Profitability per developer, per project, per client.
Computed daily from real delivery data — not reconstructed once a year in a spreadsheet. Five layers connect a merged pull request to money: Effort → Cost → PI → Value → ROI.
From a merged PR to money, in five steps.
Import effort and cost data automatically from Jira Tempo, or configure rates and value models directly in DevEval. ROI calculations stay up to date as delivery data arrives.
Effort
CU delivered + MD spentTwo measures of the same work: CU (complexity delivered — constant over time, tool-independent) and MD (man-days — estimated for a baseline developer, and actual from worklogs). Works with whatever you have: Jira estimates, worklogs, or just the PRs.
Cost
actual MD × internal rateActual man-days times internal rate, overhead included. Multi-currency, aggregated honestly: what can't be converted is excluded, never silently blended.
Productivity Index
PI = CU delivered / actual MDThe efficiency layer: how much complexity ships per man-day. Same unit for every developer, team, and vendor — see the paradox below.
Value
depends on your pricing modelWhat the work is worth in money — billable hours, a CU-based share of the budget, a retainer base, or an internal proxy. Four models, one per project, below.
ROI
ROI = value / cost1.0 = break-even; 2.0 = value equal to twice the cost — a 100% return on cost; 0.8 = a 20% loss you now see in week 2, not at year end.
Same task, same value — 20× different efficiency.
PI in one example: two developers deliver the identical task, and only the time differs. Hours-based metrics call the slower one more valuable. PI doesn't.
Same value delivered — 20× different efficiency.
CU stays constant as tools improve while actual MD shrinks — so PI rises exactly when your org genuinely speeds up. Story-point velocity hides this: the same task quietly gets fewer points, and the gain vanishes from the chart.
Value depends on how you sell.
The value layer follows the commercial model of each project — the same delivery data, four ways it turns into money.
Time & Material
Value = billable hours × client rate. The invoice is the value — DevEval attributes it to the people who logged the hours.
Fixed Price
Project budget split by CU delivered, not hours logged. Equal CU = equal share, even at different speeds — rewards value, not sitting time.
Retainer
Fixed monthly base for the committed allocation, plus T&M-style value for anything delivered over it.
Internal / product
Effort-based proxy — MD × internal value per MD — when there's no invoice to point at. Cost centers get comparable numbers too.
Numbers you can defend in a board meeting.
An ROI figure is only useful if you can trust it — and challenge it. Every number on this layer is labeled, normalizable, and traceable.
Know which projects make money — this quarter, not next year.
Connect your repos and worklogs and watch the five layers fill in from real delivery data — per developer, per project, per client.