Comment by karaterobot

> You see, the reason that Tim’s productivity score was zero, was that he never signed up for any stories. Instead he would spend his day pairing with different teammates.

I'm very glad this essay turned out to take this position, because when I read the first couple paragraphs, I was ramping up to write a mean internet comment about how stupid measuring developer productivity through story points is.

A friend of mine is exactly like this Tim guy he talks abou: he spends time helping other people fix their problems, or takes extra time doing things the right way. His personal velocity suffers, but the team and the code base is greatly improved on net. He was put on a Performance Improvement Plan at one company, and told his job was at stake at another as a result. No question it's kept him at a Senior level when he should be higher at this point in his career. I sort of take it personally, because I worked with him at the company that gave him the PIP, and both he and I quit as a result.

When I see companies trying to measure developer productivity (and tying it to employment and advancement) I think about Seeing Like a State by James Scott, and the concept of legibility: imposing by force a set of rules on a complex, messy system to make it easier to steer from some office far away. Makes it very convenient to managers, and often leads to disaster.