Philosophically, it's important to have something concrete to work towards.
Like you say, what happens in practice, no matter what the system, is that it takes on a life of it's own, and there is a management layer discussing, planning, monitoring, etc thr KPIs, OKRs, whatever, as if tending the metrics is the goal of the business instead of delivering the underlying work. And this pisses off the engineers (or whoever the actual "doers" are, because it makes management look like a big circle jerk instead of a useful function - and a lot of the time, this is true.
Personally, I can see emphasis on these metrics and their associated processes as an important part of a process driven organization, where you want everything to be consistent, and are willing to sacrifice efficiency (and job satisfaction), while carrying a heavy admin layer. This is probably true for most big companies.
Personally, I think the solution is individual responsibility- less management and more focus on specifications. Basically treating each employee as a subcontractor or tradesman and telling them what you want done instead of how to do it, and having money or %utilization as a feedback mechanism. But they only works with the right mindset, and if you're the government or a big Corp, it's probably easier to just spend the time on OKRs
Like you say, what happens in practice, no matter what the system, is that it takes on a life of it's own, and there is a management layer discussing, planning, monitoring, etc thr KPIs, OKRs, whatever, as if tending the metrics is the goal of the business instead of delivering the underlying work. And this pisses off the engineers (or whoever the actual "doers" are, because it makes management look like a big circle jerk instead of a useful function - and a lot of the time, this is true.
Personally, I can see emphasis on these metrics and their associated processes as an important part of a process driven organization, where you want everything to be consistent, and are willing to sacrifice efficiency (and job satisfaction), while carrying a heavy admin layer. This is probably true for most big companies.
Personally, I think the solution is individual responsibility- less management and more focus on specifications. Basically treating each employee as a subcontractor or tradesman and telling them what you want done instead of how to do it, and having money or %utilization as a feedback mechanism. But they only works with the right mindset, and if you're the government or a big Corp, it's probably easier to just spend the time on OKRs