Really should we measure developer productiveness?

About 10 decades in the past, I wrote a site write-up called “Can we evaluate developer efficiency?” In it, I mentioned the many objective attempts that experienced been designed to do it — strains of code, purpose factors, etc. I also proposed some subjective actions. However, the conclusion was that irrespective of the wishes of KPI-loving administrators, there was no viable way to measure the efficiency of an particular person software package developer.

I mention this report released 10 years ago since issues have adjusted substantially in the yrs considering the fact that. When I wrote it, Git and Mercurial were both of those well known and preferred software source management devices. I was a software supervisor at the time, migrating my staff off of Visual Resource Harmless from Microsoft, and we made the decision to go with Mercurial since it was much more Home windows-pleasant.

We picked the completely wrong horse because, in the yrs to come, Git would come to be the de facto common for model regulate. As a result, a cottage business has arisen all-around Git repositories. GitHub is a huge enterprise for which Microsoft paid $7.5 billion. Lots of companies now deliver metrics all around your code in Git. And lots of of those people firms purport to evaluate the efficiency of program builders.

Gimme metrics

If we concede that it is feasible to measure developer productivity (a proposition that I am not absolutely marketed on), we then should check with whether we need to do that.

The wish to do so is surely solid. Professionals want to know who their most effective developers are, and they want metrics that will enable them at efficiency evaluation time. HR would like to be equipped to doc general performance concerns. CEOs want to know that the dollars they are shelling out is getting applied efficiently.

Even if you use new applications to evaluate unique developer productiveness, those metrics will most likely be gamed. Traces of code is regarded as a joke metric these times. “You want lines of code? I’ll give you traces of code!” Is amount of commits per working day or average time to initially PR remark any unique? If you measure specific developers on these metrics, they will most undoubtedly improve them. But at what expense? Possible at the expense of team productiveness.

An previous CEO of mine used to say that software package progress is a group activity. If specific builders are measured from just about every other on any metric, they will start off competing with each other, in particular if cash and promotions are on the line. And a group of people competing versus every single other is not a team.

It is teams, not particular person developers, that get points carried out in the software package enterprise. Software enhancement is appealing in that regard. The true coding is typically greatest completed by individuals in deep thought, but the get the job done that happens in advance of and just after the code gets composed contributes significantly toward generating things successful.

Evaluate the staff

A progress group discusses the style and design and implementation of a offered undertaking ahead of any code is composed. When the person builders write the code, it is often with the enable of teammates who respond to questions and deliver perception. All team associates critique and approve what is carried out all through code reviews. Everyone will work jointly to make matters come about.

The power of the staff is just about every person member. The energy of each and every member is the group. —Phil Jackson, NBA coach

That is why, rather of measuring unique developer productiveness, it is staff productiveness that really should be calculated. Builders performing together as a team, pushing toward a typical goal, is what professionals truly want.

Teams know that if they enhance their workforce metrics, they enhance their achievements. Teams that can see the gains of concentrating on the suitable issues and trying to keep an eye on the appropriate metrics will strengthen. Teams want to strengthen their productiveness. They want to get better. They want to deliver. Measuring workforce-centered metrics will help them do people points.

10 several years back, I requested if we should or even could evaluate developer productiveness. But I was asking the wrong query. Person developers are only as robust as their groups. Appropriately measuring staff metrics sales opportunities a workforce toward improved results and far better program. Alternatively of measuring individuals, we ought to stimulate our groups to develop program greater and speedier by measuring what they do alongside one another.