OKRs for Software Developers

The Objectives and Key Results framework is a goal-setting methodology that helps teams define a clear set of measurable goals for the quarter. It focuses on outcomes rather than outputs, and it's a great way for software development teams to simplify communications with stakeholders. Instead of discussing how a certain project needs to be delivered, the team and the leadership can focus on why such project is required, and what impact is expected.

When done right, OKRs empower teams to own their roadmap with a clear set of objectives to achieve.

There are also many similarities between best practices in software development and best practices with OKRs. You want to have fast feedback loops and work in small increments to make sure that your efforts are producing the right results.

We'll see in this guide some tips to help you write good OKRs, as well as some specific examples for developers.

How to write Software Development OKRs

Step 1. Knowing the difference between OKRs vs. Projects

The biggest change for developers adopting OKRs is to switch their commitment away from the backlog to focus on the goals defined at the start of the quarter.

To do that, it is essential to understand the difference between Objectives, Key Results, and projects:

• Objectives: what do we want to achieve next quarter?
• Key Results: how are we going to measure progress?
• Projects/Initiatives: what are our best bets to get there?

A common mistake is to start listing all your existing initiatives as Key Results. It's quite tempting as these projects are important, but your OKRs should not be a different representation of your roadmap. 

A good Objective should be inspiring and easy to understand by anyone in your org. You can be more specific in the Key Results, but the Objectives should give a clear idea of the expected impact at the end of the quarter.

A good Key Result should help you measure progress toward your Objective. A good test is to ask, "would we do things differently if this KR goes off-track?". If the answer is negative, then you need to refine your OKR.

Finally, your projects or initiatives are bets that you make to achieve your OKRs. Some will work—double down on it. Some will fail, and it should be okay to stop and move on to the next idea.

Step 2. Pick 2-3 focus areas

The next step is to pick the correct focus for the quarter. Here are some examples that apply to Software Development:

• Reliability: ensure that the service always works as expected.
• Usability: improve existing features to make the platform intuitive.
• Functionality: deliver new capabilities.
• Security: improve existing protection, and add new safeguards to protect customers.
• Performance: make sure that your application is responsive and scalable.
• Dev speed: invest in your development cycle for faster releases.

Once you have your theme in place, you can go further and turn them into inspiring statements for the team. They'll become the starting point of your OKRs.

Step 3. Write your plan

Once you've narrowed your focus, you can start writing your OKRs. You'll see some examples below, and here's a complete guide on OKRs if you're just getting started.

Example of OKRs for Software Developers

OKRs to reduce technical debt

OKRs to accelerate release cycles

OKRs to launch a successful mobile application

OKRs for better software performance and reliability

OKRs to increase code quality

OKRs to attain great security standards

OKRs to migrate to a new technology