RE: RE: programmer productivity.

Measuring productivity by lines of code is like measuring an artists work by the number of brush strokes applied to the canvas.

There is no measurement other than by your peers. Ask yourself.....would you work on another project with Joe Source,  Mary Code?

A small analogy. Last century, Dickens was paid by the word for his novels. His novels were printed in newspapers as weekly instalments. Read a 18^th century newspaper to get an idea of the more is better syndrome.

A long, long time ago in a place far away the concept of elegance was a measure of an algorithms efficiency. It's the difference between a massively powerful computer churning through the possibilities and not being able to beat the human mind in a game of chess.

-----Original Message-----
From:   alan shore [mailto:SHOREA@dime.com]
Sent:   Saturday, 11 November 2000 2:15
To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject:        Re: RE: programmer productivity.

I hope I understand what you are writing here, otherwise I am definitley showiwing what an idiot I am.
I completely disagree. Lines of Code is probably THE worst way of charting someones performance. Granted RPG (as-of-now, anyway) is of a fixed format. But what about free-format RPG, free-format COBOL, free-format UNIX etc. etc.. One mans line of code becomes another mans 4/5 lines of code. Does this mean that programmer B is 4/5 times more productive than programmer A.

The responses of go back to the bean-counters and ask what they use to measure their productivity has to be the best answer.

I am curious as to what reply was received. Plus, ask them why do they want to measure a programmers productivity anyway.

>>> "Richard Jackson" <richardjackson@richardjackson.net> 11/10 9:04 AM >>>
About 15 years ago, I spent a bunch of time looking at this problem.  I also
did a presentation at Common about it.  At that time, no system of
measurement produced better fidelity than lines of code (LOC).  LOC is
flawed because its scope is narrow and its definition contains serious
flaws.  In order to heal the definition problem, one must account for the
effect of complexity on LOC.

Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson and Associates Ltd.
IBM Business Partner
mailto:richardjackson@richardjackson.net
http://www.richardjacksonltd.com
Telephone: 1 (303) 808-8058




-|-----Original Message-----
-|From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
-|[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Gary R. Patterson
-|Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 2:36 AM
-|To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
-|Subject: RE: programmer productivity.
-|
-|
-|Lots of ways to measure programmer productivity.  A few ideas:
-|
-|Developers: Lines of code vs. defects in produced code.
-|Developers: Performance to project timelines vs. defects.
-|Developers: Performance to task estimate vs. defects.  Really needs
-|standardized estimates.
-|Maintenance programmers:  Number of fixes (weighted for complexity) vs.
-|defects in fixed code.
-|
-|Subjective measurements, too: Code review, standards compliance, peer and
-|supervisor performance evaluation.
-|
-|Of course, you have to measure non-coding tasks, too.  Some of the above
-|metrics apply.
-|
-|1) Start tracking defects, and charge them to the responsible
-|individual or
-|team.  (Have security walk you to the car for the first week or two.)
-|2) Implement detailed time reporting.  (Watch out for mail that ticks.)
-|3) Implement code reviews (good idea anyway).  Standard criteria, rotating
-|responsibility.  Check for standards compliance.  (This way you
-|can share a
-|little of the heat with your senior staff.)
-|4) Implement an estimating methodology.  (Big fun.  Nothing like a rousing
-|afternoon of function-point counting.)
-|5) Start tracking performance to estimate and performance to timeline.
-|(Avoid food and beverages that are not prepared in your presence.)
-|
-|Enjoy.  Might actually even improve productivity and quality, if you can
-|manage it effectively.
-|
-|Gary R. Patterson
-|
-|
-|
-|-----Original Message-----
-|From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
-|[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of midrange
-|Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2000 1:29 PM
-|To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
-|Subject: Re: programmer productivity.
-|
-|
-|I have been ask by accountants to provide them with a way to measure our
-|programmers productivity.
-|
-|
-|I know what I think is productive. fast accurate turnaround on projects.
-|
-|does anyone one else have any comments.
-|
-|thank you jeff grace
-|
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