I strongly agree with the point that competence is essential, and will point to my work on how to develop better metrics in general, which is a seperate but complementary skill to your key points about managing developer productivity: https://www.cell.com/patterns/fulltext/S2666-3899(23)00221-0
One common assumption I’ve observed is management thinking fewer comments on PRs means the set of changes are at a higher level of quality than PRs with more comments. This misguided assumption doesn’t taken into account:
1. Authors adding comments to clearly communicate changes beyond code comments and self-describing code.
2. Adding comments for questions to listen and learn
3. Adding comments for recommendations, when they are distinct from requests for changes.
As a result, some team members leave less comments, leading to increased gaps in meeting functional requirements and increased risk. Approaches have to be updated to include intent, data from additional sources, and different analysis of the data to paint a more accurate picture.
Comments
As always, competence is essential.
2. Adding comments for questions to listen and learn
3. Adding comments for recommendations, when they are distinct from requests for changes.