The Developer Productivity Engineer - Mar 2024

IDEAS & INSIGHTS

“Testing Is Bad For Developer Productivity” (8-min video)

Come again? Well, you heard it right.

In the last few weeks, over 47,000 people watched Trisha Gee , Developer Advocate at Gradle, describe how tests can be problematic for developer productivity. But if you think this means you can stop running some of your tests, better think again…

Many developers consider tests to be a chore—just more work distracting you from coding. But if you look at it from the perspective of "testing is a mechanism to think about what the code should do, and to check those assumptions", then testing becomes more valuable…and even motivating!?

Grab a coffee and watch this 8-minute video to get a fresh POV on testing, developer productivity, and how it all comes together.??

Watch: “Testing Is Bad For Developer Productivity”

DPE LOWDOWN RECORDING

GitHub and Airbnb share how Copilot boosts developer productivity in the real world

As George Clooney says, “Life’s better with company. Everybody needs a co-pilot.”?

Take George’s advice and watch this recent DPE Lowdown to learn how #GitHubCopilot is helping customers achieve their DPE goals.??

Christopher Harrison from #GitHub explains how Copilot works and the gains witnessed by their growing customer base using AI to improve developer productivity.

He’s joined by special guest Szczepan Faber from #Airbnb, who describes how hundreds of developers at Airbnb have found DevProd benefits using Copilot and other AI-based development technologies.?

WATCH: How GitHub Copilot does DPE with AI

INDUSTRY EVENTS

DPE experts, coming to a city near you??

This year is already big for DPE. Here’s an overview of local DPE events in 2024, featuring engineers from companies like Airbnb, Gradle, LinkedIn, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, and more. Take a look at these opportunities to connect with some of the best DPE minds in the industry.

DPE Tours?

DPE Tours are free half-day events featuring talks from local DevProd experts, with drinks, snacks, and hallway chats. These events are hosted by Gradle in cooperation with local communities like Google Developer Groups (GDG) , #SeattleJUG, #NYJavaSig, #DevNexus and others. Stay tuned for registration announcements for future tours!?

• ???? DPE Tour: Seattle – March 18th?
• ???? DPE Tour: Atlanta – April 9th?
• ???? DPE Tour: New York – April 17th?
• ???? DPE Tour: Washington, D.C. – May 15th?
• ????? DPE Tour: Berlin - June 11th
• ????? DPE Tour: Boston - June 12th
• ????? DPE Tour: London - June 25th?

DPE Summit 2024

This year’s #DPESummit will return to San Francisco, CA on September 24-25, 2024. Register by April 30 to nab the super early-bird ticket price of $199. Additional details will be released in the coming weeks, including our starting lineup of speakers and topics, so stay tuned!?

DPE expert videos?

If traveling isn’t in your plans, don’t worry—we have a library of over 40 recordings from last year’s DPE Summit.?

In the presentations below, the discussion focuses on DPE practices related to testing and tooling. You can quickly peruse the slides, abstracts, and producer highlights to find the talks relevant to your interests:?

• Netflix - How Improving the Testing Experience Goes Beyond Quality: A Developer Productivity Point of View, by Aubrey Chipman & Roberto Pérez Alcolea ????
• JetBrains - Customer Success for Tooling, by Alexander Podkhalyuzin
• Gradle - Automated Detection and Reporting of Build Cache Misses, by Etienne Studer
• Block (formerly Square) - Lessons in Tackling the IDE Performance, by Pablo Baxter & Roger Hu

Watch DPE Summit 2023 sessions

INDUSTRY NEWS

DORA, revisited (aka “How do you make sure you don’t focus on the wrong productivity metrics”)?

Since 2020, DORA metrics have been top of mind for IT organizations looking to measure and improve developer productivity.?

As DORA becomes more widely adopted, it's inevitable that we'll begin to see corner cases of "misuse" that lead to less-than ideal outcomes.?

Writing in The New Stack, author No?nica Mellifera explores what happens when DORA metrics go wrong, and identifies some of the common pitfalls like:

1. Focusing on performance metrics over business goals - having fewer test failures is great...unless it's because you stopped running tests altogether and your customers suffer from flaky or unusable products.
2. Measuring between teams instead of over time - DORA metrics shouldn't necessarily be employed to compare groups and teams, but rather to measure how a team’s productivity changes over time.
3. "Misinterpretation and misapplication" - a heavy focus on a specific metric often results in behavioral changes to meet that metric, despite the ripple effects at the expense of the overall project.?
4. Ignoring the human side of things - despite your best efforts, developer productivity and a good developer experience is ultimately determined by the developers themselves. So keep a tab on their overall satisfaction, especially if the metrics tell a different story.??
5. Poor cultural fit - whether or not your DORA metrics improve, your customers likely don’t care one iota unless your products suffer—so don’t accidentally poison your development team cultural norms for the sake of moving the DevEx needle.?

Mellifera also writes about when platform engineering conflicts with DORA metrics, and makes the case that DORA should be considered "low stakes metrics"—i.e. they are good to have for informing certain decisions, but shouldn't be depended on for making big decisions (like hiring and firing).?

In the end, most developers are simply exhausted by slow builds and tests. Tools that improve and measure build and test cycle length over time are always a good place to start.???

For more on this, check out Christopher Sanson discuss using DORA metrics with his team at Airbnb:

Watch: Embracing DORA Metrics: The Airbnb Journey Towards Enhanced Developer Productivity

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