Comments on: Measuring Productivity: More Difficult for Managers

By: Mauro Botelho

Mauro Botelho — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:20:15 +0000

Measuring productivity is always a problem, but no matter where I go, I’m always asked for metrics.

Yes measuring productivity is bad, but if you have to do it how would you do it?

So far, the way I like to think of it is not measuring productivity, but controlling your process.

You know that your team’s velocity is say 11 points, so you probably want to understand when it goes below that, right?

As for manager’s productivity, I’m still trying to figure it out :)

This is my current project as a manager and would love to hear comments you might have on this.

I’m blogging my experiences at blog.e-botelho.com.

Thanks,

Mauro

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:34:50 +0000

I support the comments of Jim Ward.

High productivity of the wrong features, should it score high or low on “productivity”?
How about, high productivity of implementing approved requirements that were approved because nobody actually reviewed seriously. Should it score high or low?
A manager removing 10 obstacles, should be score high or low on productivity?
How do we measure the number of obstacles he encountered? How do we measure how “heavy” an obstacle is? How about obstacles that cannot be removed due to other circumstances (e.g. a senior manager not willing to authorize time and money for removing the obstacle)?

What happens if you score high? What happens if you score low?
Low scores demotivate. High score may demotivate others if it does not feel “right”.

And finally, where do the measurement engineers get the wisdom from to decide what scale of measurement is correct? Are they so overly talented that they can decide better than the managers who are being measured about what is more productive behavior and what is less? If they are, why are they measurement engineers and not managers themselves?

By: Jim Ward

Jim Ward — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:32:11 +0000

We may be talking past each other here, saying the same thing in different ways. I’ll stand by my original observation from the Deming quote: “Measures of productivity do not yield productivity.” As Goldratt pointed out in his writings, local optimums, e.g., productivity of individuals or teams, can often lead to inappropriate behavior when considered from the viewpoint of the enterprise as a whole.

By: johanna

johanna — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:23:47 +0000

We’re not discussing the quality of the team; we’re discussing the productivity. The only way to measure productivity is to look at output over time.

By: Jim Ward

Jim Ward — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:44:24 +0000

In reading your original posts and the comments, I think my take on it stands – don’t measure productivity. However, one chooses to measure it with knowledge workers, especially managers, can be extremely invalid. We can all be very productive doing the wrong things. This seems a clear case of local optimization at the expense of the whole. Measure results – at a much higher level than individual managers.

By: Mihai Fonoage

Mihai Fonoage — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:29:23 +0000

Here’s a better resource for measuring the quality of software teams: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html.

By: Mihai Fonoage

Mihai Fonoage — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:56:15 +0000

“For software project teams, it’s easy: the number of running, tested features over time. The features have to be complete. No partial credit for partially done features.”

This might not be enough. Features are not linear when put side-by-side. Some are ‘easier’ to complete than others. Furthermore, the quality of an implemented feature should matter.

By: Jurgen Appelo

Jurgen Appelo — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:51:56 +0000

“Did I cancel any meetings?”

Why is that good? I had to cancel three one-on-one meetings last week. That’s more than the week before. Am I making progress? :)

We shouldn’t measure the processes, we should measure results. That also applies to number of meetings.

I would suggest maintaining a manager’s backlog of things-to-do. And employees should be accepting or rejecting the results.

By: Development and Integrity Management by Eli Lopian » Measuring Productivity

Development and Integrity Management by Eli Lopian » Measuring Productivity — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:27:12 +0000

[...] Rothman has posted about Measuring Productivity, and how it is difficult for managers. While Jack has a difficult time measuring knowledge workers [...]

By: Eli Lopian

Eli Lopian — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:33:45 +0000

… This post
http://www.elilopian.com/2009/03/19/measuring-productivity/