Dual 24″ Monitors

I’m working on a justification for capable developer machines including dual 24″ monitors. It occurred to me that I needed a simple test to define the problem.

def test_two_24_inch_monitors_are_cost_effective
  baseline_productivity = developer.productivity_in_hours_per_year
  developer.add_monitor(24_inch_monitor)
  developer.add_monitor(24_inch_monitor)
  productivity_gain = developer.productivity_in_hours_per_year - baseline_productivity
  assert(productivity_gain * 50_dollars_per_hour > cost_of_two_monitors)
end

So with two 24″ monitors running say $800 I need to show just a 16+ hour increase to justify the increased productivity in a single year. To make the math easy with say 1600 hours available a year, we’re talking about just a 1% productivity gain. Given a recent study showing 20%+ gains this should be an easy test to turn green.