Why is KPI/OKR so difficult for developers?
At the beginning of the year, many developers face a common concern. It's KPI (Key Performance Indicator) and/or OKR (Objectives and Key Results) setting. It's unfamiliar, and it's difficult to know what to set and how. It even causes a greater disconnect with managers. Why is it so difficult?
Reasons for Difficulties in Setting KPIs/OKRs
The reason is the nature of development work. Generally, businesses establish annual goals and plans, and accordingly, they deliver requests for new feature development or modifications to the development team. However, development work has the characteristic that it cannot plan everything from the beginning and proceed.
For example, is it appropriate to set simple goals like "10 new features, 100 debuggings"? Realistically, if the business cannot accurately define all development details for a year, it is almost impossible for developers to set clear KPIs accordingly.
So, should developers not manage KPIs/OKRs?
That's not the case. Rather, developers' KPI/OKR management becomes an important record of how effectively they have supported the business and what products they have developed.
What's important in this process is recording and managing past development work. If you clearly organize the developed features and improvements, the goals of each task, the key results, and your role in the task, you can more specifically measure the developer's individual KPIs/OKRs based on this.
KPI/OKR Management, Not Easy, But Possible
Of course, manually performing these records and management is not easy. However, if you use an efficient tool that allows you to view developers' tasks and development details by developer, by task, and by period, the story changes. By utilizing such tools, you can effectively organize the developer's activities for a year and evaluate KPIs/OKRs more clearly.
Conclusion
Developers' KPIs/OKRs are not simply measured by numbers. It is more important to record the contribution to the business, the value of the developed product, and the process of their own growth. To this end, it is essential to utilize tools that enable effective recording and management.
How about developers approaching KPIs/OKRs not just as a burden, but as an opportunity to objectively confirm their performance and grow?