[nameoda]

I find treating developers like children and making them compete with each other for points very insulting.

The implication is that developers are incapable of working on what they are supposed to do by default and introducing a "game" like this is what motivates them to do better.

Do any other job families have to go through similar "break down" and detailed probing of their deliverables?

[t0mas88]

A lot of job families have very measurable performance metics. From marketing counting leads to sales counting dollars and delivery people counting packages delivered.

Software development on average has a lot more complaining about it. I think that's partly because a typical good developer highly values autonomy, and partly because solid software metics are so hard to define.

[kortilla]

But those metrics matter so they aren’t really comparable. These bug/feature points are completely made up.

[lucaronin]

Many jobs have very precise performance metrics — just think of sales.

I believe metrics are not good or bad per se, it just depends how you use them.

Of course you may use numbers to treat developers like children. But you may use them also to understand problems and find ways to improve, individually or all together as a team.

I don't think the solution is not to measure things at all :)

[nafey]

I think the issue is not that someone's output is being measured it's that the chosen metric is not matching the devs own conception of the value that they bring to the table. For example management might start tracking LoC per Dev and this will lead to discontentment for all the correct reasons.

[pseudalopex]

Who said not to measure things at all?

[jimbob45]

Nurses have to take care of n number of patients they're assigned or their shift is considered a failure. This is often at odds with reality, where patients may be neglected so that every patient can be met within the total time given.

It's not really 1:1 but it's similarly myopic from management.