Lines of code. Yes, it's easy to game. Don't use it for bonuses. Yes, it varies by person and how they close their brackets, how they write comments, whether t

Lines of code. Yes, it's easy to game. Don't use it for bonuses. Yes, it varies by person and how they close their brackets, how they write comments, whether they use functional, or how they break up formulas. Compare a person to themselves. Coding is an iterative process. Write stuff. Stick placeholders everywhere. Remove stuff and replace it with better stuff. LOC measures the stuff. Does it measure architecture? The biggest argument for architecture is that it slows things down at first, but speeds it later. Great, measure LOC for both stages. If you see people writing 1000 LOC/day early then slowing to 50, that's probably underengineering or overengineering. It should be more or less steady, slowing a bit when they get to the edges of the familiar code and need more R&D, then speeding up again. Your devs spent some time documenting and refactoring? How's LOC rate after that? You added 3 newbies to the team? How does the LOC change for the seniors training them? Do the meetings discussing code increase or decrease LOC? How much does No Meeting Day or remote work change productivity? How effective are 4 day weeks or days when everyone goes home at 5? It's not perfect, but it works for many of the things you'd like to measure, as long as you manage the downsides. If you're trying to reward productivity, it throws it all off.