Perhaps one should look at the work being done instead of "relying on metrics"? ...

posedge · on July 11, 2020

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure" - Goodheart's law.

Give people a metric - any metric - and they will (conciously or otherwise) start optimizing that instead of the actual goal.

peacemaker · on July 7, 2020

Easier said than done when you've a large, busy team to manage alongside lots of other work.

Besides, if you're a non-technical leader it can be difficult to understand how things are going unless you have some kind of metrics to track.