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DX’s Developer Experience Index (DXI) named a key R&D metric

Every year, ICONIQ Growth releases an R&D Reporting Guide that covers the key metrics and frameworks for technology organizations to track and leverage. This year’s report named the Developer Experience Index (DXI) as a key R&D metric.

Engineering organizations are increasingly becoming a bigger line item for companies as well as key differentiator. However, the industry has previously lacked a standardized approach to reporting on engineering updates and how they tie into broader outcomes. ICONIQ’s R&D Reporting Guide address this by providing a blueprint for engineering leaders to prepare board updates, planning reports, and quarterly reviews.

This report includes a section exploring key R&D metrics to track; ICONIQ’s guidance is to use 1-2 of the recommended metrics for each of the following categories:

  • How does our work contribute to overall business outcomes and success?
  • Have we built a product that attracts and retains customers?
  • Is what we’re shipping high-quality and reliable?
  • Are developers set up with the right tools and processes to minimize friction and efficiently complete work?
  • Are developers fulfilled and happy? Is the organization effectively set up to support developers and enable collaboration?

They list the DXI as a key metric for the category “Are developers set up with the right tools and processes to minimize friction and efficiently complete work?”. The report states: “The Developer Experience Index (DXI) offers a proven way to enhance productivity by focusing on removing friction for developers, enabling faster delivery and innovation. Unlike other measures, the DXI uniquely ties engineering effectiveness to business outcomes, assessing actionable areas of software delivery that impact development speed, ease, and quality.”

“Unlike other measures, the DXI uniquely ties engineering effectiveness to business outcomes, assessing actionable areas of software delivery that impact development speed, ease, and quality.”
ICONIQ Growth R&D Reporting Guide

Engineering leaders can implement DXI by using DX or by instrumenting their DXI through developer surveys. For more information about the DX Core 4 framework within DX, go here or request a demo. For more of ICONIQ’s recommendations on measuring productivity, read the full R&D Reporting Guide.