---
title: "When Quality Becomes Quantity"
date: 2026-04-20
topics: [philosophy, craft]
related: []
abstract: >
  Coverage percentages, pass rates, defect counts — all of them degrade the moment they become OKRs. Goodhart's Law is the missing chapter of any honest argument about metrics in testing, and it turns the slogan "automation is a tool, not a goal" into a demonstrable claim.
---

When Quality Becomes Quantity — Goodhart's Law and the Metrics Trap. "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."[^1] This is the missing chapter of your Cucumber polemic. Coverage percentages, pass rates, defect counts — all of them degrade the moment they become OKRs. You already hint at this in Five Essential Lessons when you say "automation is a tool, not a goal"; Goodhart lets you prove it.

[^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law