Skip to main content
Deutsch (Deutschland) Español Français Hebrew (Israel) Italiano Português

Director of Engineering

Heather Hazell
Updated

This guide is for Directors of Engineering who own multiple teams or domains and need a repeatable way to connect delivery, quality, and investment decisions. It uses Metrics → Delivery, Metrics → Quality, Teams → Iterations, and (where enabled) Resource Allocation and gitStream to create a portfolio view you can use with VPs, PMO, and DevEx.

TL;DR – Director of Engineering:

  • Use Delivery and Quality metrics to compare teams and services, not individuals.
  • Use Iterations to see how planning, unplanned work, and predictability vary across teams.
  • Use Resource Allocation (if available) to connect headcount to initiatives and cost.
  • Support gitStream and AI adoption where they remove friction or de-risk flow at scale.
  • Run a light but consistent monthly portfolio review with your managers.

Start here in 15 minutes

  1. Pick 3–5 teams you directly manage.
  2. In Metrics → Delivery, set the window to the last quarter and note, per team:
    • Cycle Time and which sub-metric is slowest.
  3. For each team, open Teams → Iterations → Completed and ask:
    • “Roughly how much work was unplanned?”
    • “Is carryover a pattern or an exception?”
  4. Classify each team quickly:
    • Healthy, Stretched, or At risk.
  5. Pick one team in each bucket and write one question you’ll ask that EM in your next 1:1 (e.g., “What’s the smallest change we can try to reduce unplanned work?”).
  6. Use these notes as the first slide or section in your next monthly review.

Who this guide is for

  • Directors owning multiple teams, domains, or services.
  • Leaders responsible for both outcomes (delivery, quality) and investment choices (where teams spend time).
  • Partners to VP Eng, PMO/Delivery Ops, and DevEx/Platform.

What you likely care about

  • Which teams or domains are consistently healthy vs. struggling on delivery and quality.
  • How unplanned work and incidents affect commitments across your portfolio.
  • Whether your headcount and investments match strategic priorities.
  • Where standards and automation (gitStream, AI) can scale improvement.

Before you begin

  • Teams and services are mapped correctly in LinearB.
  • Managers understand which metrics you care about and why (Cycle Time stages, key quality/reliability indicators).
  • If available, Resource Allocation is configured with relevant custom fields (initiatives, project types, etc.).
  • If your org uses gitStream or AI Insights, you know which teams are piloting them.

Step 1: Build a simple delivery & quality portfolio view

Goal: Compare teams on a few consistent, system-level signals.

Where: Metrics → Delivery and Metrics → Quality

  1. Select a timeframe (e.g., last quarter) and a consistent aggregation mode (Average, Median, or percentile as agreed with your org).
  2. Review per-team trends for:
    • Cycle Time and its slowest sub-metric.
    • High-level quality / reliability signals where available.
  3. Classify teams into rough buckets:
    • Healthy: stable delivery, predictable quality.
    • Stretched: growing unplanned work, slowing stages.
    • At risk: repeated incidents or highly variable delivery.
Director lens: Your job is to ask “What’s making this system behave this way?” and equip EMs to own the improvement story.

Step 2: Use Iterations to understand predictability

Goal: See how planning and unplanned work differ across teams.

Where: Teams → Iterations (Completed)

  • For each team, review a few recent iterations and note:
    • Planned vs. delivered work.
    • Level and sources of unplanned work.
    • Patterns of carryover across sprints.
  • Use this to draw distinctions like:
    • “Team A has stable commitments but lots of incidents.”
    • “Team B over-commits and regularly pushes work out.”
  • Turn those insights into coaching questions for EMs: “What’s the smallest process change we can try next sprint to improve predictability?”

Step 3: Connect investments using Resource Allocation (if enabled)

Goal: Show where your org actually spends time and cost.

Where: Resource Allocation dashboard and related Cost/Allocation reports

  • Slice by initiatives, projects, or investment categories to see FTE spread.
  • Compare:
    • Where teams spend time vs. your strategic priorities.
    • Work type mix (e.g., new features vs. maintenance) for key areas.
  • Use this to support decisions like:
    • Rebalancing teams or roadmaps.
    • Justifying more capacity for foundational or reliability work.

Step 4: Support standards, gitStream, and AI at scale

Goal: Help managers and DevEx apply low-noise standards where they matter most.

  • Identify 1–2 cross-team bottlenecks (e.g., slow reviews, large PRs, high rework).
  • Partner with DevEx / Platform to:
    • Define simple standards (PR size, review SLAs).
    • Use gitStream and AI features (where enabled) to automate guardrails.
  • Ask teams to measure:
    • Before/after trends on Cycle Time or quality.
    • Developer sentiment where Surveys or Coaching are available.

Recommended portfolio rhythm

Monthly (Director-led, with EMs)

  • Review a portfolio snapshot:
    • Delivery and quality trends by team.
    • Key Iteration patterns (predictability, unplanned work).
    • Top 1–2 investment questions from Resource Allocation (if enabled).
  • For each team, agree on:
    • One system improvement to test (process, standard, automation).
    • How you’ll measure success in the next cycle.

Quarterly (Director-led, with VP / PMO / DevEx)

  • Use portfolio data to inform:
    • Roadmap and investment tradeoffs.
    • Org changes (team splits, new ownership).
    • Where to expand standards, gitStream, and AI.

Recommended next articles

Related articles