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KPI stands for “Key Performance Indicator”. Lines of code are clearly not this; they don’t indicate anything about performance one way or another.

(Now, mind you, I’m sure that lots of other ‘KPIs’ are nothing of the sort, either.)



For you, maybe; but to your parentposter's point, it is measured not because it is useful to the overall org, but because it is easy to measure. In that sense, it's a great KPI, when the measurer (presumably some middle management) considers it an indicator of performance.

It's just that you and they define "performance" differently. It's perverse incentives all the way down (or, perhaps, up).


I mean, sure, if you have a sufficiently bonkers view on performance metrics, then, say, index finger diameter could be a performance metric, but in terms of things which could actually be seen by any reasonable person as a KPI, lines of code ain’t one.


> any reasonable person as a KPI

Have you MET middle managers in the wild? As I said, most of these metrics are measured because they are easy, not because they are useful. The incentives at that level are to come up with some sort of metric and browbeat people into making it; the incentives for the browbeaten are then to make the number. Doesn't matter what the number means.




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