GSM Framework: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆?

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆?

In the book “Software Engineering at Google”, the authors describe Google’s way of measuring engineering productivity (chapter 7.). They created a team of researchers to understand different aspects of engineering productivity, from team sizes to personal developers’ productivity, based on a data-driven approach.

They decided to use the 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀/𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀/𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 (𝗚𝗦𝗠) 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 for metrics, where a 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹 is desired end results, a 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹 is how you might know that you’ve achieved the end results (what they would like to measure) and a 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 is a proxy for a signal (what they actually measure). Always start with the goal, then the signal, then the metric.

The research team divides productivity into five core components (called 𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗦):

𝟭. 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲: what is the quality of produced code?

𝟮. 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀: are engineers distracted, do they reach a flow state while they work?

𝟯. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆: how much cognitive load is required to complete a task?

𝟰. 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆: how fast can engineers finish a task?

𝟱. 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: how happy are engineers with their work, product, and tools?

In each of these components you can select one or more goals and based on them measure signals and get metrics. After performing research on a topic, the team at Google always prepares a 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 for how they continue to improve. They could suggest a new tool, improve the documentation process, remove some obstacles, or do anything else. What is important is that the result is actionable, if not then it’s not worth measuring.