{"id":2747,"date":"2022-11-22T18:38:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T22:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wholetomato.com\/?p=2747"},"modified":"2023-11-21T03:27:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T07:27:07","slug":"make-your-developers-happy-with-visual-assist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wholetomato.com\/blog\/make-your-developers-happy-with-visual-assist\/","title":{"rendered":"Make your developers happy with Visual Assist"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our last post, we estimated <\/span>how much time and money an extension like Visual Assist save<\/span><\/a>. This time, however, we\u2019re keeping it basic and focusing on one of the most obvious productivity signals: a happy developer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This blog is intended for lead developers, team managers, and procurement decision makers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Why leaders need to keep their developers happy<\/span><\/h2>\n

A satisfied developer is a reliable indicator for two things: work is being done, and work is being done in a timely manner. Have you ever seen someone frantically working with an outdated program produce great output?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Software developers and programmers are the primary drivers of projects. An inconvenience for developers is an inconvenience to the team as a whole. Each second spent on side tasks such as troubleshooting their workspace or reading long documentation is a bother (necessary but a chore nonetheless).<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensuring a hassle-free work environment<\/span><\/h2>\n

Apart from employee benefits and privileges, one of the best ways to keep developer satisfaction and productivity up is ensuring that the work environment is healthy. For developers, that\u2019s their work desk or more specifically, their IDE.<\/span><\/p>\n

A well-equipped developer will be able to confront their day to day tasks efficiently. For example, one key benefit of having a productivity plugin like <\/span>Visual Assist<\/span><\/a> is having better quality code with significantly reduced effort. It provides developers automatic prompts and suggestions that are based on the <\/span>latest industry standards<\/span><\/a> without them having to study and re-learn themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Visual Assist on the Visual Studio marketplace with a 4.8-star rating.<\/p><\/div>\n

Conversely, developers will not hesitate to discuss when there are roadblocks; so it\u2019s fair to assume that they will do the same when they feel that their coding environment needs an upgrade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That is why it is not that difficult to keep the developers\u2019 toolkit up to date. Feedback from day-to-day interactions\u00a0 are one of most accessible indicators for performance and friction points\u2014requiring no more than a chat with a team member. <\/span><\/p>\n

Keeping track of developer satisfaction is one of the easiest productivity boosters. Suffice to say that if a developer asks for a specific tool, the confidence and productivity boost is often worth the initial investment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The difficulty in gauging productivity<\/span><\/h2>\n

Business decision makers will often try to verify their developers\u2019 sentiments with a numbers-based <\/span>return on investment (ROI) analysis<\/span><\/a>. In business speak, those are calculations and simulations on whether the purchase of a machine will benefit the business in the long-term.<\/span><\/p>\n

Decision makers will rightfully ask: How much return of investment can we expect if we buy X number of Visual Assist licenses?<\/span><\/p>\n

How much can we expect to save when we invest into this productivity extension?
\n– A common question from our enterprise clients<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Empirical studies regarding software dev productivity are hard to come by. Productivity extensions like Visual Assist save time but it <\/span>cannot say by how much<\/span><\/i>. Those would need sophisticated tracking and behavior monitoring.<\/span><\/p>\n

While certainly not something to underestimate, in-depth analyses take valuable time and effort on the side of company decision makers because most use cases will vary per team. The ceiling and floor ROI will adjust depending based on a number of factors including:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n