Results vs. output: the true measure of developer productivity
“Developer productivity” can be an emotional and sometimes misunderstood term. It is not the output of individuals that we are trying to understand, but the effectiveness of the development system as a whole.
A few percentage points increase in development efficiency in a large organization can represent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost savings, better time to market and improved product quality. That, coupled with the promise of significant productivity increases from AI codemates, means that being able to understand and measure the productivity of the engineering workforce should be a top priority for business leaders.
But this can be complex and requires a shift in perspective away from simply counting lines of code, to evaluating the broader impact on business goals. By applying modern productivity measures, business leaders can better understand and improve the effectiveness of their development teams, ultimately leading to more innovative and successful projects.
Chief Technical Advisor, esynergy.
Dropping esoteric productivity measures
Historically, companies have looked at metrics such as lines of code or story points to measure developer productivity. However, these measures often do not reflect the true value that a developer adds to a project and are also easy to influence. For example, developers can artificially increase their productivity by writing extensive code or overestimating story point values.
In addition, such measures can be deployed by management and business stakeholders to achieve faster keystrokes without sufficient consideration of the real value drivers. So it’s usually not good for a company to keep a close eye on the random output of individual developers, because it simply doesn’t directly equate to efficiency or effectiveness. Instead, the benefits of measurement lie in understanding the development team’s ability to create results.
Looking for modernized measures
Healthy measurement of developer metrics starts with understanding the results you’re trying to achieve within your team, not the rate at which code is created; After all, there is no point in delivering the wrong thing faster. This means you need to ask yourself what value you hope to achieve by improving developer productivity. This could, for example, be a shorter delivery time and costs; increased betting frequencies; or fewer defects and rework. The goal is then to identify metrics that provide insight into these areas and guide you in achieving your desired business outcomes.
To implement modernized developer productivity measures, it is essential to first assess and understand existing ways of working across all aspects of delivering value – from processes and practices to tools. This helps identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and areas for improvement. To do this, it’s essential to look beyond individual developers and understand the entire system around delivery, including business analysis, team structure, sign-off and DevOps infrastructure.
Design results-oriented objectives
Once insight is achieved on where improvements need to be made, it is possible to define leading and lagging indicators and proxies. These in turn can be meaningfully tracked to help companies make the right decisions. From a practical perspective, there are numerous tools on the market that can provide insight into DORA and other measures simply by connecting to issue tracking, project management and version control systems.
Armed with an understanding of the current state of affairs, as well as a set of areas for improvement, it is then possible to define results-oriented objectives that are achievable, but ambitious enough to create meaningful value for the organization. By linking objectives to the outcomes the business values most, the impact of change can be maximized without changing processes that do not positively impact the broader objectives.
Once the objectives have been established, a clear Target Operating Model can be established to help the organization perform in the most efficient manner. This helps ensure that all aspects of delivery (beyond the lines of code and even the DORA metrics) are aligned to support the desired results. At this point, developer productivity tools can be leveraged to enable development capacity and track its progress toward deliverables.
Track, rate and reassess
Developer productivity is a journey and it is essential to regularly reassess results-oriented objectives. This may reveal new areas that are more urgent than those currently focused on. It is also possible that targets have already been exceeded and it is time to take implementation capacity to the next level.
By continuously improving and utilizing the right tools and expertise, organizations can increase developer productivity and build a strong foundation for future growth. As technology evolves, adapting and proactively refining productivity strategies will help companies stay competitive and efficient in delivering high-quality results.
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