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tability.ioWhat are Engineering OKRs?
The OKR acronym stands for Objectives and Key Results. It's a goal-setting framework that was introduced at Intel by Andy Grove in the 70s, and it became popular after John Doerr introduced it to Google in the 90s. OKRs helps teams has a shared language to set ambitious goals and track progress towards them.
OKRs are quickly gaining popularity as a goal-setting framework. But, it's not always easy to know how to write your goals, especially if it's your first time using OKRs.
To aid you in setting your goals, we have compiled a collection of OKR examples customized for Engineering. Take a look at the templates below for inspiration and guidance.
If you want to learn more about the framework, you can read our OKR guide online.
Engineering OKRs examples
You will find in the next section many different Engineering Objectives and Key Results. We've included strategic initiatives in our templates to give you a better idea of the different between the key results (how we measure progress), and the initiatives (what we do to achieve the results).
Hope you'll find this helpful!
OKRs to foster continuous improvement on Engineering metrics
ObjectiveFoster continuous improvement on Engineering metrics
KRAchieve a 10% increase in team's average productivity metrics
Introduce incentives for meeting or surpassing productivity goals- Implement training sessions to improve skills and efficiency
- Optimize workflow by eliminating unnecessary procedures
- KRImplement weekly trend analysis reports for every team member
- Schedule and distribute weekly trend analysis to each team member
- Establish report templates to track weekly trends for each team
- Automate data collection and trend analysis processes
- KRReduce error rates in engineering processes by 15%
- Enhance quality control and testing procedures
- Regularly review and improve existing engineering processes
- Implement training programs to update engineering knowledge and skills
OKRs to enhance engineering team's productivity
- ObjectiveEnhance engineering team's productivity
- KRIncrease project completion rate by 20%
- Conduct weekly project progress and status checks
- Implement a detailed project schedule for better tracking
- Provide timely training and resources to team members
- KRImplement a new efficiency-enhancing tool with full adoption by team
- Develop comprehensive training for tool usage for the team
- Select efficiency-enhancing tool based on team's tasks and workflows
- Regularly monitor, assess, and provide feedback on tool usage
- KRReduce engineering errors by 15%
- Enhance collaboration and communication within engineering teams
- Implement regular skill improvement workshops for engineers
- Introduce stringent quality control and testing processes
OKRs to improve engineering performance and reliability
- ObjectiveBuild a world-class infrastructure
- KRIncrease Apdex above 0.95
- Cache requests wherever possible
- Identify and resolve to 5 application bottlenecks
- KRReduce build time to be under 5 minutes
- Audit test suite to reduce duplicates
- Switch to a more performing build infrastructure
- KROur stress tests show that we can support 10,000 concurrent users
OKRs to improve the quality of the data
- ObjectiveSignificantly improve the quality of the data
- KRReduce the number of data capture errors by 30%
- KRReduce delay for data availability from 24h to 4h
- KRClose top 10 issues relating to data accuracy
OKRs to improve interoperability between data engineering teams
- ObjectiveImprove interoperability between data engineering teams
- KROffer biweekly data interoperability training to 90% of data engineering teams
- Identify 90% of data engineering teams for training
- Develop a biweekly interoperability training schedule
- Implement and monitor the data interoperability training
- KRReduce cross-team data discrepancies by 50%, ensuring increased data consistency
- Regularly audit and correct data discrepancies across all teams
- Implement a standardized data entry and management process for all teams
- Utilize data synchronization tools for seamless data integration
- KRImplement standardized data protocols across all teams increasing cross-collaboration by 30%
- Train teams on new standardized protocols
- Identify current data protocols in each team
- Draft and propose unified data protocols
OKRs to reduce the cost of integrating data sources
- ObjectiveReduce the cost of data integration
- KRDecrease the time to integrate new data sources from 2 days to 4h
- Migrate data sources to Segment
- Create a shared library to streamline integrations
- KRReduce the time to create new dashboards from 4 days to <1h
- Adopt BI tool to allow users to create their own dashboards
- KR10 teams have used successfully a self-serve dashboard creation system
OKRs to enhance workflow efficiency and productivity
- ObjectiveEnhance workflow efficiency and productivity
- KRImplement at least 3 significant improvements identified from the workflow analysis
- Develop strategies to implement these improvements efficiently
- Evaluate success of implemented improvements periodically
- Prioritize the 3 top improvements identified from workflow analysis
- KRReduce workflow steps or stages by 10% to streamline operations
- Implement new workflow and analyze for efficiency improvement
- Review and analyze current processes for unnecessary stages
- Develop a revised workflow eliminating redundant steps
- KRIncrease process efficiency by 20% through process re-engineering
- Identify bottlenecks in the current process
- Train staff on newly engineered process
- Develop a streamlined process blueprint
OKRs to allocate resources to refactor high-priority tech debt
- ObjectiveReduce technical debt by allocating resources effectively
- KRImplement best practices to avoid future high-priority tech debt accumulation
- KRAchieve a reduction in high-priority tech debt items by 25%
- KREstablish a clear plan for refactoring high-priority tech debt items
- KRPrioritize high-priority tech debt items for resource allocation
OKRs to improve engineering release cycles
- ObjectiveSignificantly increase the speed of our development cycle
- KRImprove developer NPS from 20 to 60
- KRReduce build times from 25 to under 5 mins
- KRReduce cycle time from 28 days to 6 days
- Implement CD pipeline for the staging environment
- Automate all deployment steps
OKRs to enhance data engineering capabilities to drive software innovation
- ObjectiveEnhance data engineering capabilities to drive software innovation
- KRImprove data quality by implementing automated data validation and monitoring processes
- Implement chosen data validation tool
- Research various automated data validation tools
- Regularly monitor and assess data quality
- KREnhance software scalability by optimizing data storage and retrieval mechanisms for large datasets
- Optimize SQL queries for faster data retrieval
- Adopt a scalable distributed storage system
- Implement a more efficient database indexing system
- KRIncrease data processing efficiency by optimizing data ingestion pipelines and reducing processing time
- Develop optimization strategies for lagging pipelines
- Implement solutions to reduce data processing time
- Analyze current data ingestion pipelines for efficiency gaps
How to write your own Engineering OKRs
1. Get tailored OKRs with an AI
You'll find some examples below, but it's likely that you have very specific needs that won't be covered.
You can use Tability's AI generator to create tailored OKRs based on your specific context. Tability can turn your objective description into a fully editable OKR template -- including tips to help you refine your goals.
- 1. Go to Tability's plan editor
- 2. Click on the "Generate goals using AI" button
- 3. Use natural language to describe your goals
Tability will then use your prompt to generate a fully editable OKR template.
Watch the video below to see it in action 👇
Option 2. Optimise existing OKRs with Tability Feedback tool
If you already have existing goals, and you want to improve them. You can use Tability's AI feedback to help you.
- 1. Go to Tability's plan editor
- 2. Add your existing OKRs (you can import them from a spreadsheet)
- 3. Click on "Generate analysis"
Tability's Strategy Map makes it easy to see all your org's OKRsTability will scan your OKRs and offer different suggestions to improve them. This can range from a small rewrite of a statement to make it clearer to a complete rewrite of the entire OKR.
You can then decide to accept the suggestions or dismiss them if you don't agree.
Option 3. Use the free OKR generator
If you're just looking for some quick inspiration, you can also use our free OKR generator to get a template.
Unlike with Tability, you won't be able to iterate on the templates, but this is still a great way to get started.
Engineering OKR best practices
Generally speaking, your objectives should be ambitious yet achievable, and your key results should be measurable and time-bound (using the SMART framework can be helpful). It is also recommended to list strategic initiatives under your key results, as it'll help you avoid the common mistake of listing projects in your KRs.
Here are a couple of best practices extracted from our OKR implementation guide 👇
Tip #1: Limit the number of key results
Focus can only be achieve by limiting the number of competing priorities. It is crucial that you take the time to identify where you need to move the needle, and avoid adding business-as-usual activities to your OKRs.
We recommend having 3-4 objectives, and 3-4 key results per objective. A platform like Tability can run audits on your data to help you identify the plans that have too many goals.
Tip #2: Commit to weekly OKR check-ins
Having good goals is only half the effort. You'll get significant more value from your OKRs if you commit to a weekly check-in process.
Being able to see trends for your key results will also keep yourself honest.
Tip #3: No more than 2 yellow statuses in a row
Yes, this is another tip for goal-tracking instead of goal-setting (but you'll get plenty of OKR examples above). But, once you have your goals defined, it will be your ability to keep the right sense of urgency that will make the difference.
As a rule of thumb, it's best to avoid having more than 2 yellow/at risk statuses in a row.
Make a call on the 3rd update. You should be either back on track, or off track. This sounds harsh but it's the best way to signal risks early enough to fix things.
How to track your Engineering OKRs
OKRs without regular progress updates are just KPIs. You'll need to update progress on your OKRs every week to get the full benefits from the framework. Reviewing progress periodically has several advantages:
- It brings the goals back to the top of the mind
- It will highlight poorly set OKRs
- It will surface execution risks
- It improves transparency and accountability
Most teams should start with a spreadsheet if they're using OKRs for the first time. Then, once you get comfortable you can graduate to a proper OKRs-tracking tool.
If you're not yet set on a tool, you can check out the 5 best OKR tracking templates guide to find the best way to monitor progress during the quarter.
More Engineering OKR templates
We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.
- OKRs to streamline operations for cost efficiency
- OKRs to scale development with a design system
- OKRs to streamline policy and clinical documentation variations
- OKRs to enhance in-house legal team for aggressive business growth
- OKRs to to implement a strategic, consistent, and realistic social media approach
- OKRs to enhance efficiency and speed of the help desk process