Engineering Metrics a CEO Should Track (and Ones to Ignore)

The problem with “are we on track?”

Non-technical leaders often judge engineering by how busy the team looks or by whether the last deadline was hit. Neither tells you whether delivery is healthy. A handful of consistent measures, reviewed weekly, gives a far better picture. It also leads to a better conversation with the team.

Metrics worth tracking

The first four are widely known as the DORA metrics and are well researched. Trends matter more than any single number.

• How often you release to customers: frequent, small releases usually mean lower risk
• Lead time: how long a typical change takes from agreed to live
• Change failure rate: how often a release causes an incident or rollback
• Time to recover: how quickly the team restores service when something breaks
• Planned vs delivered: whether the team’s commitments are realistic, measured over several weeks

Metrics to ignore

These are easy to inflate and say little about value delivered. Using them as targets usually makes the real situation worse.

• Lines of code or number of commits
• Hours worked
• Story points compared between teams
• Percentage of time “utilised”

Pair numbers with product outcomes

Delivery metrics show whether the engine runs well, not whether it is going in the right direction. Review them alongside a few product measures (activation, retention, or revenue from new features) so engineering is judged on outcomes as well as speed.

Getting started

Most of these numbers can be pulled from tools the team already uses: source control, the deployment pipeline, and the incident log. An engineering lead or fractional CTO can set them up in days and agree with the team how they will be used. The point is improvement, not blame.