> I've spent some time this cycle trying to mention this to our new manager, so we will see how/if things change.
I got your distaste from the above first paragraph. Earlier, I was asking: what else would have instead of that? I hope I was clear this time.
If the manager doesn't understand the business and technical needs enough to be able to set those items with an engineer, I'm not sure what that they are really enabling team members to have a good bar for what they will be evaluated on, and I think that is a sub-optimal environment for people (not just engineers) to work in.
My ultimate sentiment here is: would you want to take a test where you didn't have a good idea about how it was graded?