Possible to measure developer productivity? 

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Merci 

Merci Bisous. 

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@mehlah 

2009 early career > productivity is how much shit I learned daily 

working solo > productivity is how much money I make Freelancing 

Captain Train > productivity is I’m a fraud 2016 

Trainline > productivity is Measured by my JIRA activity 2018 

co-founded Grinta > productivity is How much I’m green 2021 

2024 Grinta > productivity is ??? 

Trending topic 

Trending topic, since forever 

1975 

1990 Agile™ 

Ongoing downsizing and cost-cutting trends ~2022 https://layoffs.fyi/ 

AI 

AI 

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I’m watching you experts! 

This summer McKinsey article 🔥 

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Why trying to mesure productivity? 

Equity among departments 

Strategic Investment 

🖕 KLOC 

We can’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ forever 

hands-on leaders & people with XP with software engineering 

a CTO who wants to identify which engineers to fire to compare two investment opportunities to manage performance a software engineer who wants to grow at their craft 4 3 2 1 

How does software engineering create value? 

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Why can sales people measure productivity so accurately? 

Level of Accountability 

It’s ALL about ACCOUNTABILITY 

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Make software engineering more accountable 

“Product teams can only be accountable to the results if they are empowered to figure out a solution that works and if they are the ones to come up with the key results.” ― Marty Cagan, Empowered 

Measurement tradeoffs in software engineering 

Deployment frequency Lead time for changes Time to restore service Change failure rate DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment, 2014) 

DORA 

Satisfaction Performance Activity Communication Efficiency SPACE (2021) 

GSM (2018) DevEx (2023) 

McKinsey’s framework 

Tradeoffs All about 

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The danger of only measuring outcomes and impact 

Teams over individuals 

individual performance does not directly predict team performance 

individual performance easier to measure team performance 

Annual perf review anyone? 

So? Software engineering can be measured? 

It depends™ 

what the real need is Understand 

self-measurement for self-improvement is great! 

Avoid perverse incentives 

not possible Mesure individual contribution is 

accountability Again, it’s all about 

Start with team impact. 

possible Mesure team impact is 

stay close to the work 

On mange ! 

Sources Engineering Productivity, GenAI, Metrics, Toil The SPACE of Developer Productivity: There’s More To It Than You Think — Dr. Nicole Forsgren - YouTube https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3454122.3454124 The ETA of Developer Productivity - YouTube What does productivity mean to developers | PPT Margaret-Anne Storey: What does 'productivity' actually mean for developers? - YouTube How to Improve Developer Productivity • Jez Humble • YOW! 2020 - YouTube How do you measure Developer Productivity? The Good Day Project #DemoDays - YouTube My Response To The NONSENSE McKinsey Article On Developer Productivity - YouTube How to measure and improve developer productivity | Nicole Forsgren (Microsoft Research, Github) - YouTube How to measure and improve developer productivity | Nicole Forsgren (Microsoft Research, GitHub, Google) DORA | DORA Quick Check What Is DORA and Why Should You Care? - DevOps.com The SPACE of Developer Productivity - ACM Queue Measuring Software Delivery With DORA Metrics - YouTube The elusive quest to measure developer productivity - GitHub Universe 2019 - YouTube Measuring Programmer Productivity - YouTube How to Improve Developer Productivity 📊 — with Kathryn Koehler (Net fl ix) - YouTube Maximiser l'impact d'une équipe Engineering - YouTube Cannot Measure ProductivityHow To Measure Developer Productivity? | by Dr Milan Milanović | Medium The LinkedIn DPH Framework Measuring Developer Productivity via Humans McKinsey Developer Productivity Review - Dan North & Associates Limited 

Sources Post | LinkedIn Yes, you can measure software developer productivity… but are you sure that’s what you’re measuring or want to measure? | by Jason Yip | Medium Post | LinkedIn Measuring Engineering Productivity - by Abi Noda Measuring an engineering organization. | Irrational Exuberance Software Engineering at Google Inside Look: Measuring Developer Productivity and Happiness at LinkedIn How to Build a High Performing Engineering Team 🏗 — with Maria Gutierrez (Personio, Twitter) How to Use Engineering Metrics 📊 - by Luca Rossi Post | LinkedIn The State of Engineering Productivity in 2024 📊 Measuring developer productivity? A response to McKinsey Measuring developer productivity? A response to McKinsey, Part 2 (2) Measuring developer productivity? A response to McKinsey (2) Comments - Measuring developer productivity? A response to McKinsey 2 How Uber is Measuring Engineering Productivity A new way to measure developer productivity – from the creators of DORA and SPACE Developer productivity 2.0 | LeadDev The Full Circle on Developer Productivity with Steve Yegge Measuring Software Engineering Productivity Measuring Engineering Ef fi ciency at LinkedIn Platform Teams and Developer Productivity with Adam Rogal, Dir. Developer Platform at DoorDash (2) Measuring Developer Productivity - by Mike Fisher 

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Example metrics “The SPACE of Developer Productivity” 

Example DevEx Metrics 

Productivity metrics by McKinsey & Co