Top 15 KPIs That Keep Software Project on Track

While overall lead time gives you a high-level view of performance, it’s an early warning system. Use it as your signal, then dig deeper into other metrics to pinpoint specific process inefficiencies.

For most teams and projects, 70-80% is a healthy target and what you should aim for. Google calls 60% acceptable, 75% commendable, and 90% exemplary. Safety-critical systems often target 90%+ coverage, sometimes by regulation for specific coverage types.

But don’t chase 100%. Some code is hard or meaningless to test. Filling your suite with trivial tests wastes time and breeds confidence. Instead, focus on meaningful coverage. Test critical paths, complex logic, boundary conditions, and code that changes frequently. Use coverage as one quality signal, not as a standalone target. Combine it with other quality indicators like defect density and code churn rate to get the full picture.

Trends matter more than any single number. Track whether your defect density is rising or falling between releases. Many defects trace back to unclear requirements, design flaws, or frequent changes. Find the pattern, and you’ll find the root cause.

High churn is normal in new projects or during big refactors. Sustained high churn after the first release, especially in the same modules, is a red flag. That often points to unclear requirements, poor design decisions, or code that’s difficult to maintain.

Use churn to pinpoint trouble spots. Look for files or components that keep changing, and compare churn against your defect data:

• High churn + many defects = quality problems
• High churn + few defects = improvement in progress
• Low churn + more bugs = stagnation, rising technical debt

Your goal shouldn’t be zero churn. In fact, that’s a myth. However, when churn stays high without reason, you’re not improving, you’re redoing. Track it to see where your codebase needs attention and where your team’s effort improves quality.

There is no single perfect number for this metric, but there’s always a threshold. Most healthy teams keep their TDR between 5% and 10%, maintaining strong delivery speed and code quality. However, once the ratio crosses 20%, it signals deeper issues that need attention and planning.

Context also matters. Startups building quickly can live with higher ratios while chasing growth. Mature products benefit from keeping debt lower to protect stability and long-term performance. To manage TDR effectively:

• Track it with tools like SonarQube or CodeClimate
• Review trends, instead of snapshots
• Link cleanup to sprint goals and roadmap planning
• Balance new features with systematic refactoring

Technical debt will always exist, and is not an enemy. Neglect is. Plan debt cleanup into your normal sprints. The goal is controlled debt, not zero. When you treat debt reduction as ongoing maintenance, you keep your codebase healthy and predictable.

Code security keeps sensitive data confidential everywhere it counts. Access controls, encryption, and regular code audits aren’t checklists. They’re security habits baked into every commit to prevent breaches, data theft and other malicious activities. By implementing those, developers can create a formidable barrier against cyber threats.

Moreover, secure code is a prerequisite for compliance. Industries under compliance pressure (finance, healthcare, government) have zero tolerance for weak links. Adherence to these standards not only avoids potential legal penalties but also signals to customers that the software is reliable and safe to use.

When written right, good documentation can significantly slash onboarding time for new developers and close the knowledge gap between team members.

For businesses, high-quality code documentation is a game-changer. It ensures that the technical details and complexities of the software are accessible and understandable. Proper documentation facilitates smoother transitions when team members change, as the knowledge is preserved and transferable.

Elite teams consistently ship changes in less than a day. High performers average less than a week. Low performers can take months. The difference usually comes down to automation, pipeline efficiency, and how teams manage approvals and handoffs. Short lead times let you react quickly to new requirements and bugs. When you can deploy a fix within hours, you stay close to customer needs and ahead of competitors.

To shorten lead time for changes:

• Automate deployments
• Remove unnecessary manual approvals
• Break large features into smaller deployable units
• Improve test reliability

Fast, confident delivery depends on smooth automation and smart process design. The goal is not speed alone, but confidence in every release.

According to the 2024 DORA report:

• Elite teams deploy several times a day
• High performers deploy daily or weekly
• Medium performers deploy once or twice a month
• Low performers release less than once a month

Higher deployment frequency usually leads to better project outcomes. Teams that deploy often make smaller, safer changes. They catch issues faster and learn from user feedback sooner. In contrast, slow cycles delay learning and increase the risk that changes pile up.

To increase deployment frequency:

• Automate your testing and release process
• Using continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines
• Manage infrastructure as code to cut manual steps
• Keep pull requests small and review cycles short

Automation has made frequent deployment the new standard. Most teams now automate a large share of DevOps tasks. But again, speed alone isn’t the goal. The best teams release often while keeping quality high and change failure rates low.

Generally, elite performers maintain a CFR of 0-10%. High performers fall between 11-22%, while low performers exceed failure rates of 23%. Low failure rates don’t just mean fewer outages. They reflect better testing, cleaner requirements, and disciplined processes.

To lower change failure rate:

• Improve automated test coverage
• Use feature flags for safer rollouts
• Mirror tests in staging environments and production
• Run automated integration tests on every release
• Hold post-incident reviews to find and fix root causes

The goal is not to eliminate all failures, that’s impossible. Deploy often, detect fast and recover faster. Robust QA processes, gradual rollouts, orchestration tools, and redundant safeguards are prerequisites to keep production stable and low production failure rates.

If we look back again at the 2024 DORA report:

• Elite teams recover in less than one hour
• High performers take less than a day
• Low performers can take months

The difference comes from visibility, automation, and how prepared the team is when things go wrong. Fast recovery limits the impact on customers and keeps your business operations running. The faster you fix a production issue, the smaller the damage.

You can improve MTTR with real-time monitoring and alerts. Also, enable automated rollback for failed deployments. Treat every incident as a learning opportunity, and make sure to have concrete incident management procedures in place.

● Define clear objectives: Every KPI needs a purpose. Tie each one to a specific business or engineering outcome. If goals are vague, teams don’t understand what they’re aiming for and leaders can’t properly assess progress.

● Implement a mix of leading and lagging indicators: Incorporate both indicators to get a comprehensive overview and anticipate future trends.

● Establish baselines and targets: Establish baseline values for each KPI first, then set realistic targets based on historical data, industry standards, and objectives to provide clear direction and motivation for improvements.

● Provide regular feedback: Review metrics regularly and make it visible to stakeholders. Use KPI data to hold individuals and teams accountable for their performance and outcomes, promoting a culture of transparency.

● Collaboration over control: KPIs should work with your team, not against them. Frame them as tools for support and personal growth, not surveillance. Encourage the sharing of insights, lessons learned, and best practices related to KPI performance to facilitate organizational knowledge and improvement.

● Choose the right KPI tools: Spreadsheets and manual tracking processes don’t scale. Use engineering intelligence platforms that surface insights, connect existing tools, and contextualize trends.

But metrics without people can’t move teams. The goal isn’t to chase isolated numbers, but to create a balanced, high-trust culture where developers thrive and users get value fast. With the right KPIs and a thoughtful approach to improvement, you can achieve both objectives and lead your team to sustained success.

Looking to sharpen your delivery systems and maximize your team’s efficiency? Start with a software development audit. Our experts will help you identify improvement areas, optimize workflows, and align your KPIs with real business outcomes.

Contact us today to turn insight into measurable success.