The state of engineering intelligence

Engineering leaders today face an urgent need for visibility into how software teams work and what slows them down. Developers spend only a fraction of their time building new features—much of their week is lost to internal friction, tech debt, flaky processes, and scattered tools.

These challenges gave rise to platform engineering and Software Engineering Intelligence (SEI) platforms as organizations seek data-driven ways to boost productivity and developer experience. Yet the engineering metrics/DevEx space is still evolving.

Many companies track DevOps performance through frameworks like DORA, and some conduct developer satisfaction surveys – but too often these insights live in separate silos. This isolation means teams might know what is happening (e.g. deployment frequency dropped) without knowing why (e.g. developers frustrated with a particular tool).

The result is uncertainty in prioritizing improvements. Engineering leaders commonly voice a pattern: “We know there are productivity gaps, but we don’t know exactly where—or how—to prioritize them.” Modern Engineering Intelligence aims to close this gap. The role of SEI is to aggregate and analyze data across the software development lifecycle, from code repositories and CI pipelines to project trackers and incident management. By unifying these data streams, SEI platforms provide a “single pane of glass” for engineering health. Crucially, Port’s view is that insight alone isn’t enough – data must lead to action. Metrics should not be mere reporting tools for executives, but levers for continuous improvement in developer culture and workflow.

Port’s Engineering360, for example, combines quantitative metrics with qualitative developer feedback in one place, so teams can pinpoint friction and address it directly in Port. Instead of guessing what will help developers, engineering organizations can strategically invest in improvements backed by real data on where engineers struggle most.

Overall, the state of engineering intelligence is one of growing recognition: to move faster responsibly, you need both metrics and empathy. Companies are moving beyond vanity stats to focus on meaningful indicators (like DORA’s speed and stability measures) and complementing them with developer sentiment. The SEI domain is maturing from basic dashboards toward integrated, actionable intelligence – helping engineering leaders cultivate high-performing, happy teams in a data-informed way.