> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.swarmia.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.swarmia.com/features/metrics/key-metrics.md).
# Key metrics
Key metrics let you pin your most important engineering indicators to the Swarmia front page, so everyone in your organization sees the same shared view of performance every time they log in.
## Overview
Improving how your engineering organization works is a long game. Whether you're trying to reduce cycle times, increase throughput, or improve deployment frequency, it helps to keep your north-star metrics visible rather than buried three clicks deep.
Key metrics lets you choose the indicators that matter most to your organization and surface them at the top of the Swarmia home page. Every time someone logs in, they see the same shared view of your company's engineering performance.
You can also open key metrics in a dedicated view, making it easy to see how your teams compare across the selected metrics.
## Choosing your key metrics
Admins can pick from a curated set of ready-made metrics, including:
* **Throughput:** PRs merged, PRs merged per FTE, stories completed, stories completed per FTE, issues completed, issues completed per FTE
* **Cycle time:** Pull request cycle time, story cycle time, issue cycle time
* **DORA metrics:** Deployment frequency, change lead time, change failure rate, and MTTR
* **Investment balance:** Share of effort spent on any of your investment categories
If none of those fit, you can also define your own key metrics using the same flexible reporting framework as [Explore](/features/metrics/explore.md). So whether your team cares most about a specific DORA metric, a code health indicator, or something entirely your own, you can surface it here.
## Set targets and track progress
Set an organization target to give every team a shared goal for a key metric. In the card view, open the metric's three-dot menu and select **Set target**. In the table view, hover over the metric cell and select the target icon.
Enter the target in the editor. Its scale shows where each team currently sits, alongside relevant benchmark ranges when available. You can set targets only for metrics with a clear direction, such as higher or lower is better.
Each team inherits the organization target until you set a target for that specific team. Set a team target from that team's card or table row. Removing a team target makes the team inherit the organization target again.
For count- and sum-based metrics, enter targets as a monthly rate. Swarmia scales the target to the selected month, quarter, or year, so you can compare performance consistently across timeframes.
Only [organization admins](/settings/organization/managing-users-and-roles.md) can set, edit, or remove key metric targets.
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