Engineering metrics for Board/C-level
This LinkedIn post hurt 😅:
The metrics they create for engineering help them convey to the board and to the other non technical department how engineering is helping the business move forward, how engineering is adding value. Not what the DORA metrics say without any relationship to what the company is trying to achieve.
As a huge DORA fan, I am hurt that DORA is not the pinnacle of clarity that I want it be, especially since I have it on the deck I present the board each quarter.
The fact is that Adelina Chalmers is right. The language of business is accounting and engineering performance should be ultimately connectable to bottom line impact. If it can't, there is a disconnect which will ultimately lead to a rough wake up call.
So what can we use instead? A similar question was asked in the CTO Craft slack. Here is my take, straight off the top of my head (so probably still a bit rough).
Considering that a C-Level/Board would be talking at the level of impact, we need to consider different axes:
- pure engineering metrics: DORA
- value stream performance: cycle time (from first commit to completion, or even better if it can be tracked from commitment to delivery)
- business impact: such as feature adoption rate, generated revenue by product/line
- spend allocation: bugs, revenue generating, revenue protecting