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The Best Software Development KPIs To Track Your Team Performance

Managing a software development team can be challenging, especially if you’re working with remote nearshore developers across multiple different projects.

That’s why it’s important to establish certain software development metrics to measure the success of your coding team and the results of your development efforts.

There are different key performance indicators that are great for software development teams, and at Next Idea Tech, we have a good number of favorites to recommend. Keep reading to learn all about the best software development KPIs!

8 KPIs for software development to take your coding to the next level

Lead Time:

This software development metric measures how long it takes for the software development team to turn an idea into a complete coding product.

This can either be from the moment a client asked for a particular product or you asked your team to complete a certain project.

It takes into account the time it takes for the task or idea to actually be created. This software development KPIis very popular with teams that use the Agile methodology.

Cumulative Flow:

Why Latin America is the Future of Software Development

The Cumulative Flow KPI visually shows you the state of your coding projects through a colorful diagram like the one depicted above.

The great thing about this software development KPI is that you can track the different stages of several tasks at once. By separating them into clear states – like to do, WIP, and done – it’s easier to track the progress and differentiate the areas that need improvement.

Cycle Time:

Cycle Time is one of the software development KPIs that measures how long it takes your software team to complete a project once they have actually started working on it.

This metric separates the time the task is spent on the to-do queue from the hours spent working on it. Through this methodology, you can test your developer’s productivity levels for each project.

It also helps you analyze how much time passes between the start of a software modification and the delivery of that shift into the coding production.

This KPI for software development it’s usually included within Leadtime but it’s worth considering on its own if you have to track multiple software system changes at once.

Velocity in Agile Sprints:

Velocity is a KPI for software development that shows just much an Agile development team can deliver on a single work sprint.

This metric measures two key factors: the work the team delivered on past and present springs and how much it took them to deliver those results.

While it might be tempting to use this software development KPI to compare the performance of different Agile development teams, Velocity works best as an internal measure.

Use it to analyze your team’s improvements over time and plan what projects to have them work on next.

Defect Escape Rate:

A few software development KPIs help you keep track of bugs, but Defect Escape Rate is the one we recommend the most for remote development teams.

Unlike time-based KPIs, this metric is a number-based KPI that counts how many bugs escape testing into coding production.

This metric can simply be measured by running software tests on a daily basis, which can help your entire software system become more effective.

If you discover a repeated type of bug that keeps slipping into production, you should assign resources to the issues as soon as possible.

Open/close Rate:

This is one of the particular KPIs for Agile software development teams, as it measures the production performance of the team’s sprints. It’s an easy calculation, all you need to do is count how many issues are reported and closed in one session.

The ideal scenario is for this rate to decrease over time, as your team’s expertise increases and they fine-tune their skills and group dynamic.

Code Churn:

Code churn is a KPI for software engineering that measures the stability of every piece of code the team produces. How does that work?

Monitoring how often a certain piece of code gets edited or receives a modification, which is usually not a good sign. If your development team needs to constantly rewrite code, it means they’re running a high-maintenance, high-risk system.

It’s best to avoid that situation and keep track of the code stability through code churn KPIs for software development.

MTBF and MTTR:

Two key production software development KPIs measure your software system’s overall performance. MTBF means Mean Time Between failures and MTTR stands for Mean Time To Recover.

They keep track of software failures and how well your systems recover from them. If you need to evaluate the efficiency and performance of your software maintenance team, this is a key metric to have.

Do you need help building a team of high-powered software developers?

While software development KPIs are great for measuring the success of your coding efforts, you first need a proficient team of developers ready to complete projects within a rapid timeframe.

The best way to hire developers quickly is through staff augmentation, as it helps you find talented nearshore developers ready to deploy.

At Next Idea Tech, we have a signature technical vetting process that helps North American companies find remote developers with great experience and high English proficiency. Contact us today to learn more about our services!

Sol Dieguez

Sol Natalia Dieguez is an Argentinian writer born in Buenos Aires. Her love for writing flourished from a young age, just as did her passion for the English language. She is currently in her senior year of the Bachelor of Arts in Media and Entertainment Management and works as a copywriter. You can always trust to find her amidst carefully crafted words, whether they come from a technical article, a poem, a blog post, or a short story.