Stefan Stelzer & Volker Zöpfel

Metrics Handle with Care: The Paradox of Measuring Team Performance

Are your performance metrics encouraging developers to write bloated code and pad estimates? Learn how to measure what truly matters instead: customer value.

Metrics Handle with Care: The Paradox of Measuring Team Performance
#1about 2 minutes

Why measuring lines of code backfires on teams

Measuring developer productivity by lines of code encourages writing bloated, unmaintainable software instead of efficient solutions.

#2about 3 minutes

How ticket counts and estimates create perverse incentives

Focusing on the number of solved tickets or estimation accuracy leads to ticket-splitting overhead and padded estimates, ultimately reducing output.

#3about 4 minutes

Why managers resort to metrics due to lack of trust

Managers often use metrics as a proxy for understanding because software development is inherently invisible, leading to a breakdown of trust.

#4about 2 minutes

Building trust by becoming part of the team

Managers can foster a high-trust environment by getting involved with the team, creating psychological safety, and enabling ownership.

#5about 3 minutes

Using internal metrics for team self-improvement

Metrics like work-in-progress limits, review queue size, and codebase size can be powerful tools for a team to identify bottlenecks and manage workload.

#6about 2 minutes

Shifting focus to meaningful product-level metrics

Instead of comparing team-level output, focus on product-level metrics like quality, cost of usage, and availability to drive meaningful improvements.

#7about 1 minute

A summary on measuring with the right attitude

Effective measurement requires a healthy team environment, a clear target for the metric, and a focus on what truly improves the product.

Related jobs
Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.

Matching moments

The dangers of misusing developer metrics
05:14 MIN

The dangers of misusing developer metrics

Do you know how fast you were developing?

Practical metrics that improve developer experience
16:34 MIN

Practical metrics that improve developer experience

Do you know how fast you were developing?

Why you should measure developer productivity
03:46 MIN

Why you should measure developer productivity

Do you know how fast you were developing?

Why developer happiness is the ultimate metric
24:30 MIN

Why developer happiness is the ultimate metric

Do you know how fast you were developing?

Measuring the impact of productivity initiatives
03:31 MIN

Measuring the impact of productivity initiatives

Developer Experience in the Age of AI

Measuring the impact on productivity and technology
49:51 MIN

Measuring the impact on productivity and technology

How to make a 4 day week work for everyone

How to define meaningful custom metrics
13:34 MIN

How to define meaningful custom metrics

Do you know how fast you were developing?

Pitfall 6: Misapplying industrial metaphors to software development
15:43 MIN

Pitfall 6: Misapplying industrial metaphors to software development

Unveiling the Dark Side: Navigating the Pitfalls of Digital Ambitions

Featured Partners

Related Videos

See all videos
Do you know how fast you were developing?25:42

Do you know how fast you were developing?

Markus Walker

How to sabotage your software development with agile? – 10 pro tips for guaranteed success 29:03

How to sabotage your software development with agile? – 10 pro tips for guaranteed success

Marlene Roth & Tobias Mohr

Your Testing Strategy is broken - lets fix it!28:12

Your Testing Strategy is broken - lets fix it!

Luise Freese

Measure and improve frontend performance by using test automation25:38

Measure and improve frontend performance by using test automation

Ramona Schwering

Unveiling the Dark Side: Navigating the Pitfalls of Digital Ambitions21:39

Unveiling the Dark Side: Navigating the Pitfalls of Digital Ambitions

Johannes Hansen

Empowering Developer Innovation - Balancing Speed, Security, and Scale28:30

Empowering Developer Innovation - Balancing Speed, Security, and Scale

Amir Friedman, Martin Reynolds & Yair Etziony

From Monolith Tinkering to Modern Software Development41:06

From Monolith Tinkering to Modern Software Development

Lars Gentsch

Are Code Reviews Worth It? Insights from 16 Years of Review Data23:44

Are Code Reviews Worth It? Insights from 16 Years of Review Data

Sven Amann

From learning to earning

Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.

Cloud Engineer (m/w/d)

Cloud Engineer (m/w/d)

fulfillmenttools
Köln, Germany

€50-65K
Intermediate
TypeScript
Google Cloud Platform
Continuous Integration
Lead Full-Stack Engineer

Lead Full-Stack Engineer

Hubert Burda Media
München, Germany

€80-95K
Intermediate
Senior
React
Vue.js
Node.js
MongoDB
+1