Australia’s Atlassian: Measuring Software Developer Productivity Is Missing the Point

Developer productivity is indispensable to Atlassian.

The Australian tech steadfast comprises astir 5,000 engineers worldwide and is location to a fig of globally competitory bundle products for enactment teams. Its occurrence depends connected engaging developers and shipping large products.

However, Atlassian thinks measuring developer productivity is ineffective. Instead, the institution prefers to align with a broader inaugural to heighten developer acquisition called “developer joy.” The thought is simple: Happy developers volition yet beryllium much productive.

Atlassian’s occupation with measuring developer productivity

Atlassian believes productivity is hard to measurement and tin beryllium counterproductive.

In a blog post, Andrew Boyagi, DevOps evangelist astatine Atlassian, said helium understands wherefore businesses privation to measurement developer productivity. With pressures connected IT and concern leaders to vessel integer products oregon features oregon negociate integer transformations, these companies privation to show instrumentality connected concern successful radical and technology, helium explained.

But helium said developer productivity is hard to measure. Popular measurements past and contiguous person included lines of codification produced, tasks moved to the done column, communicative points estimated successful a sprint oregon DORA metrics similar bundle deployment frequence and rhythm times.

Atlassian DevOps advocator Sven Peters said these measures bash not really measurement productivity. He said measurements similar lines of codification oregon deployment frequence tin beryllium gamed, communicative points are estimates and neither measurement affirmative outcomes for customers.

Productivity measures are besides problematic considering improvement roles present impact overmuch much than coding and shipping caller features. Peters said developers’ cognitive load present includes much clip some moving and gathering the software.

Developer experience: A caller mode to boost productivity?

There is increasing involvement successful however developer acquisition affects productivity. DevEx focuses connected creating the close situation for productive enactment chiefly done amended tools and technologies, shifting distant from DevOps’ accent connected productivity tools and frameworks.

Deloitte named DevEx a apical tech inclination for 2024. The steadfast said developers contiguous are “in precocious request but hindered” by productivity challenges similar configuration, instrumentality integration and debugging, which impede activities and features that adhd worth to their business.

The productivity tasks and challenges eating up bundle developers’ time. Image: Deloitte

Three elements of Developer Experience excellence

Analysis from Deloitte recovered determination were 3 cardinal elements of a large DevEx proposition:

• Platforms and tools: Fewer numbers of better, standardised platforms and tools marque it easier and much enjoyable for developers to work. Harness’ State of Developer Experience Survey recovered excessively galore tools successful use, expanding discourse switching and slowing onboarding.
• Ways of moving and flow: Great DevEx needs “clear, continuous processes” truthful developers tin execute tasks successful a “flow” portion avoiding friction from disconnected systems oregon mediocre governance. This includes precocious squad workflow absorption and DevSecOps.
• Talent experience: Developers enactment champion erstwhile portion of a “fun, productive and diverse” assemblage and culture; are engaged successful continuous learning; and person chances for mobility and vocation advancement done continuous progression and improvement opportunities.

Atlassian’s productivity approach: Maximise ‘developer joy’

Atlassian believes developers who are blessed and satisfied with their enactment are besides apt to beryllium productive. This means that, alternatively than discarded clip and resources measuring productivity, effort is amended spent investing successful and maximising what it presumption “developer joy.”

Atlassian said developer joyousness has a fig of inputs but includes 2 main ingredients:

1. Developer experience: Atlassian summarises DevEx arsenic being however engineers consciousness astir the tools, frameworks and platforms they usage to make software.
2. Engineering culture: Atlassian defines engineering civilization arsenic being “how enactment gets done.” It includes elements specified arsenic organisational values, norms and decision-making.

Atlassian’s Peters offered further penetration into what creates joyousness for Atlassian’s developers, including:

• Dev quality: Developers bask enactment much if they absorption connected large prime code.
• Dev progress: The quality to marque advancement rapidly without blockers satisfies developers.
• Dev value: Joy and pridefulness travel from creating worth and impacting lawsuit businesses.

Three elements that summation the joyousness of bundle developers. Image: Atlassian

What does ‘developer joy’ look like?

Atlassian’s absorption connected creating and measuring developer joyousness has yielded myriad improvements crossed antithetic merchandise teams. As outlined successful a presumption fixed by Peters, these person included initiatives from teams moving connected Atlassian’s JIRA, Confluence and Trello products.

JIRA

Their JIRA teams enactment successful spot a suite of caller guidelines for codification reviews truthful that receiving feedback and making codification improvements are much enjoyable for developers. Guidelines see “assuming competence” of the developer and giving constructive, reasoned feedback.

JIRA merchandise and improvement teams person besides improved collaboration to debar rework. All squad members are present progressive astatine each signifier of the lifecycle to varying degrees — from the merchandise “wonder” signifier done the improvement and lawsuit “impact” stages.

Product and developer teams enactment unneurotic astatine Atlassian crossed the ‘problem,’ ‘solution,’ ‘creation’ and ‘measurement’ phases of development. Image: Atlassian

Confluence

Atlassian’s Confluence squad built an interior instrumentality for detecting “flaky” codification tests, which clasp up processing of propulsion requests. After identifying a flaky test, the instrumentality flags it for reappraisal via an automated Slack message, truthful developers are not distracted by time-consuming debugging tangents.

Another squad reduced the clip taken for propulsion requests to beryllium processed, and the codification merged with the main subdivision from 3 to 1.2 days. They did this by sending automated reminders to squad members to reappraisal propulsion requests successful the greeting earlier they started their ain work.

Trello

A Trello squad devised a method to integrate prime assurance into their workflow. They created a QA Kick-Off, wherever QA assistants pass developers astir the exploratory tests they would conduct. This allows developers to presume superior ownership of QA, with enactment from the QA assistants.

How IT leaders tin amended their teams’ developer joy

Ask developers for suggestions

Atlassian makes it wide that businesses, including tech companies, superior astir improving their developer acquisition should inquire developers themselves. Atlassian said developers are much than consenting to supply feedback connected the problems they person to amended the joyousness they person astatine work.

Atlassian offers a escaped Developer Experience Survey that teams tin acceptable up and tally digitally oregon in-person to measurement their developer experience. The survey tin assistance to summation feedback connected elements similar “sustainable velocity to ship,” “waiting time,” “execution independence” and more.

Make clip for improving joy

Atlassian decided to escaped up 10% of developer clip to let them to find ways to amended “developer joy” successful the business. This sees developers astatine Atlassian spending astir 55% of their clip “changing the business” by processing products and features for its customers, 35% of their clip “keeping the lights on” done maintenance-style enactment and 10% of their clip connected developer joy.

Treat each institution and squad uniquely

Peters advises DevOps leaders to dainty each institution and squad arsenic having a unsocial way to developer joy. He said that copying the approaches of different businesses oregon teams whitethorn not work. Instead, enactment connected improving joyousness wrong a team’s unsocial tools and processes.

Add discourse to productivity metrics

Organisations should not solely trust connected the constricted communicative provided by productivity metrics similar deployment frequencies. Rather, they should question to adhd fuller discourse to these measures, and adhd caller ones that interaction productivity, similar the joyousness of developer teams.

Developer joyousness could beryllium the aboriginal for tech talent

Finding a tech workplace that champions joyousness implicit productivity measurement whitethorn look similar a imagination to developers. In fact, for galore developers worldwide working astatine ample tech companies, safeguarding wellbeing tin beryllium hard enough, fto unsocial fostering genuine joyousness successful work.

Australia’s Atlassian whitethorn beryllium connected to something, though. As Boyagi suggests successful his Atlassian blog post, companies that absorption connected DevEx could outperform competitors, including attracting apical talent. “I cognize which benignant of institution I would similar to enactment for,” Boyoagi wrote.