From the team building Progress

The Progress blog

Insights on shipping software, team visibility, and getting clarity across all your tools.

September 19, 202611 min read

How to Track Code Quality Metrics

This guide explains how to track code quality metrics using a repeatable system for choosing, connecting, and acting on the signals that correlate with fewer incidents and faster delivery. It starts with defining outcome versus process metrics so your team tracks what actually matters, not just what's easy to measure.

September 18, 202611 min read

Engineering Observability Explained: What It Means for Dev Teams

This article gets engineering observability explained in plain terms, showing how it interprets raw dev data like commits, PRs, and tickets to reveal risk, stalled work, and team burnout. It also breaks down how observability differs from monitoring and dashboards, especially for startup teams without dedicated platform engineering support.

September 17, 202612 min read

8 Best Linear Integration Analytics Tools for Engineering Teams in 2026

This roundup reviews the 8 best linear integration analytics tools that turn Linear and GitHub data into dashboards and decision-ready signals for engineering teams, comparing pricing, setup effort, and unique strengths like risk scoring and DORA metrics.

September 16, 202610 min read

Merge Conflicts Increasing in Frequency? Here's What It Actually Means

This article explains why merge conflicts increasing frequency happens, helping engineering leaders distinguish normal growth-related friction from deeper architecture debt or process breakdown. It also outlines concrete steps teams can take to address the root cause rather than just the symptoms.

September 15, 202613 min read

How to Write Engineering Executive Summaries Your Leadership Team Will Actually Read

This guide teaches engineering leaders a repeatable process for writing engineering executive summaries that translate sprint and repo data into a concise, minute-long status update both boards and peers trust. It covers identifying what each audience actually needs, so the same report stops failing everyone it's written for.

September 14, 202613 min read

8 Best Engineering Team Capacity Planning Software Tools in 2026

This guide compares 8 of the best engineering team capacity planning software tools in 2026, evaluating how each sources data, forecasts workload, and fits lean startup teams. It helps engineering leaders match available bandwidth to committed work while catching burnout risk before it escalates.

September 13, 202611 min read

Codebase Health Monitoring: What It Is and Why Startup Engineering Teams Need It

This article explains what codebase health monitoring is and why startup engineering teams rely on it to track code churn, stalled work, and change risk before problems reach production. It also covers why typical dashboards fall short and how to set up monitoring that actually drives decisions.

September 12, 202614 min read

9 Best Developer Workflow Optimization Tools in 2026

This guide ranks 9 developer workflow optimization tools for 2026, grouping each by the engineering layer it improves—planning, coding, review, and CI/CD—so startup leaders can cut friction and ship faster without burning out their teams.

September 11, 202610 min read

How to Approach Engineering Workflow Optimization: A Step-by-Step Guide

This guide walks through a data-first approach to engineering workflow optimization, showing teams how to audit real delivery data from GitHub and Linear to find true bottlenecks instead of guessing at fixes. It offers a repeatable process for identifying, fixing, and measuring improvements to engineering delivery speed.

September 10, 202610 min read

Team Momentum Indicators: What They Are and How to Track Them

Team momentum indicators reveal whether an engineering team is accelerating, slowing, or stalling, a distinct signal from raw velocity that surfaces trouble before it hits deadlines. This article explains what these indicators measure, which signals matter most, and how to avoid common misreadings.

September 9, 202614 min read

9 Best Initiative Tracking Software Tools for Dev Teams in 2026

Most dev teams can track individual tasks but struggle to answer whether a whole initiative is actually on track — and that's exactly the gap this guide addresses. It reviews 9 initiative tracking software tools for dev teams, evaluating each on integration depth with developer tooling, signal quality, team health visibility, and practical fit for startup-scale engineering teams.

September 8, 202614 min read

Low Team Morale in Engineering: How to Recognize It, Understand It, and Fix It

Low Team Morale In Engineering is one of the most expensive problems a technical leader can overlook — subtle in its early signals yet devastating to delivery, retention, and quality. This guide helps engineering leaders recognize the warning signs before they become a crisis, understand why morale erodes differently in technical teams, and take concrete action to rebuild it.