No, That's Not a Software Factory — Ryan Cooke, WorkOS
WorkOS argues standard software factory metrics like PR counts obscure whether AI coding actually delivers value
“We believe that the dream of a software factory is to give each of our engineers a small team of engineers to themselves.”
Ryan Cooke of WorkOS critiques the industry-standard 'software factory' approach—AI agents generating PRs in sandboxes—arguing that headline metrics like PR percentage and AI code share can mask whether systems are actually delivering value. WorkOS instead measures outcome metrics tied to feature delivery speed, framing the goal as giving every engineer a small AI-powered team. The talk is a counter-narrative to the Ramp-style software factory hype cycle, advocating for causally-grounded evaluation over vanity metrics.