Hackystat uses sensors to unobtrusively collect data from development environment tools; there is no chronic overhead on developers to collect product and process data.

Hackystat is tool, environment, process, and application agnostic. The architecture does not suppose a specific operating system platform, a specific integrated development environment, a specific software process, or specific application area. A Hackystat system is configured from a set of modules that determine what tools are supported, what data is collected, and what analyses are run on this data.

Hackystat is intended to provide in-process project management support. Many traditional software metrics approaches are based upon the "project repository" method, in which data from prior completed projects are used to make predictions about or support control of a current project. In contrast, Hackystat is designed to collect data from a current, ongoing project, and use that data as feedback into the current project.

Hackystat provides infrastructure for empirical experimentation. For those wishing to compare alternative approaches to development, or for those wishing to do longitudinal studies over time, Hackystat can provide a low-cost approach to gathering certain forms of project data.

Hackystat is open source and is made available for no charge.