As I previously mentioned I am currently in the information gathering phase for improvements to desktop Firefox developer efficiency and velocity. While many view developer efficiency and velocity as the same thing–and indeed they are often correlated–it is useful to discuss how they are different.

I like to think of developer velocity as the rate at which a unit of work is completed. Developer efficiency is the amount of effort required to complete a unit of work.

If one were to think of the total development output as revenue, improvements to velocity would improve the top-line and improvements to efficiency would improve the bottom-line.

I like to visualize the differences by imagining a lone developer with the task to write a function to compute the Fibonacci series. If one were to magically increase the developer’s typing speed, that would be an increase to their velocity. If one created a library with an existing fibonacci implementation and the developer leveraged it instead, it would be an increase to their efficiency.

The trick I am here to help Mozilla with is identifying large improvements in both Firefox developer velocity and efficiency without requiring a lot of additional resources. I am focusing on some lower-hanging fruit that the organization has missed, hasn’t deployed for everyone, or needs a trusted outsider to help push through some red tape.