SPACE Framework Health Check

Rate your team on the five SPACE dimensions of developer productivity.

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What is the SPACE framework?

The SPACE framework was published in 2021 by Nicole Forsgren, Margaret-Anne Storey and colleagues at GitHub and Microsoft Research. Its argument is that no single number captures developer productivity, so it looks at five dimensions instead: Satisfaction and well-being, Performance, Activity, Communication and collaboration, and Efficiency and flow. This survey covers the part of SPACE that only your team can tell you: how the work feels. Everyone rates two statements per dimension, from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree. Read the results next to your delivery data, or pair it with the DORA Metrics Self-Assessment. Take the lowest-scoring dimension into your retrospective and agree on what to change. Use it to improve how the team works, never to rank individuals.

Dimensions

Satisfaction & Well-being

How fulfilled and healthy people feel in their work, their team and their tools.

  • Satisfaction

    We find our work here satisfying and worthwhile.

  • Well-being

    Our workload is sustainable, and people here rarely burn out.

Performance

The outcomes of the work: its quality, its reliability and the difference it makes for customers.

  • Quality

    We're confident in the quality and reliability of what we ship.

  • Customer Impact

    What we deliver makes a real difference for our customers.

Activity

Where the team's time and effort go. Counts such as commits and deployments come from your tools; this group asks how the effort feels.

  • Time on Valuable Work

    Most of our time goes on building and improving the product, not on overhead.

  • Delivery Pace

    We finish and ship work at a steady pace.

Communication & Collaboration

How well people share knowledge, review each other's work and help each other.

  • Reviews & Help

    We get timely reviews and answers from each other when we need them.

  • Shared Knowledge

    Knowledge is shared and easy to find, not stuck in one person's head.

Efficiency & Flow

How easily work moves without interruptions, waiting or handoffs.

  • Focus Time

    We get enough uninterrupted time to focus.

  • Flow

    Work moves from idea to production without getting stuck waiting on people, tools or approvals.

When to use this health check

  • Quarterly, as a team-level read on developer productivity that doesn't depend on Git or CI data.
  • When the delivery numbers look fine but the team says something's off, or the other way round.
  • Before and after a change to tools, process or team structure, such as rolling out AI coding assistants.

Tips & tricks

  • Start with the lowest-scoring dimension, not the overall average. SPACE is meant to be read as a set.
  • Pair it with the DORA Metrics Self-Assessment. SPACE shows how the work feels; DORA shows how delivery is going.
  • Keep it anonymous, and never use the results to compare or rank individuals.
  • Turn the lowest score into one or two actions in your next retrospective, then re-run the check to see whether they worked.

Frequently asked questions

What is the SPACE framework?
A model for understanding developer productivity, published in 2021 by Nicole Forsgren, Margaret-Anne Storey and researchers at GitHub and Microsoft Research. It looks at five dimensions (Satisfaction and well-being, Performance, Activity, Communication and collaboration, and Efficiency and flow) because no single metric captures productivity on its own.
What are the SPACE metrics?
SPACE doesn't prescribe a fixed list. For each dimension it suggests a mix of what people report, such as satisfaction or perceived focus time, and what systems record, such as review time or deployment counts. The authors recommend using metrics from at least three of the five dimensions so no single number dominates.
Can a survey measure SPACE without Git or CI data?
Partly. Satisfaction, collaboration and flow are best measured by asking people. Activity and Performance usually also draw on system data. This check asks how the team experiences all five, which is a useful starting point and a good way to decide which system metrics are worth setting up.
What's the difference between DORA and SPACE?
DORA measures software delivery with a small set of metrics, such as deployment frequency and change lead time. SPACE is broader: it covers how developers feel, how they collaborate and how work flows, as well as output. Many teams use DORA for delivery and SPACE for the wider picture. TeamRetro has a DORA check too.
Who created the SPACE framework?
Nicole Forsgren, Margaret-Anne Storey, Chandra Maddila, Thomas Zimmermann, Brian Houck and Jenna Butler, in The SPACE of Developer Productivity, published in ACM Queue in 2021. TeamRetro isn't affiliated with the authors.
How often should we run a SPACE check?
Quarterly suits most teams. Running it more often than you can act on the results tends to lower participation, so make sure each round leads to at least one change.

Based on Nicole Forsgren, Margaret-Anne Storey, Chandra Maddila, Thomas Zimmermann, Brian Houck and Jenna Butler, 'The SPACE of Developer Productivity,' ACM Queue 19(1) (2021).

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