How to measure developer experience with metrics

Improving developer experience can help companies increase productivity, retain staff, and reduce administrative burdens. In this article, we'll cover the essential metrics for developer experience, including how to measure and maximize them. 

Key developer experience metrics and how to measure them

Here we’ll focus on some key metrics, including developer efficiency, code quality, developer satisfaction, and team collaboration, as they directly impact the success of your team. We’ll take these metrics and break them down into subcategories to explore them further, thus providing more depth and clarity.

Developer efficiency

Developer efficiency measures the productivity and success of your development team. It considers how long it takes them to complete tasks, the quality of code produced, and how well they deliver software solutions. This metric not only takes into account how quickly tasks are done, but also the quality of the work produced. By considering these metrics, organizations can identify areas for improvement, optimize processes, and enhance the overall efficiency of their teams. 

Metrics to measure developer efficiency:

• Lead time: This is the amount of time it takes to move a product from ideation to deployment. Measuring this helps companies evaluate the speed with which their developers work from taking a concept to a working solution, and a shorter lead time often suggests a high efficiency. 
• Cycle time: This is the time it takes for a specific feature or bug fix to move from the development stage to deployment. A reduced cycle time can be beneficial, as it enables faster iterations, more frequent releases, and quicker feedback loops with stakeholders.
• Throughput: This measures the number of features or bug fixes produced within a given time period. A higher throughput implies that developers on your team are efficiently resolving tasks and improving overall productivity.
• Velocity: This metric is often used in agile methodologies and measures the rate at which tasks or backlogs are completed. This is useful for measuring the progress of a project and the team’s performance. Tracking this metric can help companies assess how developers deliver their work, and it’s helpful when setting project timelines.
• Time to recovery: This measures the time it takes to recover from a software failure such as a system outage or a critical bug. A shorter time to recovery suggests developers can quickly diagnose and resolve issues and minimize downtime. 

Code quality

Code quality, as the name suggests, measures the quality of code, with a focus on maintainability, readability, and reliability. Ensuring good code quality helps companies reduce maintenance costs.

Metrics to measure code quality:

• Code coverage: The percentage of the source code covered by automated tests.
• Code review feedback: Feedback provided by other developers that can identify code quality issues and areas where improvement and optimization may be required.
• Bug fix time: The time it takes to fix bugs, which can help determine how maintainable the code is and how easy it is to debug.
• Technical debt: How much work is required to improve an existing codebase.
• Security vulnerabilities: How many vulnerabilities the code has.

Developer satisfaction

Developer satisfaction measures the health (or lack thereof) of a working environment by measuring developer satisfaction and engagement. The higher the score, the easier it’ll be to retain developers and boost productivity.

Metrics to measure developer satisfaction:

• Onboarding time: The time it takes for a developer to become fully productive, with longer engagement time indicating that the onboarding process needs to be adjusted.
• Feedback mechanisms: The ways in which developers can provide feedback to the company and their colleagues, with poor feedback mechanisms indicating developer disengagement.
• Retention rates: How long employees remain with the company, with high retention rates indicating that developers are satisfied.
• Work-life balance: A qualitative metric that measures the balance between the developer's work and personal life, with a poor work-life balance leading to burnout, disengagement, and low retention rates.
• Engagement surveys: Comprehensive measurements of the level of engagement and satisfaction among developers that help identify areas in need of improvement.

Team collaboration

The team collaboration metric measures collaboration, teamwork, communication, and knowledge sharing between developers. It's a vital part of building a positive work environment and ensuring that high-quality software is delivered.

Metrics to measure team collaboration:

• Frequency of virtual meetings: For instance, if your company uses Slack, tracking the number of huddles held within the platform can provide insights into team collaboration and serve as a metric for measuring the level of engagement. Also, utilizing the built-in meeting analytics features on platforms like Microsoft Teams or Zoom can provide useful insights when tracking the number of meetings and their duration.
• Pull request collaboration: Tracking the number of reviews, comments, and code contributions on GitHub pull requests can serve as a useful measure of the collaborative efforts of team members, and the collective progress in building and maintaining codebases. 
• Average number of messages: In collaborative platforms such as Meta Workplace, which provide insights into the amount of interaction among team members, it can be helpful to calculate the total number of messages posted by the developers within a given time period. Tracking this helps ascertain communication patterns and responsiveness.
• Number of documentation contributions: Tracking contributions made by developers can show a lot about your team. These contributions could be in the form of updates to the documentation, suggestions for improvement, or submitting code snippets. A high number of contributions can indicate active engagement.  

How to maximize developer experience

Companies need to create a healthy work environment that engages developers, provides them with the necessary tools and support, and enables them to be productive in their roles.

To improve your developer experience, first set your goals and determine which metrics are most useful for you, your team, your stakeholders, and the project you're working on. Afterward, establish baselines for each metric that you intend to use to measure progress over time. Then determine which tools will be useful for data collection and analysis, and which can help you identify patterns and trends while boosting developer productivity. Finally, communicate your results, choose which actions to take, and plan the next steps.

Improving developer experience requires a combination of providing a positive work environment (such as flexible working hours and opportunities for personal development), investing in tools and infrastructure, and encouraging developers to experiment with new technologies. Also, be sure to let developers take the initiative where necessary, provide regular feedback to them, and acknowledge good work.

Why should you measure developer experience?

Optimizing developer experience is essential if you want to improve the quality, productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction of software development teams. Furthermore, measuring these key metrics can be helpful when identifying areas for improvement. More than 77% of OpsLevel customers use our IDP to drive an improved developer experience—and report being as much as 60% more efficient as a result.

Ready to learn how OpsLevel can help you improve DevEx across your organization? Speak to one of our specialists.