Someplace, proper now, a expertise government tells their administrators: “we
want a option to measure the productiveness of our engineering groups.” A working
group assembles to discover potential options, and weeks later, proposes
implementing the metrics: lead time, deployment frequency, and variety of
pull requests created per engineer.
Quickly after, senior engineering leaders meet to assessment their newly created
dashboards. Instantly, questions and doubts are raised. One chief says:
“Our lead time is 2 days which is ‘low performing’ in keeping with these
benchmarks – however is there truly an issue?”. One other chief says: “it’s
unsurprising to see that a few of our groups are deploying much less typically than
others. However I’m unsure if this spells a possibility for enchancment.”
If this story arc is acquainted to you, don’t fear – it is acquainted to
most, together with a number of the greatest tech corporations on the planet. It’s not unusual
for measurement packages to fall brief when metrics like DORA fail to offer
the insights leaders had hoped for.
There’s, nevertheless, a greater method. An method that focuses on
capturing insights from builders themselves, moderately than solely counting on
fundamental measures of pace and output. We’ve helped many organizations make the
leap to this human-centered method. And we’ve seen firsthand the
dramatically improved understanding of developer productiveness that it
supplies.
What we’re referring to right here is qualitative measurement. On this
article, we offer a primer on this method derived from our expertise
serving to many organizations on this journey. We start with a definition of
qualitative metrics and tips on how to advocate for them. We comply with with sensible
steering on tips on how to seize, observe, and make the most of this information.
At the moment, developer productiveness is a vital concern for companies amid
the backdrop of fiscal tightening and transformational applied sciences comparable to
AI. As well as, developer expertise and platform engineering are garnering
elevated consideration as enterprises look past Agile and DevOps
transformation. What all these issues share is a reliance on measurement
to assist information selections and observe progress. And for this, qualitative
measurement is vital.
Observe: after we say “developer productiveness”, we imply the diploma to which
builders’ can do their work in a frictionless method – not the person
efficiency of builders. Some organizations discover “developer productiveness”
to be a problematic time period due to the way in which it may be misinterpreted by
builders. We suggest that organizations use the time period “developer
expertise,” which has extra constructive connotations for builders.
What’s a qualitative metric?
We outline a qualitative metric as a measurement comprised of knowledge
offered by people. It is a sensible definition – we haven’t discovered a
singular definition inside the social sciences, and the choice
definitions we’ve seen have flaws that we talk about later on this
part.
Determine 1: Qualitative metrics are measurements derived from people
The definition of the phrase “metric” is unambiguous. The time period
“qualitative,” nevertheless, has no authoritative definition as famous within the
2019 journal paper What’s Qualitative in
Qualitative Analysis:
There are lots of definitions of qualitative analysis, but when we search for
a definition that addresses its distinctive function of being
“qualitative,” the literature throughout the broad discipline of social science is
meager. The principle cause behind this text lies within the paradox, which, to
put it bluntly, is that researchers act as in the event that they know what it’s, however
they can’t formulate a coherent definition.
An alternate definition we’ve heard is that qualitative metrics measure
high quality, whereas quantitative metrics measure amount. We’ve discovered this
definition problematic for 2 causes: first, the time period “qualitative
metric” contains the time period metric, which means that the output is a
amount (i.e., a measurement). Second, high quality is often measured
via ordinal scales which can be translated into numerical values and
scores – which once more, contradicts the definition.
One other argument we’ve heard is that the output of sentiment evaluation
is quantitative as a result of the evaluation ends in numbers. Whereas we agree
that the info ensuing from sentiment evaluation is quantitative, primarily based on
our authentic definition that is nonetheless a qualitative metric (i.e., a amount
produced qualitatively) until one had been to take the place that
“qualitative metric” is altogether an oxymoron.
Apart from the issue of defining what a qualitative metric is, we’ve
additionally encountered problematic colloquialisms. One instance is the time period “mushy
metric”. We warning in opposition to this phrase as a result of it harmfully and
incorrectly implies that information collected from people is weaker than “onerous
metrics” collected from programs. We additionally discourage the time period “subjective
metrics” as a result of it misconstrues the truth that information collected from people
may be both goal or subjective – as we talk about within the subsequent
part.
| Kind | Definition | Instance |
|---|---|---|
| Attitudinal metrics | Subjective emotions, opinions, or attitudes towards a selected topic. | How happy are you together with your IDE, on a scale of 1–10? |
| Behavioral metrics | Goal info or occasions pertaining to a person’s work expertise. | How lengthy does it take so that you can deploy a change to manufacturing? |
Later on this article we offer steering on tips on how to acquire and use
these measurements, however first we’ll present a real-world instance of this
method put to observe
Peloton is an American expertise firm
whose developer productiveness measurement technique facilities round
qualitative metrics. To gather qualitative metrics, their group
runs a semi-annual developer expertise survey led by their Tech
Enablement & Developer Expertise crew, which is a part of their Product
Operations group.
Thansha Sadacharam, head of tech studying and insights, explains: “I
very strongly imagine, and I believe numerous our engineers additionally actually
recognize this, that engineers aren’t robots, they’re people. And simply
fundamental numbers would not drive the entire story. So for us, having
a extremely complete survey that helped us perceive that whole
developer expertise was actually essential.”
Every survey is shipped to
a random pattern of roughly half of their builders. With this method,
particular person builders solely must take part in a single survey per yr,
minimizing the general time spent on filling out surveys whereas nonetheless
offering a statistically important consultant set of knowledge outcomes.
The Tech Enablement & Developer Expertise crew can be chargeable for
analyzing and sharing the findings from their surveys with leaders throughout
the group.
For extra on Peloton’s developer expertise survey, hearken to this
interview
with Thansha Sadacharam.
Advocating for qualitative metrics
Executives are sometimes skeptical concerning the reliability or usefulness of
qualitative metrics. Even extremely scientific organizations like Google have
needed to overcome these biases. Engineering leaders are inclined towards
system metrics since they’re accustomed to working with telemetry information
for inspecting programs. Nonetheless, we can not depend on this similar method for
measuring folks.
Keep away from pitting qualitative and quantitative metrics in opposition to one another.
We’ve seen some organizations get into an inner “battle of the
metrics” which isn’t a great use of time or vitality. Our recommendation for
champions is to keep away from pitting qualitative and quantitative metrics in opposition to
one another as an both/or. It’s higher to make the argument that they’re
complementary instruments – as we cowl on the finish of this text.
We’ve discovered that the underlying reason behind opposition to qualitative information
are misconceptions which we handle under. Later on this article, we
define the distinct advantages of self-reported information comparable to its potential to
measure intangibles and floor vital context.
False impression: Qualitative information is barely subjective
Conventional office surveys usually give attention to the subjective
opinions and emotions of their staff. Thus many engineering leaders
intuitively imagine that surveys can solely acquire subjective information from
builders.
As we describe within the following part, surveys may also seize
goal details about info or occasions. Google’s DevOps Analysis and
Evaluation (DORA) program is a superb concrete
instance.
Some examples of goal survey questions:
- How lengthy does it take to go from code dedicated to code efficiently
operating in manufacturing? - How typically does your group deploy code to manufacturing or
launch it to finish customers?
False impression: Qualitative information is unreliable
One problem of surveys is that folks with all method of backgrounds
write survey questions with no particular coaching. Consequently, many
office surveys don’t meet the minimal requirements wanted to supply
dependable or legitimate measures. Nicely designed surveys, nevertheless, produce
correct and dependable information (we offer steering on how to do that later in
the article).
Some organizations have issues that folks might lie in surveys. Which
can occur in conditions the place there’s worry round how the info can be
used. In our expertise, when surveys are deployed as a software to assist
perceive and enhance bottlenecks affecting builders, there is no such thing as a
incentive for respondents to lie or recreation the system.
Whereas it’s true that survey information isn’t at all times 100% correct, we frequently
remind leaders that system metrics are sometimes imperfect too. For instance,
many organizations try to measure CI construct occasions utilizing information aggregated
from their pipelines, solely to search out that it requires important effort to
clear the info (e.g. excluding background jobs, accounting for parallel
jobs) to supply an correct end result
The 2 varieties of qualitative metrics
There are two key varieties of qualitative metrics:
- Attitudinal metrics seize subjective emotions, opinions, or
attitudes towards a selected topic. An instance of an attitudinal measure would
be the numeric worth captured in response to the query: “How happy are
you together with your IDE, on a scale of 1-10?”. - Behavioral metrics seize goal info or occasions pertaining to an
people’ work experiences. An instance of a behavioral measure can be the
amount captured in response to the query: “How lengthy does it take so that you can
deploy a change to manufacturing?”
We’ve discovered that almost all tech practitioners overlook behavioral measures
when fascinated about qualitative metrics. This happens regardless of the
prevalence of qualitative behavioral measures in software program analysis, such
because the Google’s DORA program talked about earlier.
DORA publishes annual benchmarks for metrics comparable to lead time for
modifications, deployment frequency, and alter fail charge. Unbeknownst to many,
DORA’s benchmarks are captured utilizing qualitative strategies with the survey
gadgets proven under:
Lead time
For the first software or service you’re employed on,
what’s your lead time for modifications (that’s, how lengthy does it take to go
from code dedicated to code efficiently operating in manufacturing)?
Greater than six months
One to 6 months
One week to 1 month
Sooner or later to 1 week
Lower than at some point
Lower than one hour
Deploy frequency
For the first software or service you
work on, how typically does your group deploy code to manufacturing or
launch it to finish customers?
Fewer than as soon as per six months
Between as soon as per thirty days and as soon as each six months
Between as soon as per week and as soon as per thirty days
Between as soon as per day and as soon as per week
Between as soon as per hour and as soon as per day
On demand (a number of deploys per day)
Change fail proportion
For the first software or service you’re employed on, what
proportion of modifications to manufacturing or releases to customers lead to
degraded service (for instance, result in service impairment or service
outage) and subsequently require remediation (for instance, require a
hotfix, rollback, repair ahead, patch)?
0–15%
16–30%
31–45%
46–60%
61–75%
76–100%
Time to revive
For the first software or service you’re employed on, how lengthy
does it usually take to revive service when a service incident or a
defect that impacts customers happens (for instance, unplanned outage, service
impairment)?
Greater than six months
One to 6 months
One week to 1 month
Sooner or later to 1 week
Lower than at some point
Lower than one hour
We’ve discovered that the power to gather attitudinal and behavioral information
on the similar time is a strong advantage of qualitative measurement.
For instance, behavioral information would possibly present you that your launch course of
is quick and environment friendly. However solely attitudinal information might let you know whether or not it
is clean and painless, which has essential implications for developer
burnout and retention.
To make use of a non-tech analogy: think about you’re feeling sick and go to a
physician. The physician takes your blood strain, your temperature, your coronary heart
charge, they usually say “Nicely, it appears to be like such as you’re all good. There’s nothing
incorrect with you.” You’ll be shocked! You’d say, “Wait, I’m telling
you that one thing feels incorrect.”
The advantages of qualitative metrics
One argument for qualitative metrics is that they keep away from subjecting
builders to the sensation of “being measured” by administration. Whereas we’ve
discovered this to be true – particularly when in comparison with metrics derived from
builders’ Git or Jira information – it doesn’t handle the primary goal
advantages that qualitative approaches can present.
There are three foremost advantages of qualitative metrics in the case of
measuring developer productiveness:
Qualitative metrics mean you can measure issues which can be in any other case
unmeasurable
System metrics like lead time and deployment quantity seize what’s
occurring in our pipelines or ticketing programs. However there are lots of extra
features of builders’ work that should be understood to be able to enhance
productiveness: for instance, whether or not builders are in a position to keep within the circulation
or work or simply navigate their codebases. Qualitative metrics allow you to
measure these intangibles which can be in any other case tough or inconceivable to
measure.
An fascinating instance of that is technical debt. At Google, a research to
establish metrics for technical debt included an evaluation of 117 metrics
that had been proposed as potential indicators. To the frustration of
Google researchers, no single metric or mixture of metrics had been discovered
to be legitimate indicators (for extra on how Google measures technical debt,
hearken to this interview).
Whereas there might exist an undiscovered goal metric for technical
debt, one can suppose that this can be inconceivable as a result of the truth that
evaluation of technical debt depends on the comparability between the present
state of a system or codebase versus its imagined very best state. In different
phrases, human judgment is crucial.
Qualitative metrics present lacking visibility throughout groups and
programs
Metrics from ticketing programs and pipelines give us visibility into
a number of the work that builders do. However this information alone can not give us
the complete story. Builders do numerous work that’s not captured in tickets
or builds: for instance, designing key options, shaping the course of a
undertaking, or serving to a teammate get onboarded.
It’s inconceivable to realize visibility into all these actions via
information from our programs alone. And even when we might theoretically acquire
all the info via programs, there are further challenges to capturing
metrics via instrumentation.
One instance is the problem of normalizing metrics throughout completely different
crew workflows. For instance, should you’re making an attempt to measure how lengthy it takes
for duties to go from begin to completion, you would possibly attempt to get this information
out of your ticketing software. However particular person groups typically have completely different
workflows that make it tough to supply an correct metric. In
distinction, merely asking builders how lengthy duties usually take may be
a lot less complicated.
One other frequent problem is cross-system visibility. For instance, a
small startup can measure TTR (time to revive) utilizing simply a difficulty
tracker comparable to Jira. A big group, nevertheless, will seemingly must
consolidate and cross-attribute information throughout planning programs and deployment
pipelines to be able to achieve end-to-end system visibility. This could be a
yearlong effort, whereas capturing this information from builders can present a
baseline rapidly.
Qualitative metrics present context for quantitative information
As technologists, it’s simple to focus closely on quantitative measures.
They appear clear and clear, afterall. There’s a threat, nevertheless, that the
full story isn’t being instructed with out richer information and that this will likely lead us
into specializing in the incorrect factor.
One instance of that is code assessment: a typical optimization is to attempt to
pace up the code assessment. This appears logical as ready for a code assessment
could cause wasted time or undesirable context switching. We might measure the
time it takes for critiques to be accomplished and incentivize groups to enhance
it. However this method might encourage unfavorable conduct: reviewers speeding
via critiques or builders not discovering the appropriate consultants to carry out
critiques.
Code critiques exist for an essential objective: to make sure prime quality
software program is delivered. If we do a extra holistic evaluation – specializing in the
outcomes of the method moderately than simply pace – we discover that optimization
of code assessment should guarantee good code high quality, mitigation of safety
dangers, constructing shared data throughout crew members, in addition to making certain
that our coworkers aren’t caught ready. Qualitative measures might help us
assess whether or not these outcomes are being met.
One other instance is developer onboarding processes. Software program improvement
is a crew exercise. Thus if we solely measure particular person output metrics such
as the speed new builders are committing or time to first commit, we miss
essential outcomes e.g. whether or not we’re totally using the concepts the
builders are bringing, whether or not they really feel protected to ask questions and if
they’re collaborating with cross-functional friends.
Easy methods to seize qualitative metrics
Many tech practitioners don’t notice how tough it’s to jot down good
survey questions and design good survey devices. In actual fact, there are
entire fields of research associated to this, comparable to psychometrics and
industrial psychology. You will need to convey or construct experience right here
when doable.
Under are few good guidelines for writing surveys to keep away from the commonest
errors we see organizations make:
- Survey gadgets should be fastidiously worded and each query ought to solely ask
one factor. - If you wish to examine outcomes between surveys, watch out about altering
the wording of questions such that you just’re measuring one thing completely different. - Should you change any wording, you need to do rigorous statistical assessments.
In survey parlance, ”good surveys” means “legitimate and dependable” or
“demonstrating good psychometric properties.” Validity is the diploma to
which a survey merchandise truly measures the assemble you want to measure.
Reliability is the diploma to which a survey merchandise produces constant
outcomes out of your inhabitants and over time.
One mind-set about survey design that we’ve discovered useful to
tech practitioners: consider the survey response course of as an algorithm
that takes place within the human thoughts.
When a person is introduced a survey query, a collection of psychological
steps happen to be able to arrive at a response. The mannequin under is from
the seminal 2012 guide, The Psychology of Survey
Response:
| Element | Particular Processes |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | Attend to questions and directions Symbolize logical type of query Establish query focus (info sought) Hyperlink key phrases to related ideas |
| Retrieval | Generate retrieval technique and cues Retrieve particular, generic reminiscences Fill in lacking particulars |
| Judgment | Assess completeness and relevance of reminiscences Draw inferences primarily based on accessibility Combine materials retrieved Make estimate primarily based on partial retrieval |
| Response | Map Judgement onto response class Edit response |
Decomposing the survey response course of and inspecting every step
might help us refine our inputs to supply extra correct survey outcomes.
Growing good survey gadgets requires rigorous design, testing, and
evaluation – identical to the method of designing software program!
However good survey design is only one side of operating profitable surveys.
Further challenges embody participation charges, information evaluation, and figuring out
tips on how to act on information. Under are a number of the greatest practices we’ve
realized.
Phase outcomes by crew and persona
A standard mistake made by organizational leaders is to give attention to companywide
outcomes as an alternative of knowledge damaged down by crew and persona (e.g., position, tenure,
seniority). As beforehand described, developer expertise is very contextual
and might differ radically throughout groups or roles. Focusing solely on mixture
outcomes can result in overlooking issues that have an effect on small however essential
populations inside the firm, comparable to cell builders.
Examine outcomes in opposition to benchmarks
Comparative evaluation might help contextualize information and assist drive motion. For
instance, developer sentiment towards code high quality generally skews unfavorable, making
it tough to establish true issues or gauge their magnitude. The extra
actionable information level is: “are our builders extra pissed off about code
high quality than different groups or organizations?” Groups with decrease sentiment scores
than their friends and organizations with decrease scores than their business friends
can floor notable alternatives for enchancment.
Use transactional surveys the place applicable
Transactional surveys seize suggestions throughout particular touchpoints or
interactions within the developer workflow. For instance, platform groups can use
transactional surveys to immediate builders for suggestions whereas they’re within the midst of
creating a brand new service in an inner developer portal. Transactional surveys can
additionally increase information from periodic surveys by producing higher-frequency suggestions and
extra granular insights.
Keep away from survey fatigue
Many organizations battle to maintain excessive participation charges in surveys
over time. Lack of follow-up could cause builders to really feel that
repeatedly responding to surveys will not be worthwhile. It’s subsequently
vital that leaders and groups comply with up and take significant motion after surveys.
Whereas a quarterly or
semi-annual survey cadence is perfect for many organizations, we’ve seen some
organizations achieve success with extra frequent surveys which can be built-in into
common crew rituals comparable to retrospectives.
Survey Template
Under are a easy set of survey questions for getting began. Load the questions
under into your most popular survey software, or get began rapidly by making a duplicate of our ready-to-go
Google Varieties template.
The template is deliberately easy, however surveys typically turn out to be fairly sizable as your measurement
technique matures. For instance, Shopify’s developer survey is 20-minutes
lengthy and Google’s is over 30-minutes lengthy.
After you’ve got collected responses, rating the a number of alternative questions
utilizing both imply or high field scoring. Imply scores are calculated by
assigning every choice a worth between 1 and 5 and taking the common.
Prime field scores are calculated by the odds of responses that
select one of many high two most favorable choices.
Make sure you assessment open textual content responses which might comprise nice
info. Should you’ve collected a lot of feedback, LLM instruments
comparable to ChatGPT may be helpful for extracting core themes and
ideas. While you’ve completed analyzing outcomes, be sure you share
your findings with respondents so their time filling out the survey
feels worthwhile.
How simple or tough is it so that you can do work as a
developer or technical contributor at [INSERT ORGANIATION NAME]?
Very tough
Considerably tough
Neither simple nor tough
Considerably simple
Very simple
For the first software or service you’re employed on, what
is your lead time for modifications (that’s, how lengthy does it take to go
from code dedicated to code efficiently operating in
manufacturing)?
A couple of month
One week to 1 month
Sooner or later to 1 week
Lower than at some point
Lower than one hour
How typically do you’re feeling extremely productive in your
work?
By no means
Slightly of the time
A number of the time
More often than not
The entire time
Please charge your settlement or disagreement with the next
statements:
| My crew follows improvement greatest practices | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| I’ve sufficient time for deep work. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| I’m happy with the quantity of automated check protection in my undertaking. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| It is simple for me to deploy to manufacturing. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| I am happy with the standard of our CI/CD tooling. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| My crew’s codebase is straightforward for me to contribute to. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| The quantity of technical debt on my crew is suitable primarily based on our targets. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| Specs are repeatedly revisited and reprioritized in keeping with consumer indicators. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
Please share any further suggestions on how your developer expertise could possibly be improved
[open textarea]
Utilizing qualitative and quantitative metrics collectively
Qualitative metrics and quantitative metrics are complementary approaches
to measuring developer productiveness. Qualitative metrics, derived from
surveys, present a holistic view of productiveness that features each subjective
and goal measurements. Quantitative metrics, however, present
distinct benefits as effectively:
- Precision. People can let you know whether or not their CI/CD builds are usually
quick or gradual (i.e., whether or not durations are nearer to a minute or an hour), however
they can’t report on construct occasions right down to millisecond precision. Quantitative
metrics are wanted when a excessive diploma of precision is required in our
measurements. - Continuity. Sometimes, the frequency at which a company can survey
their builders is at most a couple of times per quarter. With a view to acquire extra
frequent or steady metrics, organizations should collect information
systematically.
In the end, it’s via the mix of qualitative and quantitative metrics – a mixed-methods method –
that organizations can achieve most visibility into the productiveness and
expertise of builders. So how do you employ qualitative and quantitative
metrics collectively?
We’ve seen organizations discover success once they begin with qualitative
metrics to determine baselines and decide the place to focus. Then, comply with with
quantitative metrics to assist drill in deeper into particular areas.
Engineering leaders discover this method to be efficient as a result of qualitative
metrics present a holistic view and context, offering broad understanding of
potential alternatives. Quantitative metrics, however, are
usually solely accessible for a narrower set of the software program supply
course of.
Google equally advises its engineering leaders to go to survey information first
earlier than logs information for that reason. Google engineering researcher
Ciera Jaspan explains: “We encourage leaders to go to the survey information first,
as a result of should you solely take a look at logs information it would not actually let you know whether or not
one thing is nice or dangerous. For instance, we’ve a metric that tracks the time
to make a change, however that quantity is ineffective by itself. You do not know, is
this a great factor? Is it a nasty factor? Do we’ve an issue?”.
A combined strategies method permits us to make the most of the advantages of
each qualitative and quantitative metrics whereas getting a full perceive of
developer productiveness:
- Begin with qualitative information to establish your high alternatives
- As soon as you already know what you wish to enhance, use quantitative metrics to
drill-in additional - Monitor your progress utilizing each qualitative and quantitative metrics
It’s only by combining as a lot information as doable – each qualitative and
quantitative – that organizations can start to construct a full understanding of
developer productiveness.
Ultimately, nevertheless, it’s essential to recollect: organizations spend lots
on extremely certified people that may observe and detect issues that log-based
metrics can’t. By tapping into the minds and voices of builders,
organizations can unlock insights beforehand seen as inconceivable.