Haystack vs. minware
Haystack is a recent upstart offering a fast and easy way to track your DORA metrics. But, the “D” in DORA stands for DevOps, and there’s more to building software than just shipping code.
We’re here to raise the bar for comprehensive software engineering analytics, making efficient and predictable delivery easy from start to finish.
Full Lifecycle Visibility
Haystack nails DORA metrics for assessing DevOps health. This is necessary for a healthy software team, but not sufficient because it overlooks big parts of the software development lifecycle.
minware measures overhead at every stage to help engineering and product teams drive end-to-end efficiency and predictability.
Read more about the productivity stack >Stage
Overhead Metrics
minware
Haystack
All Time
- Non-Dev Time
- Meetings
Dev Time
- DevOps/DORA
- Flow Efficiency
- Context Switching
Task Time
- Unticketed Time
- Churn/Revert Time
- Over Estimate Time
Tickets
- Rollover
- Incomplete
- Late Additions
Sprints
- Bugs
- Unplanned Tasks
- Tech Debt Fixes
Roadmap
- Scope Creep
- Planning Issues
- Failed Projects
Planned Roadmap Delivery
Actions Speak Louder Than Dashboards
Haystack has nice metric visualizations and even offers configurable alerts. However, you’re on your own figuring out how to make your metrics better.
minware’s step-by-step scorecard shows you exactly what engineers, scrum masters, and product owners should improve next across the entire software development process.
Read more about our scorecard >Actionability Level
minware
Haystack
1. Metrics
2. Benchmarks
3. Configurable Alerts
4. Prioritized Scorecard
5. Automated Intervention
Who It’s For
Haystack tailors their product to individual developers, not just managers and executives.
We agree that metrics should serve the people who build software, but also believe that scrum masters and product owners are an important part of the process.
Job Role
minware
Haystack
Engineers
Scrum Masters
Product Owners
Managers
Senior Software Leaders
CEOs, Board, Executive Team
Zero-Effort Setup
Haystack makes it easy to get started, but configuring everything to link and name different Git authors can still be a lot of work. Of course, the fact that Haystack doesn’t even integrate with Jira makes setup easier too, but you get less out of it.
We’ve invested heavily in making minware work out-of-the box with fully automated configuration and no process changes. All you need to do is hook up version control and ticketing systems with a few clicks.
No story points? No sprints? No tickets in PRs? No Org Chart? Different usernames in Git/Jira? Crazy ticket statuses? No problem, we’ll figure it out.
Setup Difficulty
minware
Haystack
Intensive (Weeks)
Self-Service (Hours)
Zero Effort
Why Choose Haystack over minware?
This question may be the opposite of what you were expecting.
Haystack does one thing – DORA metrics – and is an easy solution if your boss is just asking for that, or if you are only responsible for DevOps.
We evaluated similar DORA metrics tools a few years ago ourselves. After thoroughly examining them and seeing the gaps, we decided to dedicate years of our lives and much of our own money to starting minware.
If you are also unsatisfied with DORA metrics and care about overall engineering productivity:
(If you want a deeper dive into minware right away, check out our Report Walkthrough, which is a 30-minute read.)
