Measure user activity: find low-performers

[BHarak]

Hi there,

just wondering: is there a way to measure the performance of a user? Is it possible to determine high-performers and low-performers within a team?

Let's say we have a team of 20 developers. Some of them are doing an outstanding job and do a lot of work. Others, well, lean back and try to work as little as possible. As a project manager, how can you keep track of that and separate the good from the bad within the universe of Atlassian products?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @BHarak -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

What does "low performer" or "high performer" mean to your team, org, and stakeholders? 

• Is someone who cuts a bunch of lines-of-code that provide no customer value a high performer? 
• How is someone doing who delivered features that saved only time for the team, yet the customer doesn't see that? 
• Is an "idea person" who only architects and builds nothing a low or high performer? 
• How about someone who is "leaning back" due to fear, lack of knowledge, experience, etc.?
• What about helping others, mentoring, learning, or improving the team's value to their stakeholders?
• etc.

I recommend trying expectation-based methods, rather than relying solely upon measurement from a tool like Jira.

When the leader and team set measurable expectations, everyone on the team understands them, the leader is present to observe daily work, and the leader regularly meets with each individual to discuss progress and give feedback, everyone understands what they need to do for improvement...including the leader.

One challenge to this approach is stated in your question: the team is apparently 20+ people with a single leader.  Consider how many people a leader can effectively support, and what organizational changes are needed to help achieve that well.

Kent Beck (developer of extreme programming and similar agile ideas) has written quite a lot recently about trying to use "productivity" as a measure of "performance".  Perhaps consider reviewing that and similar sources for additional ideas.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Nikola Perisic]

Welcome to the community @BHarak !

The question here would be, what metrics would be needed in order to measure this? The closest answer to your question is using reports.

I assume that you are using Scrum, since reports would be the most relevant for these types. 

Closest here would be a burn down chart.