(Off Topic) How to measure the performance of your application development team

If you ever end up working for a company that implements Key Performance Indicators, the below objectives, actions and KPIs (measures) may be useful for defining your role as an Analyst Programmer:

Objective 1: Design Simple Solutions That Meet Requirements

Actions:

• Keep the design simple
• Use known design patterns where appropriate
  
• Split design into comprehensive components
• Focus on deliverables during design phase
• Maintain a high degree of discussion between developers
• Maintain communication with business owners
• Maintain communication with domain experts
• Seek feedback from business owners early
• Use mock-ups where appropriate to convey concepts clearly

Measures:

• Perceived visibility to design process
• Discuss effectiveness of design in post-release meeting

Objective 2: Efficiently Implement Maintainable & Reliable Solutions

Actions:

• Write unit tests
• Comment code (where appropriate; do not add useless comments)
• Document APIs
• Think carefully when naming classes, methods, properties etc
• Use the Issue Tracker
• Split work into smaller tasks
• Plan all work (do not skip the design phase)
• Conduct peer review
• Communicate with other developers
• Ensure testing processes are followed
• Do not over-engineer implementations (KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid)
• Produce efficient applications (optimisation, high performance, scalability, lower hardware costs)

Measures:

• Assess code readability and documentation
• Unit test coverage reports
• Feedback from peer review
• Assess difficulty in refactoring
• Assess perceived regression (in relation to scope) that is the result of not following process
• Assess actual regression (in relation to scope) that is the result of not following process
• Assess responsiveness and scalability of applications
• Assess Issue Tracker usage and organisation skills

Objective 3: Effectively Deliver & Coordinate Projects According to Schedule

Actions:

• Produce reliable time-estimates
• Maintain high-visibility with a Gantt chart
• Split work into comprehensive tasks
• Be organised
• Hold meetings
• Communicate with business owners
• Do not accept changes without a formal change request
• Any changes to the design must be reflected in the schedule
• Plan releases and patches

Measures:

• Actual adherence to schedule
• Perceived adherence to schedule (visibility)
• Assess scope creep

Objective 4: Maintain Reliability of Deployed Systems

Actions:

• Apply risk management discipline
• Opt for low-risk, pragmatic solutions
• Investigate alternative (“proper”) solutions regularly
• Triage new bugs
• Reduce key-person dependencies by sharing knowledge and using documentation
• Develop maintainable solutions
• Develop reliable solutions

Measures:

• Assess actual regression from patches
• Assess perceived regression from patches
• Assess difficulty in understanding code
• Assess difficulty in refactoring and making changes to code
• Assess the Bus factor.
  
• Assess issue resolution handling

Objective 5: Foster Positive Customer Relationships

Actions:

• Manage meetings effectively
• Communicate with customers via a Technical Portal
  
• Triage issues and maintain communication

Measures:

• Customer feedback

Objective 6: Self Development

Actions:

• Seek feedback from other developers
• Approach new roles within the team
• Further your own understanding
• Raise questions and/or suggestions at weekly meetings
• Demonstrate initiative (improve process, etc)

Measures:

• Peer review
• Team meetings
• Assess initiatives undertaken
• Assess courses undertaken that were relevant to the business

Objective 7: OH&S

Actions:

• Use ergonomic human interface devices to avoid RSI
• Maintain a healthy posture
• Take frequent breaks away from the computer (split up your work day)
• Avoid exposure to noisy hardware
• Avoid eye strain