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How do I measure the productivity of my software development team?

Published By Patrick Anderson
How do I measure the productivity of my software development team?

The eternal question for organizations worldwide – how do you measure the productivity of your software development team?

There have been many attempts to answer this question, yet a solid measure continues to elude the industry.

For instance, counting output such as the number of lines of code produced is insufficient as there’s little point in counting lines that may be defective.

Quantifying input isn’t easy, either – do you count the number of individuals? The number of hours spent coding? The total hours spent working? What exactly is productivity in software development?

First, we need to establish how developers themselves perceive productivity. If we can determine what factors lead to perceptions of productivity, we can then look to recreate those factors and help developers feel more productive more often. And if a developer feels more productive, they’re more than likely to deliver better work faster.

To better understand how developers perceive productivity, researchers observed professional software developers from international development companies of varying sizes for four hours each. The findings – revealed in the white paper Understanding software development productivity from the ground up identify the key factors that make developers feel productive, and provide compelling insight into how to eliminate the activities/tasks that drain developer productivity.

Are you measuring the right thing?

https://blog.tasktop.com/blog/5-best-metrics-youve-never-met/

What are Flow Metrics in Software Delivery?

Speak to us about measurement

Speak to us today to learn more about how you can improve both the productivity of your development teams and the productivity of all other specialist teams that help you to plan, build, test and deliver software at scale. By focusing on end-to-end productivity, you can optimize your time to value to accelerate the speed and quality of your software products.

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Written by Patrick Anderson

Patrick is Senior Content Manager at Tasktop and oversees the company's content and thought leadership programs. Outside the office, you’ll find him reading, writing, slapping some bass (poorly), rambling in nature and following his English football (soccer) team, West Ham United.