1. Measuring Individual Productivity
of Technologist
Draft solutions
Conceived–Developed by:
PKS Management Consultants
Bangalore

2. Index
• Problem Statement
• Scenarios
• Revisiting the Fundamentals
– Economic Sector
– Knowledge Economics
– Knowledge Worker
– Technologist
– Productivity
– Productivity (as per Taylor)
– Measurement
– Productivity of Knowledge Worker
• Current Status
• Our Models
– Understanding the Problem Clearly
– Basic Productivity Measurement Framework
– Solution No. 1
– Evaluation
– Complexity Factors
– Time Factor
– Conventional Factors
– Simple Solution No. 2
– Simple Solution No. 3
– Simple Solution No. 4
– Simple Solution No. 5
• Results
• Opportunities
• Road Ahead

3. Problem Statement
• Measuring individual
productivity
(For role and individual level)

4. He is working, for sure Is he working??

5. Productivity Productivity??

6. Scenarios (Employee side)
• My hard work was not
recognized
• I did hard work, why
should I be clubbed in
the same rating bucket
• Higher attrition

7. Scenarios (Management side)
• 20 percent employees
doing 80 percent of work,
identify these 20 percent
• Who should be assigned
more work
• Who should be rewarded
more
• Who should be promoted
• Culture of meritocracy
• Perception plays in
appraisal
• Objective assessment

8. Revisiting the Fundamentals

9. Economic Sector
• Primary
– Involves the retrieval
and production of raw
materials, such as corn,
coal, wood and iron

10. Economic Sector (Contd.)
• Secondary
– Involves the
transformation of raw or
intermediate materials
into goods e.g.
manufacturing steel into
cars, or textiles into
clothing.

11. Economic Sector (Contd.)
• Tertiary
– Involves the supplying of
services to consumers
and businesses, such as
baby-sitting, cinema and
banking.

12. Economic Sector (Contd.)
• Quaternary
– Is a way to describe a
knowledge-based part of the
economy which typically
includes services such as
information generation and
sharing, information
technology, consultation,
education, research and
development, financial
planning, and other
knowledge-based services.
– The quaternary sector is
sometimes included with the
tertiary sector, as they are
both service sectors

13. Economic Sector (Contd.)
• Quinary
– The quinary sector could
be seen as a further
division of the tertiary
sector, which is a part of
the economy that provides
services.
– Examples of services
located in the quinary
sector are categorized as
the highest level of
services including scientists
and top level business
managers.

14. Knowledge Economics
• Present era is of knowledge
economics
• Characteristics:
– Borderless
– Upward mobility
– Means of Production
anybody can acquire
– Potential for success as
well failure
• Making knowledge society
highly competitive

15. Knowledge Worker
• People with considerable
knowledge and learning
• Knowledge economics relies
heavily on knowledge
worker

16. Technologist
• Manual worker plus knowledge
worker
• Spends more time working with
hands than brain
• Capitalist – owns the means of
production
• “Work at” organization, not
belongs to it
• Identifies himself with work
• Professional not employee
• Job as a life
• Expects to be a success

17. Productivity
• Term itself barely 60 years old
• Most important contribution of management in 20th century:
- To increase the productivity of manual worker
• In 21st century:
- To increase the productivity of knowledge worker

18. Productivity (Contd.)
• There was increase in productivity, but was result of new
tools, new methods, new technology, economist calls
“Capital”
• Very few advances in what is termed as “Labor” i.e. the
productivity of worker.
• There existed ‘skills” but not productivity

19. Productivity (as per Taylor)
• Fredrick Taylor studied manual work.
• Found that no such thing as “skill”
• Only simple, repetitive motions
• What makes them productive is the “knowledge”:
– The way these simple and repetitive motions are put
together, organized and executed.

20. Productivity (as per Taylor)
• Work enlargement, work environment and job rotation all
uses Taylors method reduce the fatigue of workers and thus to
increase productivity.
• Task analysis , industrial engineering and assembly line of
Henry Ford are the extension of Taylor’s principles. Scientific
management, quality circle, kaizen and just-in-time too apply
Taylors principles.

21. Productivity (Statistics come into picture)
• Quality Guru, Deming added the use of statistical theory in
quality control on Taylors work.

22. Measurement
• "When you can measure
what you are speaking
about, and express it in
numbers, you know
something about it; but
when you cannot measure
it, when you cannot express
it in numbers, your
knowledge is of a meagre
and unsatisfactory kind.“
Lord Kelvin

23. Productivity of Knowledge Worker
• What is the task?
• What is the quality?
– Difficult, risk-taking and
always controversial
definition as to what
“results” are.
• What is the quantity?
– Aim first on quality than
on quantity

24. Current Status
• Almost no clarity on the
issue
• Very few companies are
trying to apply the
concept
• Conventional economics
almost fails in knowledge
domain
• No single metric sufficient

25. Our Models

26. Understanding the Problem Clearly
• Comprehensive survey within the company
• Why it is important to find out the individual
productivity
• Final solution as per the pointers
• If “perception” issue, points to trust deficit
• Employee participation highly recommended

27. Basic Productivity Measurement Framework
Identify
Task
Define
Quality
Targets
PerformanceEvaluation
Action

28. Solution No. 1
• Most comprehensive
• Based on empirical data
• Works for role as well individual level

29. Breaking Job Description
into Competency Levels
JD
Competency
1
Level x
Competency
2
Level y

30. Example of Competency and Levels
• L(N) = ∑Li (i= 1 to N)
• L3 = L1 + L2 + L3
Testing
L1 L2 L3
Does testing Writes test cases Writes test plan

31. Competency Dictionary
E1
JD
Competencies
Levels
E2
JD
Competencies
Levels
E3
JD
Competencies
Levels

32. Example of Competency at Role Level
E1
Coding Testing
L1 L1
E2
Design Coding Testing
L1 L2 L2
E3
Analysis Design Coding Testing
L1 L2 L3 L3

33. Defining Quality
Competency
Level 1
Statement 1
Quality
Benchmark
Statement 2
Quality
Benchmark
Statement 3
Quality
Benchmark

34. Evaluation
Subjectivity Objectivity
Manager
based
Manager
+ Peer
Peer
Review
Tools based

35. Evaluation by Manager
Competency Manager Character
Trust in evaluation

36. Complexity Factors
• Project size
• Code size
• Geographical dispersion
• Team based projects
• Technical complexity
– For each factor
empirical scores to be
defined and awarded

37. Time Factor
• For timely delivery full
marks
– For early delivery - Bonus
– For late delivery - Penalty
– Exact formulas to be
devised

38. Conventional Factors
• Cost factor
• Punctuality in card
punching
• Submitting reports on
time
• Leave reports
– For each factor
absolute score to be
defined and awarded

39. Production Function
Q = f(X,Y)
Q = Productivity
X, Y = Inputs for Production
Further:
log Q = log A + B1 log L + B2 Log K
L = Labor
K = Capital
A, B1, B2 = Parameters (can be estimated using least squares regression techniques)
• Concept can be applied in writing individual productivity.
• Input factors can be taken from previous slides.
• For simplicity, initial work can be based on empirical
data.

40. Simple Solution No. 2
• Inference based
– Test per project in the
language
– Preferably by third
party

41. Simple Solution No. 3
• General survey
– Get survey based
feedback
– Peers + Manager
feedback
– 360 % feedback
– To be done at every
project

42. Simple Solution No. 4
• Third party tool based
– Assess the source code
– Assess the artifacts of
all phases of project

43. Simple Solution No. 5
• Let the $ value of this
presentation to be
evaluated by:
– 2 Teams of management
– 2 Teams of technologists
– Steps in solutions are
more important, than
the final value
– We may get better
solution

44. Results
• Absolute score card for
each technologist

45. Opportunities
• “Knomics” (Knowledge
Economics) can be
developed
• To become a trend setter

46. Road Ahead
• To be discussed

47. Which one is the best?
Indeed difficult…. But …

48. New Concept is Created by Being…

49. An artefact of
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50. Thanks!!