A system and method are disclosed for determining the minimum required processing speed for a quadrature decoder using measurements of encoder performance, and to assess the safety factor of a particular decoder processing speed. The system and method may also be used to indicate proper adjustment direction by displaying real-time error measurements during encoder alignment. The system measures a logic state width error and calculates alignment parameters, processing speed and a safety factor. The method allows a measured logic state width error to be used to calculate a minimum required processing speed and safety factor.