[xtracto]

I hate them as a head of Engineering at 2 startups that scaled until the moment when the CEO decided that we needed to set OKRs for people.

Software eng. Teams objectives are basically to build the stuff that goes in the backlog. If it's not in the backlog, it wont happen. Developers are always in a rush to finalize whatever is in the backlog so theres seldomly time to pay the technical debt required to "improve " So the OKRs y started using was: we are going to build the shit that product throws at us plus the fires that Customer support throws at us plus whatever stupid thing Sales promised to the next large customer to close the deal.

Whenever business things that performance, security or availability are features that need to be improved, they'll put it in the backlog.

Sorry, I'm bitter.

[jghn]

I've always had the same problem. I'd say it's even worse. Suppose I set as a goal that I want to add a hypermegaML module to the production system to increase company profits 1000%. As you say, that only works if it gets into the backlog. BUT how the heck do I know I'll be the one who picks up the requisite tickets? It's a scrum team, we all pick up the next ticket. Work isn't dedicated for one person or another.

So now my teammates bob and Joanna are the ones who executed the hypermegaML module that increased company profits.