Velocity vs DORA Metrics

In the context of software engineering, let’s talk about why Velocity is an unhealthy metric to measure and why DORA metrics are better.

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Velocity

In software engineering, Velocity is often expressed as the rate of work completed per a certain amount of time. Number of lines of code, number of features, how much storage (in KB or MB) is the source code modified, etc.

velocity = work completed / time period

However, is that the suitable unit of measurement for software? Can you assume that everything created will bring you value? Are you certain there will be no bugs in any work generated? And will end users like any of the work produced?

The work we do as software engineers is intelligence work; we solve problems and try to delight the users by choosing the right solution to get the job done with a certain level of quality involves.

And as managers, is Velocity the metric we want to push team members to focus on without also caring about the quality of work? There are…