Productivity in software engineering: A study of its meanings for practitioners: Understanding the concept under their standpoint

Productivity is a complex concept to be measured or even defined. In software engineering, productivity measurement have focused on the productivity of product delivery, perhaps influenced in part by the formulas used to estimate software projects. These measures have been used in various levels of measurement, from high levels such as organization level to the lowest level: the software engineer. In this paper, the results of an exploratory study about the definition of productivity from the point of view of software engineers are presented. Thus, a definition close to what software engineers do in their day to day is obtained. Furthermore, this definition is compared with the definitions of productivity as defined and used in the scientific literature so far.