Toxic metrics: story points, commits, and other creative ways to fool yourself

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There are many ways to wreck a development team.

You can force them to use a framework nobody asked for, make them estimate every last comma in a four-hour meeting, or —my personal favorite— slap the wrong metrics on them and call it “data-driven management.” It sounds polished, plays great in a slide deck, and the damage takes just long enough to show up that whoever’s responsible has already been promoted.

Productivity on I am Lino

Toxic metrics: story points, commits, and other creative ways to fool yourself