Essential Metrics for Engineering Success

Engineering Metrics That Matter — Certo
certo.
MissionRestore continuous feedback to engineering.
CategoryHardware Independence Platform
ProblemHardware interrupts engineering feedback.

Engineering metrics that matter

Metric 01

Engineering Feedback Latency (EFL)

The time between making an engineering change and being able to fully test it.

EFL doesn’t measure how long a test takes to run — it measures how long an engineer waits before the change becomes testable at all. Every hour spent waiting for hardware, an environment, or another team is an hour added to EFL, whether or not any testing has started.

Metric 02

Engineering Wait Time (EWT)

The percentage of engineering time lost waiting instead of building.

EWT doesn’t ask why engineers are waiting — only that they are. It’s a measure of trapped capacity: hours that exist on the org chart but aren’t available to the roadmap.

Largest known contributor
Hardware Wait Time (HWT)
The share of EWT specifically caused by hardware — waiting for prototypes, board revisions, lab access, or hardware verification. For most teams building hardware-dependent products, HWT is the single biggest piece of EWT.

Engineering Feedback Assessment

v0.1

We’re developing a way of measuring EFL and EWT in hardware-constrained teams. We don’t think the industry has a standard way to estimate these yet — this assessment is our first attempt. We’d genuinely value your feedback on whether it reflects your experience.

This version currently estimates from
  • Prototype / hardware turnaround
  • Hardware availability
  • Pre-hardware testability
  • Integration cadence
  • Lab / test-unit contention
These weightings are provisional. The metric definitions above are stable; this model is not — see the changelog below.
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
No email required. Runs entirely in your browser. Estimate, not a measurement.
Estimated EFL
— days
Estimated EWT
—%

Model changelog
v0.1 — Initial release. Five-question model, provisional weights, published in the open.

Certo exists to improve both.

These are metrics we believe engineering organizations should be measuring — with or without Certo.
Engineering metrics, defined in the open. certos.io

Discover more from Certo Systems

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Share the Post:

Related Posts