Engineering Metrics

Engineering metrics help a team see how its delivery system behaves. They turn a vague question, such as "Are changes getting safer and easier to deliver?", into evidence that the people doing the work can inspect together.

The useful unit is the system that produces software: the application or service, its delivery path, and the team responsible for it. A metric is not a ranking tool for individual engineers. It is a prompt for a conversation about constraints, trade-offs, and the next experiment.

Start with the decision

Do not collect a number because a dashboard can display it. Start with a decision:

• Where does a change wait before it reaches production?
• Did a release process change reduce recovery time?
• Are production failures creating unplanned work?
• Is a team making progress while remaining healthy and able to collaborate?