Sabermetrics for Coders

An very interesting book has been published recently by O’Reilly called Codermetrics.  While I don’t agree with everything the author writes, he should be applauded for his innovative new way at looking measuring developer productivity.  For too long, we’ve had Dilbert-like managers trying to measure programmers on things such as “Lines Added” or “Amount of Check-ins”.  These types of examples are insulting to professional developers and we usually try to find clever ways around it (tons of comments for instance).  Jonathan Alexander takes a different approach by using common sports stats like an “Assist” and applying them to software development.  I would get an “Assist” every time I helped a developer on my team fix some code or answer a tough question.   The other developer would have to approve that I did indeed “Assist” them.  With all the publicity of “Sabermetrics”, Billy Beane, and “Moneyball”, this book is right on time.  Check it out!