Ask HN: How do you measure a developers 'performance'?

1 pointsdoorknobguy6y ago1 comments

My boss always asks for 'a number, any number' to show how the team is doing.

It makes sense since every other department has numbers to back their performance but it's tough to put one together for the engineering team.

Before you say "trusting your team is enough" ... it's really not.. My team trusts one another but its no replacement for having concrete data to:

1. Show the larger org 2. Help us improve internally 3. See the effects of our changes

Any suggestions?

1 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

uberman6y ago

Measuring developer productivity is notoriously difficult. No two tasks are the same, have the same scope or same pre-defined requirements. There seems to be lots of "bad ways" so I recommend if you need to measure "something" to pick a metric that you feel you want to improve and measure it. Your staff will naturally adjust to improve want is measured.

I want to challenge your assertion that every other department has numbers to back their performance. I am skeptical this is true. I don't image HR can bring a meaningful set of numbers to the table demonstrating month to month or quarterly improvement.

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