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My challenges are mainly around retention and grooming the team. We work with lots of offshore resources who change frequently and whom we don't talk to directl

My challenges are mainly around retention and grooming the team. We work with lots of offshore resources who change frequently and whom we don't talk to directly always. However, when changes happen we want to retain the best and know who to cut. I'd also like to know who I can pull from where when a new project comes up. I was hoping to gather metrics in the following dimensions: 1. Versatile (can work on multiple stacks and languages) 2. Team Player (watches out for the team and does what needs doing regardless if assigned to them) 3. Detail oriented and delivers quality code (doesn't break the build, good test coverage, adheres to formatting guidelines) 4. Productive 5. Communication skills (can and does communicate appropriately) For many of these, we could gather proxy measures, i.e. 1. Versatile (in the last year, how many different file types did this person touch or work on. 2. Team Player (did they fix a build broken by someone else, how often do they fix their own broken builds) etc etc

sheepmullet 11y ago
> 1. Versatile (in the last year, how many different file types did this person touch or work on. These kind of metrics never provide accurate information. You might as well just pick your "good" devs from a hat. For example, I'm the main code reviewer for our front end solution but I haven't written a single line of code for it. Am I less versatile than a dev who does basic work across the entire project?
- canterburry 11y ago
  I agree. Leads and other management roles are more difficult to peg but usually this is known simply by the person's role. A good dev lead could be judged by the number of code review comments or % code reviewed. Since a lead is also responsible for the team, their performance could be judged by overall team measures such as % test coverage of the overall code base, amount of time a ticket sits around etc. The team's metrics may become a way to judge the lead? But I agree, it's all imperfect. I also don't think these metrics would be the only criteria by which someone is judged.

sheepmullet 11y ago

> 1. Versatile (in the last year, how many different file types did this person touch or work on. These kind of metrics never provide accurate information. You might as well just pick your "good" devs from a hat. For example, I'm the main code reviewer for our front end solution but I haven't written a single line of code for it. Am I less versatile than a dev who does basic work across the entire project?

canterburry 11y ago
I agree. Leads and other management roles are more difficult to peg but usually this is known simply by the person's role. A good dev lead could be judged by the number of code review comments or % code reviewed. Since a lead is also responsible for the team, their performance could be judged by overall team measures such as % test coverage of the overall code base, amount of time a ticket sits around etc. The team's metrics may become a way to judge the lead? But I agree, it's all imperfect. I also don't think these metrics would be the only criteria by which someone is judged.