Codermetrics

Name

Temperature

Synopsis

Purpose

Measure how “hot” or “cold” a coder is at any given time.

Formula

Starting Temperature = 72 at start of period measured (see Notes)

Current Points = Points in the most recently completed measured interval

Previous Points = Points in the prior measured interval

Heat Index = (Current Points / Previous Points)

Temperature = (Previous Temperature × Heat Index)

Example

Coder A completes the following tasks in two development iterations:

Iteration 1: Task 1 with Complexity 3

Iteration 1: Task 2 with Complexity 2

Iteration 1: Task 3 with Complexity 4

Iteration 2: Task 4 with Complexity 1

Iteration 2: Task 5 with Complexity 4

Iteration 2: Task 6 with Complexity 2

Iteration 2: Task 7 with Complexity 1

First calculate the Points for each iteration:

Points Iteration 1 = (3 + 2 + 4) = 9

Points Iteration 2 = (1 + 4 + 2 + 1) = 8

The Temperature cannot be calculated until at least two iterations are complete. After the second iteration, calculate the Heat Index, then use that to calculate the new Temperature based on the initial value of 72:

Starting Temperature (the Temperature at end of Iteration 1) = 72

Heat Index after Iteration 2 = (8 / 9) = .89

Temperature after Iteration 2 = (72 × .89) = 64.1

Notes

This metric highlights whether a coder is “hot” or “cold” related to the recent trend of productivity. If a coder’s temperature gets higher, then her productivity has increased, and if it is down then it has decreased. The metric can be applied to teams as well by taking the Average Temperature ...