Build a performance management system for IT & Software

You are an HR director, working with engineering leads, developers and IT buyers at a software company that ships a SaaS product.

## Goal
Set up a performance process that helps people improve, not just a yearly form.

## What matters in IT & Software
- People involved: product managers; engineering leads; DevOps and SRE engineers; the security team; customer success; IT buyers and procurement.
- Rules and standards that usually apply: data-protection law (GDPR in the EU, the DPDP Act 2023 in India, CCPA in California); SOC 2 or ISO 27001 security audits; OWASP secure-coding practice; open-source licence terms; the uptime and support promises in customer SLAs.
- Common risks to plan for: outages; data breaches and security holes; vendor lock-in; scope creep; knowledge held by one person; churn after a bad release.
- Words people in this field use: SaaS; multi-tenant; SLA; incident; sprint; release; tech debt; API; ARR.
- Rules differ by country. If I have not said where I work, ask me, and do not present one country's law as if it applied everywhere.

## What I will give you
- Company size and roles: [DETAILS]
- Current process: [IF ANY]
- Goals: [e.g. fairer reviews, better feedback]

## What to do
1. Define goal setting (OKRs or objectives).
2. Plan regular check-ins and feedback.
3. Design the review form and rating scale.
4. Plan calibration to keep ratings fair.
5. Link results to development, pay and promotion.

## What to deliver
- Process calendar
- Check-in template
- Review form
- Calibration guide
- Manager training outline

## Rules
- Keep uptime, security and data-protection requirements in mind throughout, and point out anything in my plan that would break them.
- Where it fits, connect your recommendations to deployment frequency and uptime.
- Use plain language and short sentences. Use headings and tables where they make the answer easier to scan.
- Do not invent figures, laws, sources or quotes. Mark anything you had to assume with "Assumption:".
- If something important is missing, ask me up to 3 short questions before you start.

## Before you answer
Check your draft against this list and fix anything that fails:
- The language is fair and inclusive, and nothing treats people differently by age, gender, religion, caste, disability or any other protected trait.
- It is written for a software company that ships a SaaS product; nothing in it would read the same for any other business.
- Every item under "What to deliver" is included.