There's No Such Thing as Software Productivity (2012)

Definition of “software productivity”

• Many argue productivity is, in principle, just outputs/inputs (an economic ratio), so it must exist for software.
• Others say that for software, “output” is inherently fuzzy: is it code, features, solved problems, business value, or long‑term stability?
• Some see the article as mainly semantic: rejecting the word “productivity” to emphasize “solving problems” and reducing long‑term costs instead of “producing code.”

Can it be meaningfully measured?

• One camp: Yes, at least in aggregate or over long time frames. Examples: revenue per employee, completed projects per time, “shit_done/time_elapsed”.
• Another camp: Any non‑toy attempt runs into confounding factors (maintenance, correctness, compute cost, future extensibility), making comparisons unreliable or domain‑specific.
• Many distinguish between observing that some engineers outperform others vs. turning that into a robust, reproducible scalar metric.

Problems with simple metrics (especially LOC)

• Strong consensus that lines of code are a bad metric: more code often means more bugs, more maintenance, and lower real value.
• Deleting code or avoiding code can be higher value than adding it; code is often a liability, not an asset.
• Attempts to refine LOC with adds/deletes, tickets closed, or DB “tasks” still fail to normalize for difficulty, quality, or downstream impact.

Business value, money, and customers

• Several commenters say only business value or profit really matter; productivity must be evaluated via money.
• Others argue money is a crude proxy for usefulness; happy or “demanding” customers and long‑term value may diverge from short‑term profit.
• Debate spills into capitalism vs. alternatives and whether “money is the measure of usefulness.”

Teams, knowledge work, and impact

• Repeated point: metrics work better at the team/product level than for individuals; software is closer to research or art than factory work.
• Impact is viewed as the only truly meaningful metric, but many argue it is inherently unmeasurable beyond rough proxies.
• Goodhart’s law and perverse incentives (rewarding firefighting, visible artifacts, or short‑term gains) are recurring concerns.
• Some propose multidimensional dashboards (speed, quality, user impact, job satisfaction) used as managerial input rather than a single ranking number.