Features like Cycle Time, Resource Allocation, Project Costs, and Resource Planning lay the groundwork for building a performance-to-cost narrative. With refinement, these tools can help organisations better understand where engineering effort is going and what value it's producing.

1. Start with Cycle Time as a Proxy for Efficiency

➡️ Where: Cycle Time

Cycle Time remains one of the most reliable indicators of delivery efficiency.

➡️What it reflects:

How quickly engineers move from starting a task to delivering value.

Whether internal processes and collaboration enable speed without sacrificing quality.

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A consistently high cycle time across teams could indicate waste, blockers, or underutilised resources—all of which impact ROI.

2. Use Resource Planning for Cost Distribution

➡️ Where: Resource Planning

Resource Planning provides a starting point to associate engineering hours or headcount with specific initiatives.

➡️Potential insights:

• How engineering effort is split across features, support, refactoring, or unplanned work.
• Whether high-cost projects are progressing as expected or getting delayed by maintenance and interruptions.

3. Review Project Costs for Financial Attribution

➡️ Where: Project Costs

Although limited in its current form, this section aims to provide visibility into the cost per project or ticket.

➡️What to look for:

• Which projects consume the most resources.
• Whether low-priority or low-impact work is using high-value engineering time.
• Opportunities to reallocate budget or rescope investments.

4. Build the Narrative for Stakeholders

ROI isn't just about raw data—it’s about presenting a clear story of effort vs. impact.

➡️Use these tools to answer:

• Where are our most expensive engineering efforts going?
• Are we shipping high-value features quickly and predictably?
• Which teams or projects consistently deliver more with fewer resources?

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These are the kinds of insights executives care about—use the metrics as a foundation, but tailor the messaging.

Key Takeaways

• Cycle Time offers a measurable indicator of engineering throughput and efficiency.
• Resource Planning and Project Costs help approximate the financial footprint of engineering activity.
• Frame data in terms of outcomes: speed, cost, and alignment with business goals.