Ask any developer, and they'll tell you: catching errors during the development phase is a game-changer in the development cycle.

As an answer to their prayers, Typescript came into existence. Developed by Microsoft, TypeScript is a high-level, open-source programming language that allows developers to identify and fix errors early, rather than waiting for runtime to strike.

This proactive approach significantly cuts down on bugs and enhances overall code quality. With its emphasis on safety and maintainability, TypeScript has become a core option for projects of all sizes.

Plus, with a thriving community of nearly 800 contributors continuously improving the language, TypeScript is almost a movement! To gain deeper insights into this movement, we analyzed their engineering Dora Metrics using Middleware Open Source. Keen to know what we found?

If you're excited to explore these insights further and connect with fellow engineering leaders, come join us in The Middle Out Community and subscribe to the newsletter for exclusive case studies and more!

1. Deployment Frequency, Merge Time, First Response Time & Rework Time Analytics

TypeScript powers through rapid iterations and delivery, but the surge in merge time---from 1.76 days in June 2024 to 3.39 days in August 2024---indicates a major slowdown in review times, likely caused by complex pull requests or a backlog in reviews.

Let's delve deep and see what story their number narrates:

June 2024: They had a good 92 deployments

July and August 2024: They hit a deployment slump in July with 26 deployments but managed to claw their way back up in August with 66 deployments.

It's like they pressed pause, then fast-forwarded to resume their usual deployment groove.

Upon closer examination, we observe a steady decrease in the cycle time, dropping from 12.56 days in June to 11.09 days in August 2024, and a reduction in lead time from 13.0 days in June to 11.42 days in August.

However, the fluctuations in first response time, merge time, and rework time raise some concerns that need to be addressed.

• Merge Time: In June, it was 1.76 days, which reduced to 0.99 days in July and then increased to 3.39 days in August.

• First Response Time: It started at 4.11 days, climbed to 8.05 days, and ultimately decreased to 3.01 days.

• Rework Time: Initially, it was 6.59 days, then it dropped to 0.45 days, before rising again to 4.68 days.

The instability in these metrics signals potential roadblocks in their workflow. The rising merge time suggests that while deployments may have increased, the review process is becoming a bottleneck. Meanwhile, the erratic first response and rework times indicate that the team may be struggling to keep pace with review demands and address issues promptly.

Also Read: How Bootstrap maintained a robust merge time

2. Their Strengths: A Powerful Ecosystem and A Solid Backing

Microsoft Backing: TypeScript is maintained by Microsoft, ensuring robust support and regular updates, which adds to its credibility and reliability.

Active Contributions: With over 749 contributors, the repository benefits from a diverse and active group of developers who continuously improve and maintain the project.

Extensive Ecosystem: A vast ecosystem of libraries and tools can help automate and streamline various aspects of the development and deployment process, leading to more frequent deployments. Also, the availability of a wide range of tools can help developers implement changes more efficiently, reducing the lead time for changes.

Robust CI/CD Pipelines: Automated testing and deployment ensure that changes can be reliably deployed frequently without manual interventions.

Clear Contribution Guidelines: The documentation and guidelines, present in files like CONTRIBUTING.md, set clear expectations and reduce friction for new contributions.

Also, check out where Hugging Face shines the most

3. Leveraging Strengths to Build a Robust Engineering Roadmap

Capitalize on Active Contributions

With over 749 active contributors, the wealth of ideas and improvements should not be underestimated. Actively engage the community and foster collaboration, enabling the team to rapidly iterate and enhance features, creating a continuous cycle of improvement.

Bug Fixes: Taming the Beast with Quality Code and Smart Strategies

The TypeScript repo currently spends about 35% of its time fixing bugs. To bring this number down, they should leverage their automated testing expertise to catch issues before they escalate. By implementing unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests, they can ensure that new code doesn't introduce bugs and that all aspects of the application are thoroughly covered.

Strategies to Resolve Delays in Feature Pushes

They spend 40% of their time and efforts in feature pushes and to ensure these features are incorporated and finally deployed into production without delay and hiccups, they can follow the below-given steps:

1. Prioritize Communication

• Implement short daily stand-ups to keep everyone updated on tasks and blockers.

2. Streamline the Review Process

• Establish and iterate clear code review guidelines to speed up the process.

• Assign reviewers to pull requests (PRs) right after they are created to prevent bottlenecks.

3. Automate Testing and Integration

• Set up a strong CI/CD pipeline with automated tests for each PR to catch issues early.

• Ensure high test coverage for new features to validate functionality before merging.

4. Set Realistic Deadlines

• Break down complex features into smaller tasks for easier tracking and identification of delays.

5. Conduct Retrospectives

• Hold post-mortem discussions after each feature rollout to identify successes and areas for improvement.

Our Take: TypeScript Has the Tools to Build a Winning Roadmap!

Team TypeScript has all the necessary ammo it requires to build a powerful engineering pipeline. It just needs to leverage it strategically to foster a positive cycle of productivity.

With continued focus on refining their processes, the TypeScript team is well-equipped to enhance their performance even further and set a benchmark for others in the community.

If you find these learnings interesting, we'd encourage you to give a shot at Dora Metrics using Middleware Open Source. You could follow this guide to analyze your team or write to our team at productivity@middlewarehq.com with your questions and we'll be happy to generate a suggestion study for your repo --- free!

We at Middleware really enjoy sharing our insights about productivity from the best teams and would feel really encouraged if you could share with your community/friends as well.

Before you go, here's TypeScript Trivia!

Microsoft provides an online tool called the TypeScript Playground, where developers can write and test TypeScript code directly in their browser. This interactive environment allows users to see how TypeScript compiles to JavaScript in real-time.