The Hidden Cost of Speed
How the obsession with velocity is breaking software teams
Maya Torres is a staff engineer at a Series D fintech company and writes about engineering culture, technical leadership, and the human side of building software. Her essays have been featured in The Pragmatic Engineer, LeadDev, and InfoQ. She speaks regularly at conferences about sustainable engineering practices.
Key Findings
Teams that ship the most features aren't the most productive — they're often the most wasteful. 60% of shipped features show low or no usage within 6 months.
Story points, PRs merged, and deploy frequency become targets rather than measures. Engineers game the system, splitting work into trivially small pieces.
High-velocity teams show 2.3x higher turnover. The cost of replacing a senior engineer ($400K+) dwarfs any productivity gain.
Teams that protected focus time and limited WIP delivered 40% more value (measured by customer impact) despite 20% fewer deployments.
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Press
"This essay should be required reading for every VP of Engineering."
"Torres articulates what most engineers feel but can't express to leadership."
"A data-driven argument against the cult of velocity."
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