Analyzing Engineering Performance to Create Data-driven Teams
Transform engineering teams with AI-driven data metrics for enhanced performance insights in 2024.
Cory Hymel, VP at Gigster, sheds light on the critical role of AI-driven data metrics in measuring and enhancing engineering team performance for greater adaptability and success in 2024.
Until recently, business leaders had a surprisingly low understanding of what their engineering teams were doing and how tech resources were spent. With the changing demands for tech organizations in 2024, leaders no longer accept the engineering black hole. They are looking for ways to gain greater transparency into the contributions of internal development teams, partners, and contract workers.
Data-driven performance evaluations will see increased adoption in 2024 to help tech leaders gain better insights into their workforce, identify top performers, and make informed decisions to navigate changing demands.
The Importance of Data-driven Approaches for Managing Tech Jobs Effectively
According to a recent Gartner study, 65% of business leaders agree that their decisions are more complex than two years ago, and 53% agree there is a higher expectation to justify those decisions. Unfortunately, only 33% of large organizations have analysts practicing decision intelligence.
When it comes to engineering teams, this increased complexity is due to changes in how development teams are sourced and assembled, the need to adapt to new technology rapidly, and increased pressure to cut costs and improve performance. Tech organizations no longer rely solely on in-office teams. A hybrid workforce often completes projects, including remote workers, contractors, outside agencies, and partners. This makes it only possible for managers to rely on traditional, qualitative methods of evaluating and managing talent if they are biased toward the most visible workers.
At the same time, development teams are being pulled in many different directions as organizations juggle the need to adapt to continued disruption by AI and other emerging technologies and the demand to launch new features and products. How can managers evaluate performance across various projects without strong visibility into individual or team contributions?
See More: Transforming Performance Management with Generative AI
The fact is that only some data points can solve the issue of visibility in engineering performance. This is why there is a belief that it is impossible to measure development team performance. With engineers, you need insights and understanding of daily activities and code commits to understand what’s being done, where priorities lie, and know if your engineer org is aligned with the larger business strategy.
When companies only measure output or time spent, they only get a piece of the picture. You must create an objective, holistic view of development team performance by tracking dozens of traits and metrics.
This holistic view must offer strategic and tactical insights to succeed. In 2023, companies recognized a demand for a tactical view of their engineers and needed more. Evaluating team and individual performance and making decisions based on those measurements requires hard, objective performance data.
However, as tech leaders look to fill this gap in 2024, they will start recognizing a gap in their strategic view of development team performance. Measuring individual contributions is valuable, but if you aren’t collecting insights into your overall software development lifecycle and identifying ways to improve processes, any changes will just compound your problems. 2024 is the year to explore data-driven ways to understand your teams and processes better.
AI and Objective Performance Data
As the demand for data-driven strategies for improving engineer performance increases, the technology for tracking engineers has also advanced. AI can now be used to analyze data from dozens of different performance metrics more effectively and create a single, holistic view. This objective performance data allows you to find bottlenecks, align your team, and replicate top producers.
A recent Stanford University study looked into the effect of algorithmic evaluations as a tool for measuring engineer performance. The study found that many freelancers prefer being evaluated by AI over a potentially biased human manager. This preference was even higher when there was visibility into how the evaluations worked and demonstrated consistency in the performance metrics.
Building a More Flexible Workforce for 2024
Becoming more data-driven and using AI to measure development team performance will not solve any problems. It will provide greater visibility to allow tech leaders to learn what they don’t know and start asking the right questions.
Some of the clients we work with are using these AI-powered performance metrics to gain greater transparency into what their engineering teams and partners are doing. Others use it for vendor comparisons to see which vendors contribute the most. Some companies are looking for ways to help improve the performance of struggling engineers and adjust their existing processes to help.
These goals demonstrate that 2024 will bring more flexibility to workforces to adapt to changing needs quickly. Once companies have a more objective, holistic view of their tech resources, they will start to assemble the distributed teams that work best for their needs. This could mean a higher reliance on outsourced and remote workers. It could mean more companies adopt elastic staffing to improve development costs and speed.
While it is still being determined what your ideal engineering organization will look like in 2024, it is clear that you need a complete understanding of what your current organization is doing before making any changes. What are your teams working on, who are your top performers, and what is and isn’t working in your development process? Algorithmic performance metrics are an essential first step toward answering these questions and creating the data-driven engineering teams you need in the next year.
2024 will be another year of major change in the tech industry. Ensure your organization has the insights needed to adapt to these changes intelligently.
How can your team leverage data-driven strategies to elevate engineering performance in 2024? Let us know on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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