Codermetrics

Questions That Metrics Can Help Answer

The first step in building metrics is to think about the key questions that you want to answer for coders and software development teams. To create meaningful and useful metrics, you need to have an idea of what you are looking for. Some of these questions are obvious, some are not. Once the set of questions are determined, you can determine what data is available, and among the available data which elements would be the best to help create meaningful metrics and to serve the overall purpose of helping you to learn about the patterns of successful teams.

How Well Do Coders Handle Their Core Responsibilities?

Sports statistics begin with the basics. In baseball, this means measuring individual accomplishments such as Hits, Home Runs, Runs Batted In, or Runs Scored. For pitchers, it means tracking Hits and Runs Allowed. In basketball, we begin with basic offensive statistics such as Points Scored or defensive statistics such as Blocked Shots.

How well do coders write code?

The most obvious thing that coders do, of course, is write code. Some code may be excellent, some may be poor. Some might be beautiful, and some might be just good enough. Some coders might write a lot of code, and some might write a little, maybe because that’s all they were required to do. Some coders follow a certain style, some don’t, and some edit their code after the first draft to make it better. Some may write code every day and some only once in awhile. But if you don’t ...