That's far from the only real difficulty in measuring developer output.
Large companies generally have very low standards for software quality and employee productivity, so they are hardly proof that the problem is easy.
Some obvious factors that make it hard to evaluate both developers and teachers:
- An important part of the output is in effects on the team
- The true test of the output often comes years down the line
- The work is done out of sight of the evaluators
- There are many confounding historical factors
- The profession is subtle and hard for outsiders to evaluate
- Poor management often limits worker effectiveness
And in many ways, teachers have it worse. Teaching is much less like writing software than it is like management.
Large companies generally have very low standards for software quality and employee productivity, so they are hardly proof that the problem is easy.
Some obvious factors that make it hard to evaluate both developers and teachers:
- An important part of the output is in effects on the team - The true test of the output often comes years down the line - The work is done out of sight of the evaluators - There are many confounding historical factors - The profession is subtle and hard for outsiders to evaluate - Poor management often limits worker effectiveness
And in many ways, teachers have it worse. Teaching is much less like writing software than it is like management.