Metrics
Lines of Code vs Real Productivity: Why LOC Is a Vanity Metric
Measuring developer productivity has been a longstanding challenge for engineering managers, team leads, and executives looking to optimize software delivery. One of the oldest and most persistent metrics in this space is Lines of Code (LOC). For decades, LOC was seen as a straightforward way to quantify output and progress in software development. Today, however, relying on LOC to assess productivity is increasingly recognized as both outdated and misleading. In this post, we’ll explore why LOC is a vanity metric, the pitfalls of focusing on it, and what modern engineering teams should measure instead. We’ll also demonstrate how git analytics platforms like Gitrolysis provide actionable insights to help teams move beyond LOC toward real productivity metrics.