Managers' perceptions of programmer productivity and measurements of programmer productivity

In the current software environment, hardware is being developed at a much faster pace than software. Software development also often costs 10 to 100 times that of the hardware. With the staggering costs of developing software, it is essential that managers have the most productive means of developing software. The software manager also must have an effective means of measuring programmer productivity. This thesis focuses on programmer productivity and measurements of programmer productivity as perceived by software managers. Nine software managers were interviewed and the results of these discussions gave much insight into programmer characteristics, programmer motivations, project characteristic motivators, programmer productivity measurements, successful project characteristics, and manager characteristics.