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Ketchup vs Linear: Planned Work vs Actual Work

6 min read

Ketchup vs Linear: The Reality Gap

We love Linear. It is the gold standard for issue tracking. But a Jira ticket or Linear issue is a Promise. It is what you hoped to clear.

Ketchup is the Proof. It is what actually happened.

FeatureLinear / JiraKetchup
Data SourceHuman Intent (Tickets)Machine Reality (Commits)
AccuracyLow (People forget to update tickets)100% (Code doesn't lie)
UpdatesManual (Drag and drop)Automated (Git Hooks)
Blind Spots"Shadow Work" (Refactors, bug fixes)None (Everything is tracked)

The "Shadow Work" Problem

Developers do a lot of work that never gets a ticket.

  • "Quickly fixed a typo."
  • "Refactored that ugly function."
  • "Updated dependencies."

In Linear, this time is invisible. To management, it looks like you did nothing. In Ketchup, this Shadow Work is visible. We calculate the "Refactor Volume" and show that you were busy improving the codebase, not just slacking off.

Closing the Loop

The best teams use both.

  1. Linear: Link the ticket.
  2. Ketchup: Auto-close the loop with a summary of the resolution.

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