14 OKR examples for Engineering
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 more about the OKR meaning online.
Best practices for OKR
Your objectives should be ambitious, but achievable. Your key results should be measurable and time-bound. It can also be helfpul to list strategic initiatives under your key results, as it'll help you avoid the common mistake of listing projects in your KRs.
Building your own OKRs with AI
While we have some examples below, it's likely that you'll have specific scenarios that aren't covered here. There are 2 options available to you.
- Use our free OKRs generator
- Use Tability, a complete platform to set and track OKRs and initiatives – including a GPT-4 powered goal generator
How to track 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.
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.
We recommend Tability for an easy way to set and track OKRs with your team.
Check out the 5 best OKR tracking templates to find the best way to monitor progress during the quarter.
Engineering OKRs templates
The examples have Engineering Objectives and Key Results, but they may also include the tasks that can help you get there.
OKRs to improve engineering performance and reliability
- Build a world-class infrastructure
- Increase Apdex above 0.95
- Cache requests wherever possible
- Identify and resolve to 5 application bottlenecks
- Reduce build time to be under 5 minutes
- Audit test suite to reduce duplicates
- Switch to a more performing build infrastructure
- Our stress tests show that we can support 10,000 concurrent users
OKRs to improve the quality of the data
- Significantly improve the quality of the data
- Reduce the number of data capture errors by 30%
- Reduce delay for data availability from 24h to 4h
- Close top 10 issues relating to data accuracy
OKRs to reduce the cost of integrating data sources
- Reduce the cost of data integration
- Decrease the time to integrate new data sources from 2 days to 4h
- Migrate data sources to Segment
- Create a shared library to streamline integrations
- Reduce the time to create new dashboards from 4 days to <1h
- Adopt BI tool to allow users to create their own dashboards
- 10 teams have used successfully a self-serve dashboard creation system
OKRs to allocate resources to refactor high-priority tech debt
- Reduce technical debt by allocating resources effectively
- Implement best practices to avoid future high-priority tech debt accumulation
- Achieve a reduction in high-priority tech debt items by 25%
- Establish a clear plan for refactoring high-priority tech debt items
- Prioritize high-priority tech debt items for resource allocation
OKRs to improve engineering release cycles
- Significantly increase the speed of our development cycle
- Improve developer NPS from 20 to 60
- Reduce build times from 25 to under 5 mins
- Reduce 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
- Enhance data engineering capabilities to drive software innovation
- Improve 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
- Enhance 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
- Increase 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
OKRs to achieve optimal efficiency in engineering operations
- Achieve optimal efficiency in engineering operations
- Lower engineering error rates by 10% through enhanced quality control measures
- Regularly monitor and review error reports
- Conduct regular training for quality control measures
- Implement rigorous testing protocols for every engineering process
- Reduce operation downtime by 20% through improved preventative maintenance procedures
- Implement strict equipment servicing and inspection schedules
- Develop detailed preventative maintenance protocols
- Train personnel in efficient troubleshooting techniques
- Increase operational efficiency by 15% via process improvement initiatives
- Implement new strategies to streamline processes
- Regularly assess and adjust improvements for optimal efficiency
- Identify inefficiencies in current operational procedures
OKRs to reduce critical tech debt by 50% in six months
- Minimize tech debt
- Develop a plan of action to address targeted tech debt items
- Prioritize critical tech debt items
- Conduct a thorough tech debt analysis
- Implement new development standards to prevent tech debt accumulation
OKRs to improve software engineering skills through effective time management
- Improve software engineering skills through effective time management
- Increase the number of completed coding tasks by 20% each week
- Identify and address any obstacles or challenges that may hinder coding task completion
- Enhance collaboration and communication among team members for efficient task completion
- Provide regular feedback and support to assist in completing coding tasks
- Set clear and achievable coding task goals for each team member
- Improve adherence to project deadlines by delivering work on time in 90% of cases
- Implement effective communication strategies to address obstacles and ensure timely completion
- Set clear and realistic deadlines for each project task
- Prioritize tasks and create a detailed schedule to ensure timely delivery
- Regularly track progress and provide updates to stakeholders to maintain accountability
- Reduce time spent on non-essential activities by 15% during work hours
- Set specific time limits for non-essential tasks to ensure efficient completion
- Prioritize and eliminate non-essential activities based on their impact and importance
- Identify non-essential activities taking up significant time during work hours
- Regularly assess and adjust the allocation of time to non-essential activities as needed
- Attend and actively participate in at least 2 time management workshops or webinars
- Research and identify 2 time management workshops or webinars
- Apply the learned time management techniques in daily activities for improved efficiency
- Take thorough notes during the workshops or webinars for future reference
- Register for the selected workshops or webinars to secure a spot
OKRs to eliminate high-risk tech debt over the next year
- Reduce high-risk tech debt to improve system stability
- Conduct a thorough analysis to measure the impact of eliminating each high-risk tech debt item
- Outline and prioritize initiatives to eliminate each high-risk tech debt item
- Complete the elimination of at least 50% of high-risk tech debt items
- Identify top 10 high-risk tech debt items
OKRs to reduce technical debt
- Reduce significantly the technical debt in our platform
- Dedicated 20% of our sprint effort to tackling technical debt
- Close 40 issues tagged as technical debt
- Boost application performance by 40% as a result of the debt culling
OKRs to enforce coding standards to prevent new tech debt
- Standardize coding practices for debt reduction
- Conduct training sessions to educate all team members
- Reduce tech debt backlog by 50% through enforcement of standards
- Develop and implement updated coding standards
- Conduct quarterly reviews to ensure adherence to standards
OKRs to improve system availability to achieve 999% uptime
- Increase system uptime
- Improve system redundancy and failover capabilities
- Use load balancing to distribute traffic across multiple servers
- Create backup systems in different geographic locations
- Regularly test failover and recovery processes
- Implement automated failover mechanisms
- Implement proactive system monitoring
- Regularly review system metrics and identify areas for improvement
- Define and create alerts for critical system events
- Develop a process for reviewing and responding to alerts
- Set up monitoring tools for infrastructure
- Increase system performance by 25%
- Upgrade hardware and software components as per audit recommendations
- Conduct a system audit to identify bottlenecks and inefficient processes
- Optimize system settings and configurations to reduce resource consumption
- Implement a system monitoring and alert system to minimize downtime
- Decrease unplanned downtime by 50%
- Conduct regular equipment inspections
- Increase spare parts inventory
- Improve operator training on equipment maintenance
- Implement predictive maintenance program
OKRs to improve software system design and logging framework expertise
- Improve software system design and logging framework expertise
- Collaborate with senior engineers on at least two software design reviews and provide valuable insights
- Prepare for software design reviews by doing research and gathering relevant information
- Actively participate in software design reviews by asking questions and offering suggestions
- Schedule meetings with senior engineers to discuss software design reviews
- Document and share valuable insights and suggestions with senior engineers after the reviews
- Conduct research on best practices and emerging trends in software system design
- Engage in discussions with industry experts and peers to gather insights on software system design best practices
- Review industry publications and online resources for current best practices in software system design
- Attend relevant conferences and webinars to stay updated on emerging trends in software system design
- Set up alerts and notifications for research papers and articles on software system design
- Implement logging framework in one project and analyze its effectiveness
- Define and implement the desired log messages and their respective levels
- Integrate the chosen logging framework into the project's codebase
- Research and choose a suitable logging framework for the project
- Analyze and measure the impact of the logging framework on project performance and debugging processes
- Successfully complete online course on software system design with a passing grade
More OKR templates
We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.
OKRs to boost sales performance across the company OKRs to equip departments with OKR skills OKRs to increase revenue through client acquisition using technology tools OKRs to develop a compelling game that engages and captivates players OKRs to achieve full project implementation OKRs to become the brand leader in our category
OKRs resources
Here are a list of resources to help you adopt the Objectives and Key Results framework.
- To learn: Complete 2024 OKR cheat sheet
- Blog posts: ODT Blog
- Success metrics: KPIs examples