Compound Metrics
Part of The PIRATE Way — Stories about scaling up engineering teams.
Compound Metrics: Empowering a holistic view
While individual metrics can offer granular insights, they might sometimes paint an incomplete or even misleading picture when viewed in isolation. This is where compound metrics come into play. These metrics, derived by combining or comparing multiple individual metrics, offer a more holistic view of performance or health. They allow organizations to balance trade-offs, gain nuanced insights, and prioritize initiatives.
Imagine a software team that heavily prioritizes deployment frequency. They push out multiple features in a week. But, without balancing this metric against the number of bugs or system downtimes, the team could be unknowingly compromising software quality and user experience. This anecdote underscores the critical role of compound metrics in preventing skewed focuses.
One side effect when you solely focus on a single metric is that you can inadvertently drive the wrong behaviors within teams, and the repercussions might remain invisible until significant damage has been done.
It’s not merely about combining metrics; it’s about understanding the delicate balance between two potentially conflicting indicators and optimizing them simultaneously for the best outcomes.
Here are a few compound metrics examples, showcasing the importance of maintaining equilibrium between various areas:
Deployment Errors Ratio:
- Definition: The ratio of deployments with errors to total deployments.
- Impact: Encourages teams to optimize for both speed (deployments) and stability (fewer errors). A lower ratio indicates healthier software delivery practices.
Deployments vs. Critical Incidents (P0 or P1):
- Definition: Compare the frequency of deployments against the number of critical incidents (P0 or P1) that arise post-deployment.
- Impact: Similar to the Deployment Errors Ratio, this metric encourages teams to optimize both for speed (frequent deployments) and stability (minimized critical incidents). It emphasizes the importance of ensuring that rapid releases do not compromise the system’s overall health, especially concerning high-severity issues.
Lead Time vs. Change Failure Rate:
- Definition: Compare the time it takes for a commit to get to production (lead time) against the rate at which changes fail.
- Impact: Helps teams balance between delivering features quickly and ensuring high-quality releases.
Frequency of Deployments vs. Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR):
- Definition: Compare how often you deploy versus how quickly you can recover from a failure.
- Impact: Encourages both frequent releases and the capability to quickly address any issues arising from those releases.
If you’re considering implementing compound metrics in your organization, begin with just one. Monitor its impact, adjust based on observations, and as your organization grows more adept, consider adding more compound metrics to your monitoring portfolio.
Similarly, if you’re contemplating a significant change in your way of working, approach it incrementally. For instance, if you aim to embrace continuous deployment, monitor the Deployment Errors Ratio as a gauge to assess the impact of the transition. Adopting such a step-by-step method allows for more effective evaluations, timely adjustments, and ensures that your team is aligned and ready for the next phase of improvements.
To effectively derive and monitor these metrics, you’ll often need data from multiple tools. This is where our discussion in the section Essential Tooling for Ensuring Quality and Effective Delivery becomes pivotal.
In conclusion, while individual metrics offer valuable insights into specific areas, compound metrics provide the broader, balanced perspective crucial for holistic growth and improvement. As technology leaders, it’s our responsibility to ensure we’re not just meeting numbers but genuinely enhancing every performance aspect — and compound metrics pave the way for that balanced growth.
Remember: This is a blog post from the series “The PIRATE Way”.
