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Run your first OKR cycle

Note

Strategy & OKRs is available on Enterprise and custom plans.

This guide walks through a complete OKR cycle from creation to close. It assumes your team already has at least one Application and Capability in Dependra — if not, model a few first so computed and risk-signal features have something to work with.

Step 1: Create a cycle

  1. In the left sidebar, under Portfolio, click OKR Cycles.
  2. Click New Cycle.
  3. Set a name (e.g., “Q3 2026 — Platform Reliability”), team, start date, end date, and cadence (Quarterly, Annual, or Custom).
  4. Click Create. The cycle starts in the Planning state.
Tip

Keep cycles short enough that check-ins stay meaningful. Quarterly is the most common cadence; annual cycles work well for strategic objectives that drive multiple quarterly cycles.

Step 2: Add objectives

  1. Open the cycle dashboard and click Add Objective.
  2. Write a qualitative direction statement — what your team is trying to achieve, not a number. Good: “Make the checkout experience bulletproof.” Bad: “Reduce errors by 30%.”
  3. Select the owning team.
  4. Click Save.

Repeat for each objective in the cycle. You can also create objectives from the Objectives page in the sidebar and attach them to the cycle later.

Step 3: Add key results

Each Objective needs at least one Key Result to have a progress figure.

  1. Open the objective and click Add Key Result.
  2. Set a name, metric type (Number, Currency, Percentage, or Boolean), start value, and target value.
  3. Choose a drive mode:
  4. Set the cadence (Daily, Weekly, or Monthly) — this controls the staleness indicator.
  5. Optionally assign a KR-level owner and display weight.
  6. Click Save.
Tip

Progress is computed as (current − start) / (target − start). This works for both increase goals (target > start) and reduce goals (target < start). Set start and target values that reflect the actual direction of the metric.

Step 4: Activate the cycle

When your objectives and key results are ready, open the cycle and click Set Active. Computed key results begin updating, and the staleness clock starts ticking based on each key result’s cadence.

Step 5: Run check-ins

Individual check-in

  1. Open the objective.
  2. Next to a key result, click Check In.
  3. Enter the current value, select a status (On Track, Behind, or At Risk), and add an optional comment.
  4. Click Save. The progress bar updates immediately.

You can amend or delete any previous check-in from the KR’s history tab.

Bulk check-in

For cycles with many KRs, the bulk check-in page is faster:

  1. Open the cycle and click Check-in.
  2. Every key result in the cycle appears on one screen.
  3. Fill in the current value and status for each one that needs updating.
  4. Click Save All — every entry is saved in a single action.

A staleness indicator appears next to any KR whose last check-in is older than the cadence window. The bulk page makes these easy to spot.

Step 6: Read risk signals

Open any objective and scroll to the Risk Signals section. Signals are computed automatically — no configuration required.

Signal What it means
Active incident (Critical) A component in scope of a linked Initiative is currently under an incident
Component health degraded (Warning/Critical) A scoped component is degraded, warning, or in outage
Stale initiative (Warning) A linked Initiative has not been updated in 14+ days and is not completed or dropped
High blast radius (Warning) A scoped component has 10+ downstream dependents — a change here has wide reach
Behind trajectory (Warning/Critical) Progress is 15+ (Warning) or 30+ (Critical) percentage points behind the expected pace for this point in the cycle

Signals link directly to the source entity — click through to the incident, the component health view, or the initiative.

If your team is running Initiatives (projects or programmes) in Dependra that are moving a specific KR, link them:

  1. Open the KR detail within the Objective view.
  2. Under Linked Initiatives, click Add Initiative and select from your team’s active initiatives.
  3. Initiative scope items (the components in scope) now feed the risk signal engine.

Step 8: Close the cycle with carry-forward

When the cycle end date arrives (or when scoring is complete):

  1. Open the cycle dashboard and click Close Cycle.
  2. Review each Objective and KR. Select the KRs you want to carry forward into the next cycle.
  3. For each carried KR, the current value becomes the new start value. Relative goal expressions (−20%, +400 k) re-evaluate against the new baseline automatically.
  4. Confirm. The cycle closes, and carried key results appear in the new cycle with a lineage link back to their predecessor.
Tip

Only carry forward KRs where the work genuinely continues. A KR that was completed or abandoned is better left closed — carrying it forward dilutes the signal.

Step 9: Share the summary

Cycle owners can share results without requiring recipients to have a Dependra account:

  1. Open the cycle and click Share Summary.
  2. Set an expiry date and optionally enter email addresses to notify.
  3. Click Generate Link.
  4. Anyone with the link can view the cycle summary in the browser — no Dependra login required.

The link expires on the configured date. You can revoke it early from the sharing settings.

Next steps