[peacemaker]

Counting lines of code is definitely not a useful metric, however, you can extract a lot of information via the Github API that I believe can help with managing a tech team. It's exactly why I created getdevinsight.com as I think too many managers rely on bad metrics like lines of code and we can do better.

[norswap]

Perhaps one should look at the work being done instead of "relying on metrics"? Just a suggestion...

[posedge]

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure" - Goodheart's law.

Give people a metric - any metric - and they will (conciously or otherwise) start optimizing that instead of the actual goal.

[peacemaker]

Easier said than done when you've a large, busy team to manage alongside lots of other work.

Besides, if you're a non-technical leader it can be difficult to understand how things are going unless you have some kind of metrics to track.