Architecture Portal

Measurement approaches

Delivery, service and business outcomes.

Adrian Sutherland · Version 1.0 · · © 2005–2026

Selecting a useful measure

A delivery team may want to know how long a change took to release. A service owner may ask whether users received an agreed resolution. Choose measures that answer the decision-maker’s question.

Approach Contribution Interpretation to retain
ASAF A Simple Architectural Framework connects requirements and target measures to transformation, monitoring and capacity management. Identify the decision and owner that each measure informs.
DORA Examines software delivery throughput and instability. Its January 2026 guide uses five metrics, including deployment rework rate. Apply the definitions within a service context; these metrics do not directly measure business outcomes or individual productivity and are not for ranking individuals. DORA guide.
Site reliability engineering (SRE) service objectives Connect observed service reliability to an agreed target and priorities. Define what a user experiences and how missed objectives affect work. Google SRE Workbook, 2018.
Quality scenarios Describe an event, its conditions, the required response and a check. Use them to test quality claims, including whether a service can be changed or recovered.

These rows compare selected concerns from the linked guidance. Quality scenarios are a generic working technique. A service can combine them with delivery measures and broader business observations.

Trade-offs

Frequent deployment and stable operation can improve together. Avoid assuming that every increase in speed must reduce quality. Equally, an observed association does not establish that a particular template caused an improvement. Keep the context and changes in working practice with the results.

Methodology configuration

Use your existing quality model and measures. The comparison helps clarify which questions each one can answer. Use Methodology configuration to map terms, records and reviews to your own approach.

Use the measurement example, then adapt the measure and quality record to define the observation and the decision it informs.

About this edition

Refreshed for the September 2026 website update. This edition develops the earlier Architecture Portal and ASAF material; the fictional worked example was added in 2026.

Scope, limitations and next checks

Status and accountability

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Status

In development

Last reviewed

Intended users

  • Architects comparing and adapting their existing approach

Non-goals

  • Prescribing a mandatory method or claiming measured benefits

Limitations

  • Guidance illustrated by a fictional example; proposed designs and checks have not been implemented or run.

Next evidence sought

  • Review the guidance and try its records with a practising architect.