
Leadership can measure satisfaction and well-being through employee satisfaction surveys, asking workers if they're getting the tools and resources they need to get the job done, and checking in on burnout. Teams should track at least three of the five categories below because the different sections of SPACE are intrinsically connected. The SPACE system aims to help companies think about productivity in a much broader way. Nicole Forsgren, one of the leading experts on DevOps, and co-author of the SPACE framework. This so-called "invisible work" is often not measured, according to the report.ĭr. While these can affect employee efficiency, the study admits, there are also important human elements - such as work culture and mentoring - that have a major impact, too. The last persistent myth is that engineering processes and developer tools are the only things that matter when it comes to productivity. However, the study cites external research that shows how productivity is correlated with work satisfaction and says that tracking it can help individual developers feel more in control of their "time, energy, and days."

The fourth common myth is that productivity metrics are only useful for managers. Instead, companies should judge productivity based on the success of both a developer and their team overall.

"It actually negatively influences developer velocity and team velocity and it can reduce the overall organizational outcomes and success."Ī third common myth is that productivity is only about individual performance. If a developer only gets rewarded based on one kind of metric, they will shift their actions to accommodate that metric. Ultimately, trying to structure goals around a single metric can backfire: "Metrics really influence decisions and behavior," Forsgren said. However, it could also mean that project mismanagement led to a time crunch.
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Two common myths are that developer activity is the best way to gauge productivity and that, in general, it's possible to understand productivity by tracking any "one metric that matters." The research points out that individual metrics used on their own - including the number of pull requests, commits, or code reviews - have no real value on their own without more context.įor example, if a developer submits a large amount of code in a short time period, a company might think they're being more productive. The goal of the SPACE framework is to bust misconceptions about developer productivity and help managers look at the big picture. SPACE busts 5 productivity myths and stereotypes "This can be applied in many different places, which I think is one of its hidden super powers," Nicole Forsgren, vice president of research and strategy at GitHub, told Insider.

The framework focuses on five different categories: satisfaction and well-being, performance, activity, communication and collaboration, and efficiency and flow.ĭubbed SPACE for short, this broad framework for measuring productivity can help leaders better understand how people work, achieving better results and happier workers in the process.

That's why the Microsoft-owned open source hub worked with the Association for Computing Machinery to develop a framework that measures productivity more comprehensively - and busts some common developer myths in the process. If a company is only measuring the productivity of its developers based on one metric - whether that's how often they're submitting code or communicating with their team- it's making a big mistake, according to GitHub. Following this framework can help make developers happier and more effective, the firm said.Dubbed SPACE, the framework busts misconceptions around productivity and helps managers zoom out.GitHub co-created a comprehensive framework for measuring developer productivity.
