Why Metrics Cannot Measure Software Development
KPIs can only tell part of the story.
I remember when the idea of a 10x developer became popular, but finding a single definition was impossible. You’d either have a developer who gets 10x the work done or performs small changes leading to 10x efficiency. It never made sense and seemed like a marketing ploy to justify flawed interview processes and “weed out” the non-10xers.
Does anyone understand the ROI if that were true? One developer at $150k would bring in $1.5M of value. That destroys the tried-and-true investment strategy of dumping money into mutual funds. Heck, even a 2x developer is better than that. It’s unrealistic to capture this value, though. How does one even figure out that value with this ideology?
What will you use, such as commits with Git, lines of code, cost per click, and keystrokes?
You can’t measure software development value like this. It doesn’t work, and I’ll explain why.
Effort
One thing I’ve seen overlooked repeatedly is the effort placed into a project. I don’t just mean hours but also the thought process behind building the project. What tradeoffs are made to get the MVP out? The difficulties of attaining that MVP as developers push out features. The years of expertise required to…
