metric-ethicslisted

# Metric ethics: measuring work without measuring people **Read [`references/METRIC-ETHICS.md`](references/METRIC-ETHICS.md) before applying any of this.** That file is the standard; everything below it is a summary to help you decide whether this skill applies and to check your work afterwards. Reference-architecture principles: P14. ## What this standard covers - Anti-goals go at the top, and are enforced by architecture - Every pressurable metric carries its counter-metric - No number leaves without its confidence - Heuristics about people are report-only - The unit of evaluation is the artifact, never the person ## Failure modes | Symptom | Cause | |---|---| | A score intended as a diagnostic appears in a performance conversation | The unit of evaluation is the person, or a per-person view exists for someone to sort (§5, §1) | | A metric improves steadily while the underlying outcome does not | The pressurable metric shipped without a counter-metric, so the cheapest way to move it is the degenerate one (§2) | | A counter-metric exists and nobody looks at it | It is reported beside rather than blended into the same component, so consulting it is optional (§2) | | Two scores are compared and the comparison is meaningless | Confidence or sample size is not carried with the number (§3) | | A sentiment heuristic ends up driving a decision | It was inside the composite at a low weight rather than outside it entirely — and a weight is one config change from non-zero (§4) |