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Well, I read it and still don't know how they measure software developer productivity. Good stuff for the next bullshit bingo template though, I didn't have "D

Well, I read it and still don't know how they measure software developer productivity. Good stuff for the next bullshit bingo template though, I didn't have "Developer Velocity Index Benchmark" yet.

tracerbulletx 3y ago
Hey now, it does have some specific advice! For example you should perform the "extensive reconfiguration" needed to generate code test coverage reports. Presumably since this article is about metrics for the C-Suite we can provide this valuable information to them so they can assess "the extent to which areas of code have been adequately tested". What truly useful and not catastrophically bone headed advice. Thank goodness we have tech savvy experienced contractors like McKinsey to whip our shabby tech org in to shape.
- xnyan 3y ago
  We are not in the audience, the audience is any organization that needs to manage and understand the output of software engineers, but does not have the necessary technical ability to do this. If I’m understanding them correctly, their pitch is basically “pay us a lot of money to teach you some basic software engineering concepts, and don’t use dumb metrics like LoC produced per day.” I think paying McKinsey prices to get this is a poor value, but it would probably improve most software engineering management.
  - blibble 3y ago
    > “pay us a lot of money to teach you some basic software engineering concepts, and don’t use dumb metrics like LoC produced per day.” "use our stupid metrics instead"
  - makeitdouble 3y ago
    > any organization that needs to manage and understand the output of software engineers, but does not have the necessary technical ability to do this That's really key. A company actually interested in technology wouldn't be in the situation of having an engineering team they have no idea how to manage. So the target here is the kind of company that probably ended there by throwing money around, and would like to throw money at this problem as well. McKinsey will be there whenever there's money to be thrown at a problem.
    - pydry 3y ago
      Given that it's McKinsey and given the current times theyre almost certainly looking to sell their "developer layoff consulting package" to provide nothing but the finest steak dinners, strippers and ass covering justifications for executives looking to cargo cult big tech. Their highly sciency formula of number of commits divided by SLOC of the average pull request plus average response time on slack will scientifically segregate your company's developers by productivity. I do hope we see a follow up on Hacker News - how to game the fuck out of McKinsey's top secret developer productivity formula.
  - musicale 3y ago
    > I think paying McKinsey prices to get this is a poor value No more than anything else they charge for.
  - weard_beard 3y ago
    "This graph from McKinsey says if we waste any more money on test driven development we'll be bankrupt by the end of the month!" "Did someone say TDD? Cause I think I heard someone say TDD..." https://pbfcomics.com/comics/weeaboo/ https://pbfcomics.com/comics/weeaboo/
master_crab 3y ago
Every time I think McKinsey has jumped the shark, they release something that fully confirms it.
gumballindie 3y ago
> Developer Velocity Index Ever heard of Agile Sprint Velocity? Yeah the bastardisation of SWE began long before mckinsey floated up to the surface.
rawgabbit 3y ago
I would compare these metrics to draft rankings in professional sports. It is a beauty contest to identify a player/developer that looks the most like the player you admire. What real teams and coaches do is say we have a specific way of doing things. Everyone has a role and a person in that role is expected to do X Y and Z. While a different role is expected to do U V and W. This is what I object to the most to modern tech. It treats technology stacks and developers as interchangeable which is far from the truth. It is this factory mindset that I would argue is creating garbage software.
musicale 3y ago
> Well, I read it and still don't know how they measure software developer productivity. "Assessing contributions by individuals to a team’s backlog (starting with data from backlog management tools such as Jira, and normalizing data using a proprietary algorithm to account for nuances)" Using nonsense metrics like "data from [Jira]" apparently. Though the other columns in the individual row - including examining developer satisfaction, retention, and daily interruptions - might be a slightly more meaningful, since they evaluate the work environment rather than trying to evaluate individual developers.

Well, I read it and still don't know how they measure software developer productivity. Good stuff for the next bullshit bingo template though, I didn't have "Developer Velocity Index Benchmark" yet.

tracerbulletx 3y ago

Hey now, it does have some specific advice! For example you should perform the "extensive reconfiguration" needed to generate code test coverage reports. Presumably since this article is about metrics for the C-Suite we can provide this valuable information to them so they can assess "the extent to which areas of code have been adequately tested". What truly useful and not catastrophically bone headed advice. Thank goodness we have tech savvy experienced contractors like McKinsey to whip our shabby tech org in to shape.

xnyan 3y ago
We are not in the audience, the audience is any organization that needs to manage and understand the output of software engineers, but does not have the necessary technical ability to do this. If I’m understanding them correctly, their pitch is basically “pay us a lot of money to teach you some basic software engineering concepts, and don’t use dumb metrics like LoC produced per day.” I think paying McKinsey prices to get this is a poor value, but it would probably improve most software engineering management.
- blibble 3y ago
  > “pay us a lot of money to teach you some basic software engineering concepts, and don’t use dumb metrics like LoC produced per day.” "use our stupid metrics instead"
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  > any organization that needs to manage and understand the output of software engineers, but does not have the necessary technical ability to do this That's really key. A company actually interested in technology wouldn't be in the situation of having an engineering team they have no idea how to manage. So the target here is the kind of company that probably ended there by throwing money around, and would like to throw money at this problem as well. McKinsey will be there whenever there's money to be thrown at a problem.
  - pydry 3y ago
    Given that it's McKinsey and given the current times theyre almost certainly looking to sell their "developer layoff consulting package" to provide nothing but the finest steak dinners, strippers and ass covering justifications for executives looking to cargo cult big tech. Their highly sciency formula of number of commits divided by SLOC of the average pull request plus average response time on slack will scientifically segregate your company's developers by productivity. I do hope we see a follow up on Hacker News - how to game the fuck out of McKinsey's top secret developer productivity formula.
- musicale 3y ago
  > I think paying McKinsey prices to get this is a poor value No more than anything else they charge for.
- weard_beard 3y ago
  "This graph from McKinsey says if we waste any more money on test driven development we'll be bankrupt by the end of the month!" "Did someone say TDD? Cause I think I heard someone say TDD..." https://pbfcomics.com/comics/weeaboo/ https://pbfcomics.com/comics/weeaboo/

master_crab 3y ago

Every time I think McKinsey has jumped the shark, they release something that fully confirms it.

gumballindie 3y ago

> Developer Velocity Index Ever heard of Agile Sprint Velocity? Yeah the bastardisation of SWE began long before mckinsey floated up to the surface.

rawgabbit 3y ago

I would compare these metrics to draft rankings in professional sports. It is a beauty contest to identify a player/developer that looks the most like the player you admire. What real teams and coaches do is say we have a specific way of doing things. Everyone has a role and a person in that role is expected to do X Y and Z. While a different role is expected to do U V and W. This is what I object to the most to modern tech. It treats technology stacks and developers as interchangeable which is far from the truth. It is this factory mindset that I would argue is creating garbage software.

musicale 3y ago

> Well, I read it and still don't know how they measure software developer productivity. "Assessing contributions by individuals to a team’s backlog (starting with data from backlog management tools such as Jira, and normalizing data using a proprietary algorithm to account for nuances)" Using nonsense metrics like "data from [Jira]" apparently. Though the other columns in the individual row - including examining developer satisfaction, retention, and daily interruptions - might be a slightly more meaningful, since they evaluate the work environment rather than trying to evaluate individual developers.