Metrics: Asset or Trap?

Software teams often chase numbers to feel safe. The focus here is which metrics guide better work and which mislead. Balanced pairs matter. Test pass rate with escaped defects or flaky tests. Mean time to recovery with reopen rate. Lead time to production with customer impact. One team, one number. Choose three or four KPIs, own them, and act. Metrics should spark stories and root cause analysis, not theater. Tests are a feedback loop, not a scoreboard. Product and engineering solve this together. Less counting, more learning. Fewer metrics bring sharper focus, better products, and calmer teams.

Podcast Episode: Metrics: Asset or Trap?

In this episode, I talk with Jani Grönman about KPIs for quality. We ask what to measure, and why. Jani shares pairs that keep teams honest. Test pass rate with escaped defects or flaky tests. Mean time to recovery with reopen rate. Lead time to production with customer impact. One team, one number. Keep it to three or four KPIs, own them, and act. We talk about agency at work and product sense. Your tests are not a scoreboard. They are a feedback loop. Bring product and engineering together, do root cause analysis. I left inspired to pick fewer numbers, tell stories, and ship with care.

"If you cannot measure what you change, it's really hard to lead the change and it's really hard to understand are you doing something right or should you try something else?" - Jani Grönman

Jani works as a Managing Partner at Hidden Trail, his mission being turning quality from a cost into competitive advantage. Hidden Trail is a Digital Product Quality consultancy with clients in Scandinavia, Central Europe and the Americas. In Hidden Trail Jani leads advisory and transformation projects that tackle complex quality related development needs within his client companies. This means working with teams, management, product people, developers and testers to recognize where their product quality comes from and how to make it a tangible asset. Jani has 20+ years experience in software industry, during which he has worked with many teams in managerial, development and quality related roles. Jani firmly believes that quality means business!

Highlights der Episode

• Pair KPIs to prevent gaming and reveal tradeoffs
• Test pass rate means little without escaped defects and flakiness data
• Connect lead time and MTTR with customer impact and reopen rate
• Keep three to four team KPIs and act on them
• Treat tests as a feedback loop, not a scoreboard

Turning Metrics into Meaning: KPIs and Quality Transformation in Software Teams

Metrics and KPIs have long held a central place in software development and testing, but not all metrics are created equal. In the Software Testing Unleashed episode "metrics-kpi", host Richie and guest Jani Grönman explore how teams can make metrics meaningful—turning piles of numbers into real progress toward quality and business goals. In this blog, we’ll dig deeper into their discussion, exploring which metrics matter, how to choose and balance them, and why team ownership is key to driving change.

Why Have KPIs in Software Projects?

Every improvement begins with a target. As Jani Grönman points out, KPIs—Key Performance Indicators—aren’t just buzzwords; they’re business tools for tracking the progress of critical changes. Whether you’re a consulting partner or part of an internal team, change is a constant in modern software organizations. Jani Grönman emphasizes that "if you cannot measure what you change, it’s really hard to lead the change" (Jani Grönman, 00:03:44).

KPIs guide teams, keep everyone focused, and provide direct feedback on whether improvements are working. But the catch? Not all metrics actually help, and some can even backfire if used in isolation.

Beyond the Numbers: Pitfalls of Quantity-Driven Metrics

It’s tempting to reach for familiar numbers. Test case count? Unit test coverage? They’re so easy to report, and they look impressive on a dashboard. Yet, as Richie and Jani Grönman discuss, focusing on these quantitative measures alone opens the door to "gaming" the system.

Richie shares an all-too-common experience—teams putting "100% unit test coverage" in the Definition of Done, but neglecting the quality of those tests (Richie, 00:06:33). When teams are rewarded purely for output, quantity can trump quality. Jani Grönman points out that to avoid this, every KPI should be paired with a counter-metric—a second measure that balances the first and helps ensure teams don’t optimize for the wrong thing.

For instance, measuring bug fix speed is good, but pair it with a "reopen rate" metric, which tracks how often issues come back. Quick fixes that don’t last aren’t real fixes.

Pairing Metrics: Balancing Quality and Speed

How do you create a balanced set of metrics? Jani Grönman suggests not just tracking test pass rates or coverage, but also escape defect rates (bugs that made it to production) and flaky test rates. This dual approach keeps teams honest and highlights quality improvements over raw numbers.

Another powerful concept is "one team, one number"—encouraging cross-functional teams to rally around shared outcomes. Business-facing KPIs, like "time spent listening" (for Spotify) or "nights booked" (for Airbnb), unite developers, testers, and product managers with a common goal and a clear line of sight into customer satisfaction.

Making High-Level Metrics Actionable for Teams

A challenge surfaces when abstract business outcomes feel far away from daily work. As Richie notes, it’s hard for someone writing or automating test cases to connect with metrics like customer happiness or time-to-production (Richie, 00:21:05). Jani Grönman recommends involving the whole team—especially those who are curious about the "why"—in defining and understanding these KPIs. Bringing product people into technical discussions, and vice versa, helps bridge the gap.

Ownership and agency matter. When teams participate in defining the metrics, they’re more likely to care about improving them. Jani Grönman advocates not just dictating measures from above, but collaborating: "If you can build a spirit in the team that they kind of care about their metrics...that's like a win-win situation."

The Art of Choosing the Right Metrics

How many metrics are enough? Not too many. Jani Grönman advises keeping it simple—"don’t set more than three or four KPI metrics per team." Validate each metric: Is it understandable? Balanced? Owned by someone who acts on it? Metrics should prompt improvement, not just reporting.

He also notes that metrics are meaningless if you measure and never act. Unused metrics are just noise. Make sure every KPI feeds back into decisions or learning.

Metrics as a Vehicle for Change

Ultimately, the best KPIs aren’t just tracking tools—they’re fuel for team motivation and transformation. By pairing quantity with quality, involving the team, and focusing on customer impact, software professionals can use metrics to drive real, sustainable improvements. As this episode of Software Testing Unleashed shows, metrics aren’t the goal—they’re the guideposts on the path to better software and happier users.