Engineering Enablement by DX

Dr. Margaret-Anne Storey discusses what the SPACE framework is and how the metrics and categories were developed.

Show Notes

This week's guest is Dr. Margaret-Anne Storey, who goes by the name Peggy. Peggy is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Victoria, the Chief Scientist at DX, and co-author of the SPACE Framework, which is the topic of focus in this episode. Today’s conversation discusses what the SPACE framework is and what went into developing the metrics and categories. Peggy also shares where she sees this line of research heading next.  

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Discussion points:
 
(1:29) Peggy’s background 
(4:01) What the SPACE framework is 
(5:55) Why the researchers came together for this paper
(7:27) The process of writing this paper
(9:52) How the SPACE categories and acronym emerged 
(11:50) The authors’ intention for how this framework would be received
(13:26) Finding a definition for what developer productivity is
(17:08) The metrics included in the SPACE framework 
(24:48) How SPACE is different from DORA
(26:17) Why lines of code and number of pull requests were included as example metrics
(27:14) What Peggy is thinking about next

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Mentions and links:
Where to find Peggy: Twitter, Website
The SPACE of Developer Productivity: There’s more to it than you think by Nicole Forsgren, Margaret-Anne Storey, Chandra Madilla, Thomas Zimmerman, Brian Houck, and Jenna Butler
Abi’s summary of the SPACE paper
Peggy’s talk, What Does Productivity Actually Mean for Developers? 

Creators and Guests

Host
Abi Noda
Abi is the founder and CEO of DX (getdx.com), which helps engineering leaders measure and improve developer experience. Abi formerly founded Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub.

What is Engineering Enablement by DX?

The show focused on developer productivity and the teams and leaders dedicated to improving it. Each episode features in-depth interviews with Platform and DevEx teams, along with the latest research and approaches for measuring developer productivity. Presented by DX (getdx.com), the developer intelligence platform designed by researchers.