DeveloperWeek 2023

Jeremy Freeman, Co-Founder & CTO, Allstacks

As engineering leaders, there’s no doubt that creating, tracking, and reporting on engineering KPIs is important, for both the engineering team and the company as a whole. However, tracking the right metrics, establishing outcome-based KPIs, and wrangling data from disparate sources can be a challenge for many engineering-minded leaders. This talk will offer practical solutions to overcome these challenges and drive continuous improvement.

Traditional engineering-sourced KPIs often fall flat with non-technical senior leadership. To be effective, what you measure should matter to both the engineering team AND other executives. Output metrics, like velocity, merged PRs, and sprint success are essential for your team to track and improve on, but don’t map to key objectives. You should instead focus on metrics that bridge the gap, like roadmap attainment, app performance, user capacity for reporting out.

Key Takeaways
● How to develop and track the right engineering metrics and ensure they directly support overarching company goals
● How to create a single source of truth, benchmark efforts, and keep everyone aligned to work towards the highest level priorities
● How to use data to advocate for engineering needs, coach individuals and teams, and manage internal and external stakeholder expectations