pks measuring productivity of knowledge worker - draft solutions

Measuring Individual Productivityof Technologist

Draft solutions

Conceived–Developed by:

PKS Management ConsultantsBangalore

Index• Problem Statement• Scenarios • Revisiting the Fundamentals

– Economic Sector– Knowledge Economics– Knowledge Worker– Technologist– Productivity– Productivity (as per Taylor)– Measurement– Productivity of Knowledge Worker

• Current Status• Our Models

– Understanding the Problem Clearly– Basic Productivity Measurement Framework– Solution No. 1– Evaluation– Complexity Factors– Time Factor– Conventional Factors– Simple Solution No. 2– Simple Solution No. 3– Simple Solution No. 4– Simple Solution No. 5

• Results• Opportunities• Road Ahead

Problem Statement

• Measuring individual productivity

(For role and individual level)

He is working, for sure Is he working??

Productivity Productivity??

Scenarios (Employee side)

• My hard work was not recognized

• I did hard work, why should I be clubbed in the same rating bucket

• Higher attrition

Scenarios (Management side)

• 20 percent employees doing 80 percent of work, identify these 20 percent

• Who should be assigned more work

• Who should be rewarded more

• Who should be promoted• Culture of meritocracy• Perception plays in appraisal• Objective assessment

Revisiting the Fundamentals

Economic Sector• Primary– Involves the retrieval

and production of raw materials, such as corn, coal, wood and iron

Economic Sector (Contd.)• Secondary– Involves the

transformation of raw or intermediate materials into goods e.g. manufacturing steel into cars, or textiles into clothing.

Economic Sector (Contd.)• Tertiary– Involves the supplying of

services to consumers and businesses, such as baby-sitting, cinema and banking.

Economic Sector (Contd.)• Quaternary

– Is a way to describe a knowledge-based part of the economy which typically includes services such as information generation and sharing, information technology, consultation, education, research and development, financial planning, and other knowledge-based services.

– The quaternary sector is sometimes included with the tertiary sector, as they are both service sectors

Economic Sector (Contd.)

• Quinary– The quinary sector could

be seen as a further division of the tertiary sector, which is a part of the economy that provides services.

– Examples of services located in the quinary sector are categorized as the highest level of services including scientists and top level business managers.

Knowledge Economics

• Present era is of knowledge economics

• Characteristics: – Borderless– Upward mobility– Means of Production

anybody can acquire– Potential for success as

well failure• Making knowledge society

highly competitive

Knowledge Worker

• People with considerable knowledge and learning

• Knowledge economics relies heavily on knowledge worker

Technologist• Manual worker plus knowledge

worker• Spends more time working with

hands than brain• Capitalist – owns the means of

production• “Work at” organization, not

belongs to it• Identifies himself with work• Professional not employee• Job as a life• Expects to be a success

Productivity

• Term itself barely 60 years old• Most important contribution of management in 20th century:

- To increase the productivity of manual worker• In 21st century: - To increase the productivity of knowledge worker

Productivity (Contd.)

• There was increase in productivity, but was result of new tools, new methods, new technology, economist calls “Capital”

• Very few advances in what is termed as “Labor” i.e. the productivity of worker.

• There existed ‘skills” but not productivity

Productivity (as per Taylor)

• Fredrick Taylor studied manual work. • Found that no such thing as “skill”• Only simple, repetitive motions• What makes them productive is the “knowledge”:

– The way these simple and repetitive motions are put together, organized and executed.

Productivity (as per Taylor)

• Work enlargement, work environment and job rotation all uses Taylors method reduce the fatigue of workers and thus to increase productivity.

• Task analysis , industrial engineering and assembly line of Henry Ford are the extension of Taylor’s principles. Scientific management, quality circle, kaizen and just-in-time too apply Taylors principles.

Productivity (Statistics come into picture)

• Quality Guru, Deming added the use of statistical theory in quality control on Taylors work.

Measurement

• "When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.“

Lord Kelvin

Productivity of Knowledge Worker

• What is the task? • What is the quality?– Difficult, risk-taking and

always controversial definition as to what “results” are.

• What is the quantity?– Aim first on quality than

on quantity

Current Status

• Almost no clarity on the issue

• Very few companies are trying to apply the concept

• Conventional economics almost fails in knowledge domain

• No single metric sufficient

Our Models

Understanding the Problem Clearly

• Comprehensive survey within the company• Why it is important to find out the individual

productivity• Final solution as per the pointers• If “perception” issue, points to trust deficit• Employee participation highly recommended

Basic Productivity Measurement Framework

Identify Task

Define Quality Targets

PerformanceEvaluation

Action

Solution No. 1

• Most comprehensive• Based on empirical data • Works for role as well individual level

Breaking Job Description into Competency Levels

JD

Competency 1

Level x

Competency 2

Level y

Example of Competency and Levels

• L(N) = ∑Li (i= 1 to N)• L3 = L1 + L2 + L3

Testing

L1 L2 L3

Does testing Writes test cases Writes test plan

Competency Dictionary

E1JD

Competencies

Levels

E2JD

Competencies

Levels

E3JD

Competencies

Levels

Example of Competency at Role Level

E1Coding Testing

L1 L1

E2Design Coding Testing

L1 L2 L2

E3Analysis Design Coding Testing

L1 L2 L3 L3

Defining Quality

Competency

Level 1

Statement 1

Quality Benchmark

Statement 2

Quality Benchmark

Statement 3

Quality Benchmark

Evaluation

Subjectivity Objectivity

Manager based

Manager + Peer

Peer Review Tools based

Evaluation by Manager

Competency Manager Character

Trust in evaluation

Complexity Factors

• Project size• Code size• Geographical dispersion• Team based projects• Technical complexity– For each factor

empirical scores to be defined and awarded

Time Factor

• For timely delivery full marks– For early delivery - Bonus– For late delivery - Penalty

– Exact formulas to be devised

Conventional Factors

• Cost factor • Punctuality in card

punching• Submitting reports on

time• Leave reports– For each factor

absolute score to be defined and awarded

Production Function

Q = f(X,Y)Q = ProductivityX, Y = Inputs for Production

Further:

log Q = log A + B1 log L + B2 Log KL = LaborK = Capital A, B1, B2 = Parameters (can be estimated using least squares regression techniques)

• Concept can be applied in writing individual productivity.• Input factors can be taken from previous slides.

• For simplicity, initial work can be based on empirical data.

Simple Solution No. 2

• Inference based– Test per project in the

language – Preferably by third

party

Simple Solution No. 3

• General survey– Get survey based

feedback– Peers + Manager

feedback– 360 % feedback – To be done at every

project

Simple Solution No. 4

• Third party tool based– Assess the source code – Assess the artifacts of

all phases of project

Simple Solution No. 5

• Let the $ value of this presentation to be evaluated by:– 2 Teams of

management – 2 Teams of technologists– Steps in solutions are

more important, than the final value

– We may get better solution

Results

• Absolute score card for each technologist

Opportunities

• “Knomics” (Knowledge Economics) can be developed

• To become a trend setter

Road Ahead

• To be discussed

Which one is the best? Indeed difficult…. But …

New Concept is Created by Being…

An artefact of

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