Strategy & OKRs

The strategy layer lets teams set objectives, track them with key results driven by live landscape data, and connect quarterly goals to the initiatives — and therefore the systems — doing the work. It is not a standalone OKR tool. It is OKR intelligence rooted in the architecture model.

Signals flow both ways. A health signal entering at the bottom — a toppled database replica, an offline API, a misbehaving firewall — climbs through components, applications, processes and capabilities until it surfaces on the objective it threatens. And a strategy question at the top drills down the same graph to the exact component carrying the goal. For two fully worked examples of the complete model, see the Domain Model page.

Cycles

A Cycle is a time-bounded OKR period — quarterly, annual, or custom — owned by a team. It moves through four states:

Carry-forward

When closing a cycle, the owner selects which Key Results to carry into the next cycle. For each carried KR:

• The current value becomes the new start value, so relative goals (−20%, +15%, 400 k) re-evaluate against the fresh baseline.
• The KR retains a lineage pointer to its predecessor, so history is preserved across cycle boundaries.
• Goal expressions re-compute: a KR targeting “−20% relative to start” remains valid regardless of where the baseline moved.

Objectives

An Objective is a qualitative goal — a direction statement, not a number. It belongs to a team and optionally to a cycle. Any team member can read all objectives in the tenant; only team members may write.

Objective progress is the weighted average of its Key Results. There is no separate progress field to maintain manually.

Key Results

A Key Result (KR) is a metric with start and target values. Progress is computed as:

progress = (current − start) / (target − start)

This formula handles both increase goals (target > start) and reduce goals (target < start) without a direction toggle. A KR targeting a 20-point reduction is automatically at 100% when current reaches target, and goes negative if the metric moves the wrong way.

KR properties

The three drive modes

Every KR uses exactly one drive mode:

Manual check-ins — A team member records the current value, a status (On Track, Behind, or At Risk), and an optional comment. Check-ins are versioned; previous entries can be amended or deleted. The cycle’s check-in view puts every key result on one screen, saved in a single action — one sitting for the whole team’s update.

Computed (landscape metric) — Choose one of 104 built-in metrics. A scheduled sweep (hourly by default) populates the value automatically. The baseline is locked at KR creation, so a goal expressed as “−20%” is always relative to the landscape as it was when the KR was created. A freshly created computed KR may show no value until the first sweep completes (up to one hour after creation).

Jira or API push — Pull values from a Jira JQL filter or POST them directly from your own tooling. See Jira Key Results and Push Key Result Values via API.

Computed metrics — the 15 groups

The 104 built-in metrics span 15 groups:

Risk signals

Risk signals are computed automatically and shown on the KR detail view. They traverse the chain: Objective → KR → linked Initiatives → initiative scope items → Components → incidents, health, and dependency data.

Signals require no manual configuration. They update as landscape state changes.

Alignment

Objectives can contribute to other objectives across teams and cycles — a platform team’s quarterly objective feeding an organisation-level annual one, or several team objectives carrying a shared programme goal. Circular contributions are rejected, so the strategy graph stays coherent. The Alignment Map shows the whole picture at a glance: each team as a row, each objective as a card with its live progress, and contribution lines connecting them. Leadership sees how every team’s goals ladder up — and which branch of the tree is falling behind.

Initiatives

Each Initiative is linked per KR (M:N), recording which initiatives are driving that specific metric. This makes the connection between what we measure and what we are doing about it explicit and traceable. Initiative scope items (the components in scope) are the same scope items the risk signal engine traverses.

Shareable summaries

A cycle owner can generate a secure-token summary link — a public URL viewable without login, with an optional expiry date and optional email delivery to named recipients. Summaries are suitable for board reporting or stakeholder updates where recipients do not have Dependra accounts.

Plan availability

Strategy & OKRs is included in the Enterprise plan and available on custom plans. See pricing for the full plan comparison.