## Highlights Productivity, of course, is something you determine by looking at the input of an activity and its output. So to measure software productivity you have to measure the output of software development - the reason we can't measure productivity is because we can't measure output. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jpwzjakaxgj55gpxgngmsn0n)) --- One of my biggest irritations are studies of productivity based on lines of code. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jpwzjma1m1a0f3a802ck1wpc)) --- Another approach that's often talked about for measuring output is Function Points. I have a little more sympathy for them, but am still unconvinced. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jpwzmhxms13d1er6ekpvysce)) --- Common statements about software success are bogus because people don't understand [WhatIsFailure](https://martinfowler.com/bliki/WhatIsFailure.html). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jpwzprg1zedymta6pyz741s8)) --- Some people say “if you can't measure it, you can't manage it”. That's a cop out. Businesses manage things they can't really measure the value of all the time. How do you measure the productivity of a company's lawyers, its marketing department, an educational institution? You can't - but you still need to manage them (see [Robert Austin](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0932633366/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0932633366&linkCode=as2&tag=martinfowlerc-20) for more). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jpwzqcspww7rjnd5m41z530p)) --- If team productivity is hard to figure out, it's even harder to measure the contribution of individuals on that team. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jpwzr3rng074c2h3fm925fvj)) --- If all this isn't complicated enough the Economist (sep 13-19, 2003) had an article on productivity trends. It seems that economists are now seeing productivity increases in business due to the computer investments in the nineties. The point is that the improvements lag the investments: “Investing in computers does not automatically boost productivity growth; firms need to reorganize their business practices as well”. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jpwzrr1nzd0ves5yb94ec2af)) > Note: Interesting point on adoption of AI agents as well --- So not just is business value hard to measure, there's a time lag too. So maybe you can't measure the productivity of a team until a few years after a release of the software they were building. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jpwzw7k9p2e807n3mwzzx6qw)) ---