Hence, I think, the rise of judging programmers on business outcomes. Revenue increases aren't a great metric for programmers (no one has a damn clue how to quantify tech debt and futureproofing), but at least they aren't actively destructive. Similarly, "story point velocity" and the like aren't tied to anything intrinsic, but at least they can sometimes be used as a predictor of quality.
Meanwhile the history of the field is one of judging programmers on bugs fixed, lines written, commit frequency, or a hundred other standards that are only perverse incentives. Most aren't even Goodhart's law issues, because they weren't predictive before they became targets!
Re:The Rise of Workplace Surveillance
by greglindahl on Monday November 06, 2017 @11:12AM
(#15636427)
ObDilbert: http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-11-13
"I'm gonna write me a new minivan this afternoon!"
No it really isn't! Coding performance metrics are a wasteland of failed techniques.