Laws of Software Engineering · Principle
Principle
Leading and Lagging Indicators
Leading indicators predict future outcomes. Lagging indicators measure past outcomes. Use both, for different purposes.
How to use it. Lagging indicators, such as revenue, incidents, and satisfaction, tell you what happened. Leading indicators, such as pipeline, error rates, and engagement, tell you what is about to happen. You steer with leading indicators. You judge with lagging ones.
How it gets misused. Measuring only lagging indicators because they are easier. By the time the lagging indicator moves, the decision window is closed. The whole point of a leading indicator is that it gives you time to act.
Related
-
Law
DORA / Accelerate Findings
Four numbers predict whether a software organisation is performing well: how often you ship, how long changes take, how often changes break things, and how fast you recover when they do.
- Saying Vanity vs Actionable Metrics A vanity metric makes you feel good. An actionable metric changes a decision.
-
Pattern
Goodhart's Law
Once a measurement becomes a target, it stops being a useful measurement.
Clusters
- The Measurement cluster - How to measure without breaking the things you measure.