Measuring Flow, Focus, and Friction for Developers
Google engineering productivity researchers propose a method for developing quantitative metrics about developer productivity, specifically focusing on developer friction and flow.
Dec 1, 2023
Developer experience
Read full paper
Abstract
In this article, we describe our human-centered approach to understanding flow, focus, and friction as developers experience them. We emphasized the developer’s point of view by 1) understanding developers’ subjective experiences; 2) identifying logs-based signals that most closely represent these experiences; and 3) validating our metrics against self-reported data. We hope our approach and these examples will inspire others to adopt a holistic view developer experience, one that carefully considers the human in the loop.
Authors
- Adam Brown
- Alison Chang
- Ben Holtz
- Sarah D'Angelo