Developer experience, commonly known as DevEx, describes how an organization’s systems, workflows, tools, and culture affect developer productivity. A positive DevEx leads to tangible organizational benefits, including faster releases, increased innovation, and reduced technical debt. Measuring DevEx enables engineering management to quantify their team’s impact and understand where to direct improvement efforts.
While there are differing approaches to DevEx measurement, attempting to quantify it in terms of individual metrics is always a temptation. The widespread use of AI has only added to that temptation, with leaders measuring individual token consumption in addition to metrics like lines of code or PR count. But tracking what is easy to count can adversely impact DevEx, and the gap between individual metrics and developer productivity continues to widen. According to the 2025 JetBrains Developer Ecosystem survey, 66% of developers do not believe that current metrics reflect their contributions. Atlassian’s 2025 State of Developer Experience report found that 63% of developers do not believe leaders understand their pain points, a sentiment that increased significantly from 44% in 2024.
