4 ms·

> "You can look at developer velocity and bug fix rates, to name a couple of readily available metrics." How? If an office starts out open plan (which many of

> "You can look at developer velocity and bug fix rates, to name a couple of readily available metrics." How? If an office starts out open plan (which many of them do), are you going to move to new offices just to test the theory that it'll make your employees more productive? Plus, bug fix rates are a bad metric, bugs are not equal in complexity, and even if you try and guess at the complexity before working on a bug that's only an estimate, and one that doesn't take into account other important factors such as the level of churn in the codebase and the level of familiarity the developer has with the part of the codebase they are asked to fix.

abalone 10y ago
There are plenty of companies that have shifted formats, and a gross change in productivity would show up in those metrics.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- ZenoArrow 10y ago
  Which metrics? There aren't any accurate ones I know of. Anecdotal evidence is possible, but I don't see how programmer productivity can be measured with scientific rigour.
douche 10y ago
Just because you have to do something that is suboptimal when you're starting out because of resource constraints, doesn't mean that you should enshrine that sub-optimal situation as ideal. As an absurd example, Jobs and Woz made the first Apple computers in a garage. When they started making some actual money and could afford something better, they didn't insist on their engineers all working in garages. Open offices are very reminiscent of the kind of environment that I remember from college, where the default studying option seemed to be going to the library, staking out a seat at a big table, building a fort of books, and "studying," with the emphasis on appearing studious and some sort of bizarre status hierarchy about how many hours you held station there.
- abalone 10y ago
  The new Apple campus, designed by Jobs, will be open plan. http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/06/apple-to-unite-internet-teams-under-one-roof-at-1-infinite-loop---report http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/06/apple-to-un...
Can_Not 10y ago
What if there is an increase in bug fixes because the open office decreased the quality of work resulting in more bugs?

abalone 10y ago

There are plenty of companies that have shifted formats, and a gross change in productivity would show up in those metrics.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ZenoArrow 10y ago
Which metrics? There aren't any accurate ones I know of. Anecdotal evidence is possible, but I don't see how programmer productivity can be measured with scientific rigour.

douche 10y ago

Just because you have to do something that is suboptimal when you're starting out because of resource constraints, doesn't mean that you should enshrine that sub-optimal situation as ideal. As an absurd example, Jobs and Woz made the first Apple computers in a garage. When they started making some actual money and could afford something better, they didn't insist on their engineers all working in garages. Open offices are very reminiscent of the kind of environment that I remember from college, where the default studying option seemed to be going to the library, staking out a seat at a big table, building a fort of books, and "studying," with the emphasis on appearing studious and some sort of bizarre status hierarchy about how many hours you held station there.

abalone 10y ago
The new Apple campus, designed by Jobs, will be open plan. http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/06/apple-to-unite-internet-teams-under-one-roof-at-1-infinite-loop---report http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/06/apple-to-un...

Can_Not 10y ago

What if there is an increase in bug fixes because the open office decreased the quality of work resulting in more bugs?