Steve Balmer on KLOCs

Ali Gajani

Why leaders watch it

Ballmer explains how counting lines of code mismeasures progress, a warning about metrics that reward the wrong thing.

A one-minute clip of Steve Ballmer explaining IBM's obsession with counting thousands of lines of code (KLOCs) as a measure of programmers. He explains why that metric is useless.

Takeaways

• Measuring output by volume misleads
• Metrics shape behavior
• Pick measures tied to value

Topics: Decision making & mental models, Engineering & technical leadership

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