How To Calculate Merge Request Rate in MS Dynamics | Arithmix

If you're working in a software development team, you may have heard the term "merge request rate" being thrown around. But what exactly is it, and why is it important to calculate? In this article, we'll explore the ins and outs of merge request rate, and show you how to calculate it in MS Dynamics.

What Is Merge Request Rate?

Merge request rate is a metric that measures the frequency at which developers are submitting code changes for review and merging. It's calculated by dividing the number of merge requests submitted over a certain period of time by the total number of developers on the team. Essentially, it tells you how many merge requests each developer is submitting on average.

For example, let's say you have a team of 10 developers, and over the course of a week, they submit a total of 50 merge requests. To calculate the merge request rate, you would divide 50 by 10, which gives you an average of 5 merge requests per developer per week.

When Is It Valuable To Calculate Merge Request Rate?

There are a few reasons why you might want to calculate merge request rate:

• Identifying bottlenecks: If you notice that certain developers are submitting significantly fewer merge requests than others, it could be a sign that they're struggling with a particular aspect of the development process. By identifying these bottlenecks, you can provide targeted support and training to help those developers improve.
• Tracking progress: By monitoring merge request rate over time, you can get a sense of how your team's productivity is changing. If you're implementing new processes or tools, for example, you can see whether they're having a positive impact on the team's ability to submit code changes.
• Improving code quality: By encouraging developers to submit more merge requests, you can ensure that code changes are being reviewed and tested thoroughly before they're merged into the main codebase. This can help catch bugs and other issues early on, which can save time and effort down the line.

Overall, calculating merge request rate can be a valuable tool for software development teams looking to improve their processes and productivity. By keeping an eye on this metric, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions about how to optimize your team's workflow.

How Do You Calculate Merge Request Rate in MS Dynamics

MS Dynamics itself isn’t naturally geared towards letting you calculate complex metrics like Merge Request Rate. As an alternative, teams typically use products like Arithmix to import data from MS Dynamics and build out dashboards.

What is Arithmix?

Arithmix is the next generation spreadsheet - a collaborative, web-based platform for working with numbers that’s powerful yet easy to use. With Arithmix you can import data from systems like MS Dynamics, combine it with data from other systems, and create calculations like Merge Request Rate.

In Arithmix, data is organized into Tables and referenced by name, not by cell location like a spreadsheet, simplifying calculation creation. Data and calculations can be shared with others and re-used like building blocks, vastly streamlining analysis, model building, and reporting in a highly scalable and easy to maintain platform. Data can be edited, categorized (by dimensions) and freely pivoted. Calculations are automatically copied across a dimension - eliminating copy and paste of formulas.

Arithmix is fully collaborative, giving your entire team access to your numbers and the ability to work together seamlessly.

Calculating Merge Request Rate in Arithmix

Calculating metrics like Merge Request Rate is simple in Arithmix. Once you've created your free account, you’ll be able to import your MS Dynamics data, and use it to create natural language formulas for metrics like Merge Request Rate.

Arithmix is designed to give you the power to build any calculations you want on top of your MS Dynamics data, while also being easy to use and collaborate on. You can share your dashboards with users inside and outside of your organisation, making it easy to empower your whole team.