New Work Percentage

Percentage of code that is newly added and not replacing/rewriting existing code.

Computation methodology

1. The analysis zeroes in on identifying contributions that introduce entirely new files or directories within the codebase.
2. To isolate the focus on new code additions, any modifications or deletions to existing files are excluded from the analysis.
3. The cumulative total of lines constituting the new code introduced within the specified timeframe is then aggregated.
4. The percentage of new code is calculated by dividing the total amount of new code by the total codebase size and multiplying by 100.

Industry benchmarks

1. It's typical for a developing company to strive for over 50% of their tasks to constitute "New Work".

Dashboards where this metric is used

1. Developer Summary
2. Dev Metric Grid
3. Dev Throughput

Use cases of this metric

1. This helps in assessing the innovation and progress of feature development efforts over time.
2. A consistently low percentage of new code may suggest stagnation or a lack of innovation, prompting the team to focus on revitalizing the codebase.
3. Use this to track how much new code is being contributed vs maintaining old code
4. For teams, over a longer time horizon, the new work contribution should be higher than all other categories & is indicative of new value being delivered