[darylteo]

In this model of "managers know what their reports are doing" how does one gain insight into overall engineering health from a high enough level (say, engineering manager / CTO)

How does a engineering manager know what their managers are up to in order to get an understanding of what their manager's team members are up to? Even worse if you have a large enough organisation where you may have managers managing leads who manage teams?

[tpxl]

Mayhaps the CTO would deign to do their work and ask their direct reports about the status, then compile a report with the desired information? The direct reports would obviously ask their reports, and so forth, until you get to the lowest rung on the ladder.