Why is KPI/OKR so difficult for developers?
At the beginning of the year, many developers fall into one common concern. It's KPI (Key Performance Indicator) and/or OKR (Objectives and Key Results) setting. It's unfamiliar, and it's just difficult to know what to set and how. It even causes a further disconnect with managers. Why is it so difficult?
Reasons for Difficulties in Setting KPI/OKR
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 debugging"? In reality, 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, a developer's 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 that task, you can more specifically measure the developer's individual KPI/OKR based on this.
KPI/OKR Management, Not Easy, But Possible
Of course, manually carrying out these records and management is not easy. But 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 a tool, you can effectively organize a developer's activities for a year and more clearly evaluate KPIs/OKRs.
Conclusion
A developer's KPI/OKR is not simply measured by numbers. It is more important to record contributions to the business, the value of the developed product, and your own growth process. To this end, it is essential to utilize tools that enable effective recording and management.
Why don't developers approach KPI/OKR not just as a burden, but as an opportunity to objectively confirm their performance and grow?
