Swarmia vs. minware
Swarmia is a relatively new entrant to development analytics. They have raised the bar from previous-generation systems by building a really nice UI around the most common metrics.
But, they haven’t adopted modern data methods.
If you want to actually get better at planning, quality, and process efficiency with actionable metrics, Swarmia’s first-generation platform is inadequate.
The problem with first-gen metrics
Swarmia’s first-gen metrics rely on existing data fields (PR cycle time, deployment count, etc.) They will get in you in the right ballpark, but are:
Lagging, unactionable
They tell you what happened, but not what caused it. Why are cycle times slow – is it interruptions, bad estimates, large tickets? How do I get better?
Disconnected from impact
Swarmia’s metrics use arbitrary unit counts (tickets, PRs, etc.), which don’t tell you what matters.
Cumbersome and manual
If you want additional visibility (work type, tech debt, active dev effort, etc.), you have to painstakingly label tickets or log time by hand.
“Instead of AI replacing engineers, maybe it should replace tedious non-engineering work that wastes their time.”
Kevin Borders
Founder & CEO, minware
Next-gen data models offer insights without effort
Next-gen data models use modern methods to derive metrics with higher-level meaning (e.g., active development time per ticket) that are:
Actionable
See exactly where problems lie so you know where to improve.
Impact-Focused
Measure the effect on available engineering time instead of arbitrary unit counts.
Automatic
Compute high-level properties without having to log time, impose mandatory fields, or change the way you work.
Next-gen data models answer real questions
CEOs don't ask about Swarmia metrics like cycle times. Next-gen data models answer real questions like these (links go to live demo):
minQL and BI report builder let you customize anything
Swarmia provides a very walled-garden experience. Their UI really is nice if you stay within the bounds of the reports they offer, but the reports are locked in place with only surface-level customization.
All minware reports are built on top of the minQL query language and fully editable. Access any field from any data source to create custom metrics with powerful formulas, including custom event cycle times.
Say goodbye to spreadsheets and SQL.
Zero-effort setup
Swarmia made setup an order of magnitude easier than other platforms with its self-service configuration, but it’s still not a cake walk.
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
Swarmia
Intensive (Weeks)
Self-Service (Hours)
Zero Effort
Why choose Swarmia over minware?
This question may be the opposite of what you were expecting.
Swarmia has invested heavily in making it as easy as possible to view standard metrics like DORA and cost capitalization at the individual, team, and whole-organization level.
If that’s all you want and you are not interested in deeper, more actionable metrics, then minware might be overkill.
We evaluated Swarmia and others before starting minware, but saw how first-gen metrics from existing solutions just don’t make it easy to get better.
If you want to unlock your team’s full potential...
