Developer Motivation and SPACE, DORA and DX
How does DMO compare to those models
There are many different frameworks for excellence in engineering and developer productivity. The most recent are developer experience (DX), DORA metrics, and SPACE. While all of these are fine, and you should take a look and implement them, they might not be enough.
The DMO framework explains motivation with joy and discipline and the absence of frustration (DMO=J+D-F).
Let’s take a look at how DMO relates to these other frameworks and what they say about developer motivation.
Space
The core of SPACE is that it does not want to measure and explain developer productivity with one metric. Instead SPACE consists of these 8 dimensions grouped in 5 groups. Satisfaction and Well-being; Performance; Activity; Communication and Collaboration; and Efficiency and Flow.
Satisfaction and well-being: Measures how satisfied and happy developers are with their work and work environment, which includes aspects like job satisfaction, work-life balance, and overall well-being.
Performance: Looks at the outcomes or results of developer work, like the number of completed tasks, code quality, and impact on business goals.
Activity: Captures the amount of work done, such as the number of commits, code reviews, or pull requests, but without assessing the quality or impact.
Communication and collaboration: Evaluates the quality of interactions and collaboration among team members, including peer reviews, team dynamics, and communication effectiveness.
Efficiency and flow: Focuses on how smoothly and effectively developers can work, emphasizing uninterrupted work time, workflow efficiency, and minimizing blockers.
How does it relate to DMO?
Within the SPACE framework, developer motivation primarily falls under Satisfaction and well-being. Motivation directly influences satisfaction levels and vice versa, as motivated developers tend to be more engaged, feel a greater sense of purpose, and derive more fulfillment from their work. In essence, SPACE suggests that when developers are satisfied and their work environment promotes well-being, they’re naturally more motivated to contribute effectively, innovate, and collaborate.
This is mostly relating satisfaction and well-being with the joy part of DMO. As SPACE is not a human centric framework, it mostly looks at external factors. It does not relate to the idea of discipline in DMO. The frustration part in DMO relates to the flow part of SPACE.developer
DORA
The DORA metrics framework is a set of key metrics developed by the DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) team to measure software delivery performance and guide improvements. They are the closest to standard metrics we have in software development. These metrics, derived from research on high-performing engineering teams, assess the efficiency and effectiveness of software development and delivery.
The four core DORA metrics are:
- Deployment Frequency: Measures how often an organization successfully releases to production. High deployment frequency is indicative of an agile, efficient development process.
- Lead Time for Changes: Tracks the time it takes from committing code to deploying it in production. Shorter lead times signal that teams can deliver value faster and respond quickly to changes.
- Change Failure Percentage: Represents the percentage of deployments that result in a failure requiring immediate remediation, such as a bug or production outage. Lower failure rates indicate higher quality in releases.
- Failed deployment recovery time: Measures the time taken to recover from a production failure, indicating how resilient the team is in handling issues.
How does it relate to DMO?
Developer motivation is not an explicit topic in DORA, although productivity, in the areas of Throughput (the other is stability).
Deployment frequency with quick feedback cycles from production relate to joy in DMO. Quicker feedback leads to a higher level of joy. The same goes for lead time for changes. In DORA no parts rely to the concept of discipline in DMO.
A reduced Change Failure Percentage and shorter recovery times lead to less frustration. Higher deployment frequency indicates a smooth development and delivery environment, which generally reduces frustration.
The strongest relation DORA has to DMO is that reducing the frustration of developers (for different reasons), increased productivity.
DX
DX/DevEX is less of a framework and more of a focus area, although there are efforts to build one combining other frameworks with the the dimensions speed, effectiveness, quality measured with a key metric and secondary metrics.
It does put developer experience in the center, mostly in the dimension of effectiveness with the Developer Experience Index (DXI). Many of the other metrics are based on SPACE and DORA.
How does it relate to DMO?
Both frameworks put the developer in the center of productivity. While DMO is a small framework around developer motivation, DX has many metrics and dimensions to give a fuller picture.
Conclusion
SPACE, DORA and DX are fine frameworks are fine frameworks that you should look at and implement as a CTO.
The fall short on the core of the problem. Relating to developer productivity and motivation, all these frameworks are like talking about the leg of an elephant. Or the trunk. Or tusks. But not the elephant in the room. If you want to look at developer performance, it’s best to look at the developer. The developer is at the core of the matter. Therefore, you need to look at developer motivation (DMO). If developers are motivated, everything is fine. If they are not motivated, everything is in crisis.
