Developer Productivity and Satisfaction

If you are a #SoftwareEngineer, chances are good that you know how productive you were at the end of a workday. We have a pretty good feeling about how much we accomplished. Sometimes, we feel like we have made good progress towards our current goals. Other times, we feel like we wasted a lot of time without any decent results.

Apart from these feelings, it would be nice to actually have some evidence about developer productivity. In the end, I like numbers and facts, just like my fellow #IT colleagues. Of course, companies also have a strong economic interest in learning about developer productivity. As it turns out, there is quite some research on this topic. It is important to note that there is no definitive way to measure and improve developer productivity. However, I found one statement particularly interesting:

Developers productivity correlates strongly with their satisfaction during a workday. Therefore, it is concluded that developers who reported having a good day at work were likely more productive than those who reported having a bad day.

While this statement makes perfect sense, I was surprised to see it as a starting point for multiple research projects. Those projects focus on measuring which factors tend to make developers more satisfied at work and which factors tend to decrease happiness.

Of course, I will share my key insights about this research topic in a few days. Until then, I am curious about your experience with developer productivity:

How do you know you had a productive day at work?

Note: You can also find this episode on YouTube and Spotify.

#SoftwareEngineering #DeveloperProductivity #WorkSatisfaction