Having to set objectives for developers, even though objectives don't work

Question

It is generally accepted that setting measurable objectives for software developers doesn't work , as too much focus on the objectives can lead to behaviour counter to the organisational goals (so-called "measurement dysfunction").

However, in my company, we are required to set objectives for all staff, and are encouraged by Human Resources to make them SMART. In the past, my fellow first-level managers (team leads) and I have tried a number of approaches:

1. Set measurable objectives that are additional to the normal job, like "Do training on technology X", "Create documentation for piece of code Y that no-one understands" and so on. When it comes to the annual performance evaluation, rate developers not on the written objectives, but rather on my opinion of the unmeasurable value of their normal work, since that is actually what the company cares about.
2. Set very specific objectives like "days' work done as recorded by the task management system", "number of bugs introduced", "number of production issued caused". This led to inflated estimates and incorrect classification of bugs, in order to achieve better "scores". Interestingly, even those developers scoring highly on this system didn't like it, as the intrinsic trust within the team was damaged and they didn't always feel they deserved their high position.
3. Set vague objectives that are variants on "Do your normal job well". When it comes to the annual evaluation, their rating does reflect performance against the objectives, but the objectives themselves are not measurable or achievable, which is frowned upon.

None of these is ideal. If you have been in a similar situation of having to create meaningful, measurable objectives for software developers in spite of the evidence against their effectiveness, what approach has worked best for you?

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Related questions I found that don't quite address the same point:

• What are some good performance goals for a software engineer?
• Setting Performance goals for Developers
• What are suitable performance indicators for programmers?
• What is a fair productivity measurement technique for programmers?
• I need some career “Goals” for the next year

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Update (18 November 2009): There are 10 upvotes for my question, and the highest-rated answers only have 4 upvotes (including one each from me). I think this tells us something: perhaps that Joel and the others are right, and that the combined wisdom of stackoverflow cannot come up with any compelling, measurable objectives for developers that could not be gamed without adversely affecting the true (unmeasurable) value of their work. Thanks for trying though!

Answer 1

"Ensure that at least n% of your code is tested by a suitable unit test" Use a coverage tool to prove it, and have someone else review for test quality.

Answer 2

This all boils down to the fact that "first level management", and most any management doesnt know their employees. Instead of being part of the actual day to day planning and development, things like SMART pops up. If managers were to spend more time with the guys who does the actual work, none of this would be needed.

Personally, I prefer working in an agile environment where it is obvious who of the developers performs in terms of productivity and quality awareness. A true agile approach requires that not only developers, but designers, testers, customers and product managers are included in the process. This naturally leads to better insights from the managers point of view.

Answer 3

Measurable objectives I have seen so far:

• Pass a certificate exam
• Research technology X and hold a presentation about it
• Number of build breaking changes committed
• Number of wiki articles written on the internal knowledge management

How about asking your developers directly if they have some ideas for personal development which then could be used for objectives?

Answer 4

I think that having very specific goals up front, i.e., SMART (maybe we work at the same place actually), seems like a good idea in practice but it isn't very practical for most teams.

The problem really is our incremental goals change. The business changes and as developers we need to react and react properly and in a reasonable time frame.

Consider setting goals that tie with your team or group's purpose in the organization. Your team wouldn't be funded if it didn't serve a purpose - a macro purpose. Have collective goals that exist across your entire team and that align to the business. Give people responsibility and hold people accountable. Celebrate their successes and failures (if we don't fail at times we're likely not trying and that's what you want from people). HTH

Answer 5

One of the problems would seem to be that as a division/department IT organisations don't have measurable strategic goals. If they did it would be easier to set the goals for the individuals.

e.g. If there was a departmental initiative to reduce the number of problem tickets raised, then, you could set an individuals goals based on the number of tickets related to the software they look after.

Since software development is largly a collabarative it would make more sense to set goals at the team level, and, then rate individuals according to thier contribution to the team.

Answer 6

what approach has worked best for you?

Only one objective: pass a code inspection/peer review, with me as the reviewer, without me finding any bugs or having any other criticism, that has me asking you to redo something.

Notes:

• I wasn't measuring new hires' ability to finish quickly, and didn't encourage them to: I wanted people to learn how to finish well (because if it's not finished well, then it's not finished)
• People learned what I looked for in a code review: so it's a learning opportunity and a quality control measure, and not just a management objective
• My comments would have two categories:
  1. This is a bug: you must fix this before you check in
  2. As a suggestion, I would have done such-and-such
• After a while, my reviews of a person's code would stop finding any "must fix" items (at which point I wouldn't need to review their work any more).

Answer 7

Having to set objectives for developers, even though they don’t work

If your developers don't work, perhaps some objectives are just what they need to give them some incentive? ;-)

Answer 8

We have a number of metrics that are collected as programmers do work, such as:

• Number of SLOC changed / added
• Number of errors / bugs injected in various stages of the process (during peer review, post peer review, post release)
• Change requests fulfilled / rejected
• Formal documents (software version descriptions, design docs, etc.)

All of these are tangibles which I find useful in presentations for management and software quality assurance. But I have never found them terribly useful in actual evaluations of people's performance - which is the point made by several of the links you listed. I've found that Joel's points here are valid - metrics never promote a good team atmosphere.

Unfortunately, we all live in a world where metrics are required by others (management, quality assurance, outside contractors, etc.). I've found that a balancing act is required - providing those metrics, but also providing evidence of intangibles - intangible being what each programmer has accomplished that is not necessarily tracked. For example, I had a programmer who spent a large amount of time investigating legacy code that no one else wanted to touch. Even though his metrics were low for that period of time, that effort was invaluable.

The only way I've found to include such things has been to push for the creation of an additional intangible category and give it equal weight with the other metrics. Usually this is sufficient to swing the balance for a particular programmer.

Answer 9

An objectives that I like is:

Solicit N positive reviews of your involvement in a project from the project client.

This helps as it is always good to have some written positive feedback from customers (internal or external). Its not hard to get, its relevant and it is an easy, but not meaningless tick on the list.

Answer 10

Determining how to align personal development with the projects being done is a key point in this I think. Having developers analyze themselves to find weaknesses along with giving feedback on others may be a way to find what may be improved and then finding a way to measure it. For example, I may find that I rarely document completed items and so on my objectives for the year I can state that I want to improve this and that the amount of documentation I produce can be a measure of that. It may work or it may backfire depending on how I follow it really. On the one hand there may be valid concerns for this being how I improve my work and do what may be viewed as the proper way while a passive aggressive or childish view would be to produce a mountain of documentation if it isn't that good in terms of quality as that can be improved next year as this can be another point to consider: What is supposed to be the motivation to improve as much as possible all in a year compared to spacing things out?

Defining an effective developer is another element to this. Is it the person that fixes bugs best? Does new work quickest? Does new work complete with tests and documentation even though it isn't done quick? What are you calling effective since the "it depends" standard response should be clarified here.

Answer 11

Personally I try to set two sorts of objectives:

• Business-focussed objectives (this is why we are getting paid after all). For instance, "complete project X by 1 June 2009"). These objectives are often shared across several members of the team (and they are aware of this). The team can exceed the objective by bringing the project in early or by exceeding the functionality required. Individuals can exceed the objective by producing more functionality, having fewer bugs against them, or coaching and supporting other members of the team.

• Personal growth objectives, for instance completing a project involving a technology that the developer wants to add to their skill set, understanding the user's domain better, gaining leadership experience etc.

I feel that it is important that:

• Objectives are SMART
• Objectives are aligned with the needs of the business
• You do include "normal work" in objectives, in fact these are the most important objectives!
• The employee has some opportunity to exceed the objectives you set

Finally, I would stay away from software metrics as objectives - they are too easy to game and probably won't give you what you need. I would only use a metric where I want to coach someone in or out of a particular behaviour.