There’s a paradigm shift happening right now in the software world. Traditionally, when companies want to move faster or release more code, they’ve focused on enhancing developer productivity. However, when organizations focus solely on productivity, they can inadvertently cause major problems, such as burnout, turnover, and reduced code quality.
Leading firms have recognized that it’s not just about how much code is written, it’s also about how that code is written. The conversation has evolved from developer productivity to developer experience (DevEx).
 
How to improve DevEx​
Naturally, this paradigm shift has many tech leaders wondering, “How can we improve our DevEx?” Well, to improve your DevEx, you need to change the way your developers work. There are two components to this:
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Establishing better developer processes.
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Giving your developers better tools.
Improving developer processes can be tricky because each organization experiences friction in unique places. So, the first step is to find your friction. To do this, talk to your developers; they’ll probably be happy to point out the friction points in their workflows. Hold discussions, run surveys, figure out which parts of their workflow cause them the most headaches, and then do something about it.
Doing something about it often involves our second point: giving your developers better tools. This is one of the quickest and most effective ways of improving DevEx. A good knife helps a skilled chef work faster and cleaner—dev tools are no different. We’ll cover some recommended tools later in this blog series.
How to assess DevEx​
We’ve established that improving DevEx is important, but now you may be wondering, “How do you measure DevEx? It seems like a multifaceted thing.”
You’re right, it is multifaceted. It can’t be captured with one metric—or even with a category of metrics. That’s why we invented the SPACE framework, a new way of understanding DevEx. It offers metrics across five categories: Satisfaction and well-being, Performance, Activity, Communication and collaboration, and Efficiency and flow. To assess your DevEx, we recommend tracking metrics across at least three of these categories. For a deep dive on the SPACE framework, check out The SPACE of Developer Productivity.
Looking ahead​
In the rest of this blog series, we dive deeper into how exactly Microsoft developer tools can improve DevEx, but for now, we’re sharing the highlights. With modern developer tools, like GitHub Enterprise, GitHub Copilot, and Visual Studio, firms can reimagine the way that their developers build software to remove friction and re-prioritize developer satisfaction, leading to happier developers and better business outcomes, as explored in our recent research: The case for investing in DevEx. To learn more about our perspective on DevEx, visit our developer experience web page; and to see how our dev tools can improve every stage of the developer workflow, stay tuned for the rest of this blog series!