Without visibility into your team's Developer Experience (DevEx), you're essentially flying blind, making decisions based on gut feelings rather than data. Poor DevEx leads to higher turnover rates, significant delays in feature delivery, and reduced code quality. This creates a vicious cycle that impacts both business outcomes and team morale.
By implementing the right metrics to measure Developer Experience, you can identify friction points in your development process, optimize workflows, and create an environment where developers can thrive. We've identified 19 essential Developer Experience metrics that provide a comprehensive view of your team's experience and performance.
In this guide, we'll explore these metrics in depth and how you can use them to drive continuous improvement in your engineering organization.
Why Should You Measure Developer Experience?
Measuring quantitative Developer Experience metrics and correlating them with developer feedback helps you find developers' pain points while verifying individual experiences against objective data. Subjective assessments, qualitative feedback or traditional output-based engineering metrics only provide a partial view of how your engineering processes affect your developers.
Some of the benefits of measuring DevEx include:
- Developer Experience metrics reveal exactly where friction is in your development processes. See if code reviews, deployment pipelines, or other workflow stages are slowing you down so you can address the most impactful issues first.
- With concrete metrics, you can set specific goals for improvement rather than making vague commitments to "make things better," enabling more effective resource allocation and change management.
- DevEx metrics help you demonstrate the link between Developer Experience and business-critical outcomes like feature delivery speed, product quality, and team stability.
19 Essential Developer Experience Metrics for Engineering Leaders
1. PR Size
PR Size measures the number of lines of code changed in pull requests. Research shows smaller PRs (under 200 lines) correlate with:
- Faster review cycles
- Lower defect rates
- Improved developer satisfaction
- Reduced cognitive load during reviews
- Shorter cycle times
Our data shows that smaller PRs move through your pipeline up to 5x faster, significantly reducing the friction developers experience during the code review process. When developers can see their code moving smoothly through the system rather than getting stuck, they experience higher job satisfaction and less frustration.
2. Merge Time
Merge Time measures the time from PR approval to when it's actually merged. Elite teams maintain merge times under 2 hours, enabling:
- Faster feature delivery
- Reduced merge conflicts
- Better work visibility
- Improved deployment predictability
- Less context switching for developers
Long merge times create frustration as developers see their completed and approved work sitting idle, waiting for the final step before it can move forward. To improve merge time, streamline your merge process by automating post-approval checks, distributing merge permissions appropriately, and creating clear guidelines for who is responsible for merging approved PRs.
3. PR Maturity
PR Maturity is the ratio of code changes made after PR creation versus total changes. Higher PR maturity (over 90%) indicates:
- Well-prepared PRs requiring fewer revisions
- Reduced review cycles
- More efficient code review process
- Higher merge frequencies
PR maturity directly impacts Developer Experience in two ways: for authors, it reflects how often they need to make significant changes after requesting review, which can be frustrating and time-consuming. For reviewers, it impacts how efficiently they can review code without waiting for extensive revisions.
Our research found that PRs with higher maturity ratios experience shorter pickup times, as reviewers prefer to review well-prepared code. This creates a virtuous cycle - developers who submit high-quality PRs get faster feedback, which helps them ship more code.
4. Coding Time
Coding Time measures the period from first commit to PR creation. Elite teams maintain coding times under 1 hour, indicating:
- Clear requirements and planning
- Limited work-in-progress
- Focused development flow
- Better task decomposition
- Lower cognitive load
5. Review Time
Review Time measures how long it takes to complete a code review. Elite teams complete reviews in less than 3 hours, resulting in:
- Faster feedback loops
- Improved learning opportunities
- Better knowledge sharing
- Higher developer satisfaction
Extended review times disrupt developer flow, increase context-switching, and create frustration as developers wait for feedback on their work. When reviews drag on, developers often start new tasks, which creates costly context switches when they eventually need to revisit the original PR to address feedback.
6. Rework Rate
Rework Rate measures the percentage of changes to recently modified code. Elite teams maintain rework rates below 3%, indicating:
- Higher code quality
- Reduced technical debt
- More efficient development cycles
- Less developer frustration from revisiting the same code
Rework is often caused by unclear requirements, inadequate testing, or rushed implementation. By reducing rework, you can dramatically improve the Developer Experience by allowing team members to spend more time creating new value rather than fixing recent mistakes.
7. Pickup Time
Pickup Time measures how long a PR waits before someone begins reviewing it. Elite teams achieve pickup times under 75 minutes, enabling:
- Reduced context-switching
- Faster time to feedback
- Improved team collaboration
- Higher developer satisfaction with the review process
Low pickup times are a sign of a healthy team culture where code reviews are prioritized and developers aren't left waiting for feedback. By reducing pickup time, you can help developers maintain flow and reduce the cognitive overhead of managing multiple work streams simultaneously.
8. Deploy Time
Deploy Time measures how long it takes to get code from merge to production. Elite teams maintain deploy times under 6 hours, resulting in:
- Faster feature delivery
- Improved team morale
- Stronger connection between development and user impact
Our research found that longer deploy times correlate with higher change failure rates, suggesting that code waiting to be deployed may become outdated or conflict with other changes. By streamlining your deployment process, you can improve both developer satisfaction and code quality.
9. Refactor Rate
Refactor Rate measures the percentage of changes to legacy code. Elite teams maintain refactor rates below 11%, showing:
- Balanced technical debt management
- Sustainable codebase health
- Proactive maintenance
- Strategic code improvements
- Protection against maintenance burnout
Too little refactoring forces developers to work with outdated, hard-to-maintain code, creating frustration and slowing down new feature development. Too much refactoring can feel like treading water, never making forward progress on new features.
10. Approve Time
Approve Time measures the time from the first comment on a PR to when it receives its first approval. Elite teams achieve approve times under 10 hours, providing:
- Shorter feedback cycles
- More efficient resolution of issues
- Better team collaboration
- Reduced idle time for developers
- Increased development momentum
This metric is particularly important for DevEx because it captures the back-and-forth discussion period of code reviews, which is often the most frustrating part of the development process for many developers. Improving code quality before review and ensuring reviewers have sufficient context can help reduce approve time.
11. Merge Frequency
Merge Frequency tells you how many PRs are merged per developer per week. Elite teams achieve more than 2.25 merges per developer per week, indicating:
- Healthy development velocity
- Effective team collaboration
- Reduced deployment stress
- Better work-life balance
Regular merges provide a sense of accomplishment and progress, which is imperative for motivation and satisfaction. When developers can't merge code frequently, they often feel blocked or unproductive, leading to frustration and disengagement. By encouraging smaller, more focused PRs, you can help your team achieve a higher merge frequency and better Developer Experience.
12. Focus Time
Focus Time measures the periods of uninterrupted work developers can achieve without context switching or waiting on external factors. Optimizing for focus time contributes to:
- Increased productivity through deeper problem-solving
- Enhanced code quality through concentrated attention
- Improved developer satisfaction and well-being
- Reduced mental fatigue from context switching
- More efficient implementation of complex features
13. Meeting Team Goals
Meeting Team Goals tracks how well a team is achieving against their set organizational goals. Regularly achieving goals builds team cohesion and demonstrates visible progress, which is essential for developer satisfaction.
Teams that consistently meet goals experience:
- Enhanced motivation and engagement
- Clearer direction and purpose
- Visible progress and improvement
- Better team cohesion
- Data-backed celebration of wins
14. Task Balance
Task Balance measures the distribution of different types of work across your team. A healthy mix includes new work, refactoring, and rework. When developers are stuck doing only one type of task, particularly if it's primarily maintenance or bug fixes, satisfaction and engagement tend to decline.
A healthy work breakdown distribution provides:
- Balanced focus between new features and technical maintenance
- Appropriate allocation of time to refactoring legacy systems
- Manageable levels of rework to minimize waste
- Higher developer satisfaction through varied challenges
- Better alignment with business priorities through intentional work allocation
A well-balanced workload provides developers with both challenges and wins, keeping them engaged while avoiding burnout. By monitoring and adjusting task distribution across your team, you can ensure everyone has opportunities for creative work, learning, and visible impact.
15. Skill Acquisition
Skill acquisition tracks how frequently developers work with new technologies, frameworks, or parts of the codebase. It measures the growth opportunities available to your team members, which is a critical factor in job satisfaction and retention.
Developers who continually learn and expand their skills report higher satisfaction and engagement. By tracking which team members may be siloed in a particular technology or part of the codebase, you can identify opportunities to provide more varied assignments and growth challenges.
16. Knowledge Acquisition
Knowledge Acquisition measures how broadly developers understand different parts of the system. Growing knowledge expansion enables:
- More effective architectural decisions
- Reduced single points of failure
- Better cross-team collaboration
- Enhanced problem-solving abilities
- Increased system-level thinking
To improve knowledge acquisition, consider implementing practices like rotating team members through different projects, organizing knowledge-sharing sessions, and documenting system architecture and business context.
17. Coding vs. Code Review
This metric tracks the balance between time spent writing code and reviewing others' code. A healthy balance is essential for both team productivity and individual Developer Experience.
By monitoring this balance and ensuring an equitable distribution of review responsibilities, you can prevent reviewer burnout while maintaining code quality. Automated code review assignments based on expertise and workload can help maintain a healthy balance.
18. Unplanned and Added Work
Unplanned work refers to unexpected tasks that arise during a sprint or development cycle, such as production issues or urgent bug fixes. Added work includes features or tasks that weren't initially planned but are added mid-cycle.
High levels of unplanned or added work disrupt developer flow, create context switching, and undermine the predictability of your development process. This unpredictability is a significant source of stress and frustration for developers.
Tracking this metric helps you identify whether your team is experiencing too many interruptions or if there are issues with planning and scope management. By protecting developers from excessive unplanned work, you can improve focus, flow, and overall satisfaction.
19. WIP (Work in Progress)
WIP measures the number of concurrent tasks per developer. High WIP is frustrating because it creates the sensation of working hard but accomplishing little. Developers may be busy all day but end the day without the satisfaction of completing anything substantial, which can be demoralizing over time.
Maintaining appropriate WIP limits (typically 1-2 items per developer) leads to:
- Improved focus and flow
- Faster task completion
- Reduced cognitive load
- Higher quality work
How to Successfully Implement Developer Experience Metrics
- Measure your current performance to establish a baseline for each metric and find your biggest opportunities for improvement. Your specific team's context is important, and not all teams need to prioritize the same metrics. Identify which aspects of Developer Experience will most impact your team.
Not sure how to start measuring these metrics? LinearB’s Software Engineering Intelligence platform automatically collects and visualizes Developer Experience metrics without burdening your team with manual data entry. Learn more here.
- Use industry benchmarks to set achievable goals. Focus on moving up one tier (e.g., from "Fair" to "Good") over a quarter rather than trying to reach "Elite" immediately.
- Share Developer Experience metrics dashboards with the entire team to create transparency and collective ownership of improvement efforts.
- Implement workflow automation to help improve key metrics. For example, automatically assign code reviewers to reduce pickup time or send notifications when PRs exceed size thresholds.
- Balance quantitative and qualitative feedback. Supplement metrics with regular check-ins and surveys to understand the subjective aspects of Developer Experience that may not be captured by data alone.
- Schedule regular reviews of your DevEx metrics to track progress, celebrate improvements, and identify new areas for optimization.
The goal isn't to optimize for metrics in isolation but to create a more efficient, enjoyable development environment that leads to better outcomes for both developers and the business.
Conclusion
Developer Experience has emerged as a critical factor in engineering team performance, directly impacting developer productivity, code quality, and talent retention. The 19 metrics outlined in this guide provide a comprehensive framework for measuring and improving DevEx in your organization.
By tracking these metrics, establishing baselines, and implementing targeted improvements, you can create an environment where developers can work efficiently and effectively, leading to better outcomes for both your team and your business.
Improving DevEx is a continuous journey, not a one-time project. Regular measurement, feedback, and iteration are essential to creating and maintaining a development environment where your team can thrive.
The most successful engineering leaders are those who recognize that Developer Experience is about removing friction that prevents developers from doing their best work. When you optimize for DevEx, you're optimizing for the conditions that lead to better code, faster delivery, and a more engaged engineering team.
FAQ
What is Developer Experience?
Developer experience (DevEx) refers to the overall experience software developers have while interacting with tools, platforms, frameworks, and processes to build, test, deploy, and maintain software applications. It includes all aspects contributing to how efficiently and effectively developers can perform their tasks. – What is Developer Experience
Why is Developer Experience Important?
- Productivity Impact: When developers encounter friction in their workflows, they spend less time writing code and more time managing processes, waiting for feedback, or troubleshooting environmental issues.
- Talent Retention: In a competitive market for engineering talent, companies that offer a superior Developer Experience have a significant advantage in attracting and retaining top developers.
- Code Quality: When developers are frustrated or rushed due to poor processes, code quality inevitably suffers, leading to more bugs, higher technical debt, and less software stability.
- Business Agility: Organizations with a strong DevEx can respond more quickly to market changes and customer needs, as their development teams can deliver features more predictably and with higher quality.
