Developer joy is central to Atlassian’s approach to productivity. The Australian tech company boasts around 5,000 engineers globally and is known for its competitive software products. Atlassian believes that happy developers are more productive, rather than relying on traditional productivity metrics that can be challenging to measure and often lead to counterproductive outcomes.
Measuring developer productivity has been a point of contention for Atlassian, with concerns that metrics like lines of code produced or deployment frequency do not accurately reflect productivity or positive customer outcomes. Instead, Atlassian is focusing on enhancing developer experience, known as ‘developer joy,’ which includes creating a conducive environment for developers to work productively through better tools, technologies, and a strong engineering culture.
Deloitte has identified DevEx as a key tech trend and emphasized the importance of platforms and tools, ways of working, and talent experience in fostering developer productivity. Atlassian’s emphasis on ‘developer joy’ has resulted in various improvements across different product teams, such as enhancing collaboration, streamlining code reviews, and integrating quality assurance practices.
To enhance developer joy, Atlassian encourages businesses to seek feedback from developers, carve out time for improving joy in the workplace, and tailor approaches to each team’s unique needs. By prioritizing developer joy over traditional productivity measurements, Atlassian aims to create a more satisfying and productive work environment, attracting and retaining top tech talent.
