement theater > ok > super effective?

This was prompted by running across Adam Thompson’s 2018 paper about KPIs that takes a systems approach to measurement.

I’d definitely like to hear from other devs, but it’s also cool to hear from people in any field or role.

P.S. If you want to read the article, search "KPIs that break silos: more Goldratt Gold Adam Thompson" and you'll find the PDF.

  • by perrygeo on 1/23/25, 1:39 PM

    I really like that paper's emphasis on overall throughput. KPIs used this way are effective. Measure what matters.

    Too often you get in a game of setting up metrics silos for everyone to operate independently, and there are non-linear, emergent effects to this silo behavior.

    You have to keep you head up and pay attention to how the system is actually behaving. POSIWID.

    > make sure at a minimum that the measures are not encouraging local optimums

    Pretty much sums it up for me.