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You don’t need a made-up game to decide who’ll take on the next big engineering project

You could decide which engineering team has capacity for more work with a convoluted version of rock, paper, scissors. But you probably shouldn’t.
Watch the video→

Fine. Just decide.

Every quarter, the same problem. A new feature needs to come from somewhere, you need to know which team has the capacity to take it, and somehow it has to happen without blowing up everything else they’re committed to.

The data exists, technically. It’s also spread across GitHub, Jira, and an assortment of Notion docs. Getting to a clear and reliable picture of where engineering time is actually going takes long enough that most teams skip it and make the call on instinct instead.

Some teams have evolved their decision-making process to reflect this reality, introducing new variables to a rather classic framework. Helicopter. Silverback gorilla. Undercover cop in a biker gang. The rules of the game remain disputed, and the outcomes — unclear.

But there’s a better way to understand what’s happening in your engineering organization. One that tells you exactly where engineering time is going, before someone has to guess.

A detailed comparison

Here’s all you need to know when you’re deciding between a quick game of kraken vs. wedding DJ and investing in Swarmia, the engineering intelligence platform you can trust.

Change target:
Rock, paper, hotfix
Rock, paper, hotfix
Swarmia
Basis for decisions
Whichever hand shape wins, assuming victory conditions can be agreed upon.
Actual data on where engineering time is going, by team, investment category, and initiative.
Visibility into capacity
Literally zero.
Real-time view of team capacity, workload, and availability.
Investment breakdown
Not available.
See how engineering time is split across new features, maintenance, and improvements.
Time to decision
Fast, in theory. Disputed rules add significant overhead.
Immediate. Based on data that runs continuously in the background.
Stakeholder confidence
Mixed. Leadership has questions about the methodology.
High. Data your leadership team can actually use.
Historical data
Previous rounds have not been documented.
Full historical view of where engineering time has gone.
Rule disputes
Frequent. Kraken vs. undercover cop in a biker gang remains unresolved.
None.
Engine
TrueLayer
Matillion
AdCellerant

250+

engineers at Engine get the data they need, without having to change the way they work

Read more→

“What I like about Swarmia is that all you have to do is connect it to your existing tools and then you get a whole bunch of information — without having to change your process or go through hours of consulting to make sure that the labels on the tickets are just right.”

Egan Royal, SVP Engineering at Engine

Egan Royal

SVP Engineering
Engine

Egan Royal, SVP Engineering at Engine

“What I like about Swarmia is that all you have to do is connect it to your existing tools and then you get a whole bunch of information — without having to change your process or go through hours of consulting to make sure that the labels on the tickets are just right.”

Egan Royal

SVP Engineering
Engine

Swarmia is a better way to see what each engineering team is working on

Swarmia gives you a clear view of where engineering time is going — across teams, initiatives, and types of work. So when the question is who has capacity, or how much of Q2 went to maintenance versus new features, you have an answer that didn’t come out of you-know-where.
Balance engineering investments with Swarmia→

Don’t be like John

He means well, but his methods range from slightly eccentric to seriously unhinged.
The signal hound→
A psychic dog might tell you whether your AI investment is paying off. But it probably won’t.
The séance→
You could summon the spirits to let you know which initiatives are stuck. But maybe don’t?
The magic 8 ball→
Believe it or not, there are better ways to decide which software initiatives should be capitalized.

There’s a better way to run your engineering organization

It’s called Swarmia, and we’d love to show you around.

Get a demoSign up for free