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IBM Seeks Patent On Judging Programmers By Commits

theodp writes "How'd you like to be deemed unworthy of a job based upon a scan of your GitHub updates? That's what proposed in a newly-published IBM patent application for Automated Analysis of Code Developer's Profile, which proposes weeding out developer candidates for certain roles based on things like the amount of changes one typically makes with each commit, how frequently and regularly one makes commits, what hours of the day one makes commits, the percentage of commits with conflicts that one resolves, and the 'depth' of one's commit comments ('shallow', 'mid-range' or 'deep'). Big Blue explains that commit or repository interactions can be used to produce a 'conclusion report' that compares a developer to others who have profiles on the repository, which helps management 'avoid wasted time with ineffective developers."

7 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. What do eHarmony and IBM have in common..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're both full of people who are afraid to commit.

  2. Good by will_die · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let IBM have the patents that way no other vendor will add theses to thier products.

  3. Ineffective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "which helps management 'avoid wasted time with ineffective developers.'"

    Does it also help developers avoid wasting time with ineffective management who use stupid metrics?

  4. I'm going to patent... by spidercoz · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...judging companies by the number of bullshit patents they file.

    Business methods are NOT inventions, they do NOT advance the sciences or useful arts, and SHOULD NOT BE PATENTABLE!

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
  5. Translation by davidbrit2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "IBM Seeks Patent On Poor Management"

  6. Re:I'd have expected better from IBM by bkmoore · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...They used to judge programmers on the number of lines of code generated rather then on the efficiency of said code.

    They had to change their metric, or programmers would stop using loops in order to get a raise.

  7. Re:So this patent is good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    If only they
    had patented
    the metric
    for judging
    code by
    number of
    lines written/
    changed/
    updated
    .