Stop Measuring Lines of Code
· Management, Metrics, Engineering
If you measure developers by lines of code, you will get bloated, unmaintainable software. If you measure them by tickets closed, you will get trivial bug fixes. The observer effect in engineering management is real: you get exactly behavior you incentivize.
Real engineering velocity is measured in "Cycle Time"—the time from first commit to production deployment. It focuses on the friction in the system. How long does a PR sit in review? How flaky are the tests? How complex is the deployment?
High-performing teams don't necessarily type faster; they get stuck less. They focus on DORA metrics: Deployment Frequency, Lead Time for Changes, Time to Restore Service, and Change Failure Rate. These measure the health of the *system*, not the busyness of the *worker*.