Someplace, proper now, a expertise govt tells their administrators: “we
want a method 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 evaluation their newly created
dashboards. Instantly, questions and doubts are raised. One chief says:
“Our lead time is 2 days which is ‘low performing’ in line with these
benchmarks – however is there really 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 few of the greatest tech firms on the earth. 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, fairly than solely counting on
primary measures of velocity 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 find out how to advocate for them. We observe with sensible
steerage on find out how to seize, observe, and make the most of this information.
At the moment, developer productiveness is a crucial concern for companies amid
the backdrop of fiscal tightening and transformational applied sciences similar 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 choices and observe progress. And for this, qualitative
measurement is essential.
Notice: 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 best way it may be misinterpreted by
builders. We suggest that organizations use the time period “developer
expertise,” which has extra optimistic connotations for builders.
What’s a qualitative metric?
We outline a qualitative metric as a measurement comprised of information
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 subject of social science is
meager. The primary 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 not 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” consists of 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 have now heard is that the output of sentiment evaluation
is quantitative as a result of the evaluation leads to 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 have 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 “delicate
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 “laborious
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
could 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 particular 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 steerage on find out how to accumulate and use
these measurements, however first we’ll present a real-world instance of this
method put to follow
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 workforce, which is a part of their Product
Operations group.
Thansha Sadacharam, head of tech studying and insights, explains: “I
very strongly consider, and I feel lots of our engineers additionally actually
recognize this, that engineers aren’t robots, they’re people. And simply
primary numbers does not drive the entire story. So for us, having
a very complete survey that helped us perceive that total
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 have to take part in a single survey per yr,
minimizing the general time spent on filling out surveys whereas nonetheless
offering a statistically vital consultant set of information outcomes.
The Tech Enablement & Developer Expertise workforce can also be liable 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 individuals.
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 superb use of time or power. 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 for opposition to qualitative information
are misconceptions which we handle under. Later on this article, we
define the distinct advantages of self-reported information similar to its potential to
measure intangibles and floor crucial context.
False impression: Qualitative information is simply subjective
Conventional office surveys sometimes deal with the subjective
opinions and emotions of their workers. Thus many engineering leaders
intuitively consider that surveys can solely accumulate subjective information from
builders.
As we describe within the following part, surveys may 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. Because of this, many
office surveys don’t meet the minimal requirements wanted to supply
dependable or legitimate measures. Effectively designed surveys, nevertheless, produce
correct and dependable information (we offer steerage on how to do that later in
the article).
Some organizations have issues that folks could lie in surveys. Which
can occur in conditions the place there may be worry round how the info will probably be
used. In our expertise, when surveys are deployed as a device 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 regularly
remind leaders that system metrics are sometimes imperfect too. For instance,
many organizations try and measure CI construct occasions utilizing information aggregated
from their pipelines, solely to search out that it requires vital effort to
clear the info (e.g. excluding background jobs, accounting for parallel
jobs) to supply an correct consequence
The 2 kinds of qualitative metrics
There are two key kinds of qualitative metrics:
- Attitudinal metrics seize subjective emotions, opinions, or
attitudes towards a particular 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 could 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 by 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 similar 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 at least one month
Sooner or later to at least one week
Lower than someday
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 share
For the first software or service you’re employed on, what
share 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 typically 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 at least one month
Sooner or later to at least one week
Lower than someday
Lower than one hour
We’ve discovered that the flexibility to gather attitudinal and behavioral information
on the similar time is a strong advantage of qualitative measurement.
For instance, behavioral information may present you that your launch course of
is quick and environment friendly. However solely attitudinal information might inform you whether or not it
is easy and painless, which has essential implications for developer
burnout and retention.
To make use of a non-tech analogy: think about you feel sick and go to a
physician. The physician takes your blood stress, your temperature, your coronary heart
charge, they usually say “Effectively, it appears to be like such as you’re all good. There’s nothing
improper with you.” You’d be shocked! You’d say, “Wait, I’m telling
you that one thing feels improper.”
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 principle goal
advantages that qualitative approaches can present.
There are three predominant advantages of qualitative metrics with regards to
measuring developer productiveness:
Qualitative metrics permit you to 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 must be understood to be able to enhance
productiveness: for instance, whether or not builders are in a position to keep within the movement
or work or simply navigate their codebases. Qualitative metrics allow you to
measure these intangibles which can be in any other case troublesome or unimaginable to
measure.
An attention-grabbing instance of that is technical debt. At Google, a examine to
determine metrics for technical debt included an evaluation of 117 metrics
that have been proposed as potential indicators. To the frustration of
Google researchers, no single metric or mixture of metrics have been discovered
to be legitimate indicators (for extra on how Google measures technical debt,
hearken to this interview).
Whereas there could exist an undiscovered goal metric for technical
debt, one can suppose that this can be unimaginable on account of the truth that
evaluation of technical debt depends on the comparability between the present
state of a system or codebase versus its imagined perfect 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 few of the work that builders do. However this information alone can not give us
the complete story. Builders do lots of work that’s not captured in tickets
or builds: for instance, designing key options, shaping the course of a
mission, or serving to a teammate get onboarded.
It’s unimaginable to achieve visibility into all these actions via
information from our programs alone. And even when we might theoretically accumulate
all the info via programs, there are extra challenges to capturing
metrics via instrumentation.
One instance is the issue of normalizing metrics throughout completely different
workforce workflows. For instance, in the event you’re making an attempt to measure how lengthy it takes
for duties to go from begin to completion, you may attempt to get this information
out of your ticketing device. However particular person groups typically have completely different
workflows that make it troublesome to supply an correct metric. In
distinction, merely asking builders how lengthy duties sometimes take could be
a lot easier.
One other frequent problem is cross-system visibility. For instance, a
small startup can measure TTR (time to revive) utilizing simply a problem
tracker similar to Jira. A big group, nevertheless, will seemingly have to
consolidate and cross-attribute information throughout planning programs and deployment
pipelines to be able to acquire end-to-end system visibility. This is usually 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 advised with out richer information and that this may occasionally lead us
into specializing in the improper factor.
One instance of that is code evaluation: a typical optimization is to attempt to
velocity up the code evaluation. This appears logical as ready for a code evaluation
may 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 could encourage unfavourable habits: reviewers dashing
via critiques or builders not discovering the suitable consultants to carry out
critiques.
Code critiques exist for an essential goal: to make sure top quality
software program is delivered. If we do a extra holistic evaluation – specializing in the
outcomes of the method fairly than simply velocity – we discover that optimization
of code evaluation should guarantee good code high quality, mitigation of safety
dangers, constructing shared data throughout workforce members, in addition to making certain
that our coworkers aren’t caught ready. Qualitative measures will help us
assess whether or not these outcomes are being met.
One other instance is developer onboarding processes. Software program growth
is a workforce 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 absolutely using the concepts the
builders are bringing, whether or not they really feel secure to ask questions and if
they’re collaborating with cross-functional friends.
The best way to seize qualitative metrics
Many tech practitioners don’t notice how troublesome it’s to write down good
survey questions and design good survey devices. In reality, there are
entire fields of examine associated to this, similar to psychometrics and
industrial psychology. You will need to carry or construct experience right here
when doable.
Under are few good guidelines for writing surveys to keep away from the most typical
errors we see organizations make:
- Survey gadgets must be rigorously 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 simply’re measuring one thing completely different. - When you change any wording, you have to do rigorous statistical exams.
In survey parlance, ”good surveys” means “legitimate and dependable” or
“demonstrating good psychometric properties.” Validity is the diploma to
which a survey merchandise really measures the assemble you need 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 sequence of psychological
steps happen to be able to arrive at a response. The mannequin under is from
the seminal 2012 ebook, The Psychology of Survey
Response:
| Part | 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 recollections Fill in lacking particulars |
| Judgment |
Assess completeness and relevance of recollections 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
will help us refine our inputs to supply extra correct survey outcomes.
Creating good survey gadgets requires rigorous design, testing, and
evaluation – identical to the method of designing software program!
However good survey design is only one facet of operating profitable surveys.
Further challenges embody participation charges, information evaluation, and figuring out
find out how to act on information. Under are a few of the greatest practices we’ve
discovered.
Phase outcomes by workforce and persona
A standard mistake made by organizational leaders is to deal with companywide
outcomes as an alternative of information damaged down by workforce and persona (e.g., function, tenure,
seniority). As beforehand described, developer expertise is extremely contextual
and might differ radically throughout groups or roles. Focusing solely on combination
outcomes can result in overlooking issues that have an effect on small however essential
populations inside the firm, similar to cell builders.
Examine outcomes in opposition to benchmarks
Comparative evaluation will help contextualize information and assist drive motion. For
instance, developer sentiment towards code high quality generally skews unfavourable, making
it troublesome to determine true issues or gauge their magnitude. The extra
actionable information level is: “are our builders extra annoyed about code
high quality than different groups or organizations?” Groups with decrease sentiment scores
than their friends and organizations with decrease scores than their trade 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 wrestle to maintain excessive participation charges in surveys
over time. Lack of follow-up may cause builders to really feel that
repeatedly responding to surveys will not be worthwhile. It’s subsequently
crucial that leaders and groups observe 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 workforce rituals similar to retrospectives.
Survey Template
Under are a easy set of survey questions for getting began. Load the questions
under into your most well-liked survey device, or get began rapidly by making a duplicate of our ready-to-go
Google Kinds template.
The template is deliberately easy, however surveys typically develop into 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 prime 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 chances of responses that
select one of many prime two most favorable choices.
Make sure to evaluation open textual content responses which may comprise nice
info. When you’ve collected numerous feedback, LLM instruments
similar to ChatGPT could be helpful for extracting core themes and
recommendations. While you’ve completed analyzing outcomes, make sure to share
your findings with respondents so their time filling out the survey
feels worthwhile.
How simple or troublesome is it so that you can do work as a
developer or technical contributor at [INSERT ORGANIATION NAME]?
Very troublesome
Considerably troublesome
Neither simple nor troublesome
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)?
Multiple month
One week to at least one month
Sooner or later to at least one week
Lower than someday
Lower than one hour
How typically do you are feeling extremely productive in your
work?
By no means
Somewhat of the time
A few of the time
More often than not
The entire time
Please charge your settlement or disagreement with the next
statements:
| My workforce follows growth greatest practices | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| I’ve sufficient time for deep work. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| I’m happy with the quantity of automated take a look at protection in my mission. |
□ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| It is simple for me to deploy to manufacturing. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| I am happy with the standard of our CI/CD tooling. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| My workforce’s codebase is simple for me to contribute to. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| The quantity of technical debt on my workforce is acceptable primarily based on our objectives. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
| Specs are constantly revisited and reprioritized in line with person indicators. | □ | □ | □ | □ | □ |
Please share any extra suggestions on how your developer expertise might 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, alternatively, present
distinct benefits as nicely:
- Precision. People can inform you whether or not their CI/CD builds are typically
quick or gradual (i.e., whether or not durations are nearer to a minute or an hour), however
they can not report on construct occasions all the way 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 corporation can survey
their builders is at most a few times per quarter. In an effort to accumulate extra
frequent or steady metrics, organizations should collect information
systematically.
Finally, it’s via the mix of qualitative and quantitative metrics – a mixed-methods method –
that organizations can acquire 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 after they begin with qualitative
metrics to determine baselines and decide the place to focus. Then, observe 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, alternatively, are
sometimes solely obtainable 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 in the event you solely have a look at logs information it does not actually inform you whether or not
one thing is nice or unhealthy. For instance, we have now a metric that tracks the time
to make a change, however that quantity is ineffective by itself. You do not know, is
this a superb factor? Is it a nasty factor? Do we have now an issue?”.
A blended 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 determine your prime alternatives
- As soon as you recognize what you need to enhance, use quantitative metrics to
drill-in additional - Observe 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.
In the long run, nevertheless, it’s essential to recollect: organizations spend quite a bit
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 unimaginable.
