What support do developers need at large enterprises to be productive? We often fall into the trap of evaluating coders on output, maybe even innate talent. We think that the best way to build secure and efficient software is to hire 10X developers, and get out of their way. But even if the individuals have massive intellectual firepower, operational work grows like entropy in the system.

In the current macroeconomic climate, it’s more important than ever for executive teams and CEOs to make the most of their resources. Organizations are expected to continually deliver innovative products and services in a rapidly changing environment, often with reduced engineering budgets. 75% of tech leaders fear displacement from competitors beating them to market, so speed and efficiency are top of mind.

Engineering leaders are accountable to shipping quality products on time and within budget. But a CEO's historical understanding of engineering operations has been pretty opaque: ships on time, or doesn't. And although DORA metrics are a good place to start, they don’t offer the complete picture needed for CEOs. With new tooling to support greater engineering efficiency, CEOs are learning that it's possible to get a richer picture of engineering productivity, quality, and velocity.

Most Cortex customers begin their journey by populating their service and resource Catalogs, creating their first few Scorecards, and setting up any time-sensitive Initiatives. These features help bring visibility and accountability to internally developed software, revealing consistency issues and enabling teams to act quickly to resolve.

Every so often, somebody in the tech industry proposes a new way to quantify software engineers’ productivity. Most recently, a leading consulting firm published a report that has reignited a recurring debate—is it even possible to effectively measure developer productivity, and if so, how? Whereas functions like sales and support have had rigorous metrics for years, software engineering has long been the exception.