How is the Work of Developers Measured? An Industrial and Academic Exploratory View

Abstract

Software project management is an essential practice to achieve the goal of success in these projects and a challenging task for the Project Manager (PM). Therefore, information about the work of developers can be valuable in supporting PM. Several studies have addressed this topic and suggested different strategies for obtaining such information. Given the variety of existing strategies, the need arises to know the state-of-the-art regarding the theme. In this paper, what relevant information for PM and how that information can support the project management practices are presented, especially regarding risk management and people management. So, we carry out an exploratory study applying the Systematic Literature Mapping technique. Contributions include the identification of 64 metrics, 4 sources of information, and 7 PM activities supported by the measurement of developer work. Be-sides, aspects to be explored on the subject are presented, inspiring new studies in the field of Software Engineering.