Software developer의 생산성을 측정할 수 있을까?
We can’t measure Programmer Productivity… or can we?
LOC
The more fundamental problem is that measuring productivity by lines (or Function Points or other derivatives) typed doesn’t make any sense. A lot of important work in software development, the most important work, involves thinking and learning – not typing.
The best programmers spend a lot of time understanding and solving hard problems, or helping other people understand and solve hard problems, instead of typing. They find ways to simplify code and eliminate duplication. And a lot of the code that they do write won’t count anyways, as they iterate through experiments and build prototypes and throw all of it away in order to get to an optimal solution.
Money
Velocity
But velocity (how much work, measured in story points or feature points or ideal days, that the team delivers in a period of time) is really a measure of predictability, not productivity. Velocity is intended to be used by a team to measure how much work they can take on, to calibrate their estimates and plan their work forward.
Once a team’s velocity has stabilized, you can measure changes in velocity within the team as a relative measure of productivity. If the team’s velocity is decelerating, it could be an indicator of problems in the team or the project or the system. Or you can use velocity to measure the impact of process improvements, to see if training or new tools or new practices actually make the team’s work measurably faster.
Organizations and managers who equate internal velocity with external productivity start to set targets for velocity, forgetting that what actually matters is working software in production. Treating velocity as productivity leads to unproductive team behaviors that optimize this metric at the expense of actual working software.
The down side of equating delivery speed with productivity? Optimizing for cycle time/speed of delivery by itself could lead to problems over the long term, because this incents people to think short term, and to cut corners and take on technical debt.
Better Software
It’s easy to measure that you are writing good – or bad – software. Defect density. Defect escape rates (especially defects – including security vulnerabilities – that escape to production). Static analysis metrics on the code base, using tools like SonarQube.
Devops
As I pointed out in an earlier post this makes operational metrics more important than developer metrics. According to recent studies, success in achieving these goals lead to improvements in business success: not just productivity, but market share and profitability.
그래서 결론은?
Stop trying to measure individual developer productivity.
It’s a waste of time.
Everyone knows who the top performers are. Point them in the right direction, and keep them happy.
Everyone knows the people who are struggling. Get them the help that they need to succeed.
Everyone knows who doesn’t fit in. Move them out.
Measuring and improving productivity at the team or (better) organization level will give you much more meaningful returns.
When it comes to productivity:
- Measure things that matter – things that will make a difference to the team or to the organization. Measures that are clear, important, and that aren’t easy to game.
- Use metrics for good, not for evil – to drive learning and improvement, not to compare output between teams or to rank people.