[wallstquant]

How is a programmers value add usually measured?

I am a researcher/trader and I spend a large portion of my time programming, but I am ultimately paid off the change in profitability of the strategies I've worked on and not on the code I've written. It's a means to an end.

When someone is working on a purely technical project, how can they successfully argue for the value of their work? How do you measure the value of a purely technical project? Are there other metrics that matter?