Throughput Metrics

Purpose

Throughput Metrics measure engineering output and activity volume. They help you understand how much work is flowing through the system over time (for example, commits, pull requests, reviews, and deployments).

Use these metrics to evaluate output capacity, delivery cadence, and activity trends across teams, repositories, and time ranges.

Metrics Included

The following metrics belong to the Throughput family:

• Code Changes
• Commits
• PRs Opened
• Merge Frequency
• Reviews
• Deploy Frequency
• Done Branches

Each metric definition, calculation formula, normalization logic, and display behavior is documented in the Metrics Glossary.

How These Metrics Work Together

Throughput metrics describe volume across the delivery workflow:

• Input and activity (commits, PRs opened, reviews)
• Output (merges, deployments)
• Change volume (code changes)

Use these metrics together to validate whether output increases are supported by sufficient review activity and deployment cadence, and to distinguish between higher activity and meaningful delivery progress.

Dashboards That Use Throughput Metrics

Throughput metrics appear in:

• Throughput Dashboards
• Velocity Dashboard
• Investment Strategy Dashboard

These dashboards often combine Throughput metrics with Delivery and Quality metrics to provide context.

Related Metric Families

Throughput metrics often correlate with:

• Delivery Metrics (volume changes may affect PR lifecycle timing)
• Quality Metrics (higher throughput may increase quality risk if review rigor does not scale)
• Reliability & DORA Metrics (deployment cadence and stability)

Configuration Dependencies

Throughput metrics rely on:

• Repository syncing and Git activity ingestion
• Accurate attribution of activity to users and teams
• Deployment mapping (for deployment-related throughput metrics)

Troubleshooting

If Throughput metrics appear inconsistent:

• Confirm repositories are connected and syncing normally.
• Validate that Git activity exists during the selected time range.
• For deploy-related metrics, verify deployment mapping is configured.

For detailed troubleshooting guidance, see: Troubleshooting.