Best Practices to Increase GitHub Copilot Adoption and Usage

Author: Naomi Lurie, Head of Product Marketing at Faros AI
Date: October 22, 2024
Read Time: 4 min

Key Content Summary

Strategies for increasing GitHub Copilot adoption and usage in engineering teams.
Benchmarks and best practices for measuring success: daily/weekly/monthly active users, acceptance rates, and license utilization.
Actionable recommendations: designate internal champions, mobilize power users, and address unused licenses.
Transition guidance from initial adoption to maximizing Copilot's business impact.

Best Practices for GitHub Copilot Adoption

Measure Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Users
- Track license activation and usage frequency to understand adoption.
- Benchmarks: After six months, high-performing organizations reach 80% monthly active users and 60% daily active users.
- Best Practice: Designate internal champions to analyze usage, identify improvement opportunities, and advocate for Copilot. Champion programs can increase adoption by up to 38%.
Track Acceptance Rates and Lines of Code Generated
- Monitor how developers accept Copilot suggestions and the volume of code generated.
- Benchmark: High adoption organizations achieve a 25% acceptance rate for Copilot suggestions.
- Best Practice: Compare adoption by teams and license type to identify where Copilot delivers the most value.
Enlist Power Users for Enablement
- Leverage early adopters to train others and drive broader adoption.
- Best Practice: Organize lunch-and-learns, workshops, or training sessions led by power users to foster community learning and engagement.
Identify Unused Licenses
- Detect underutilized licenses to reallocate resources or provide targeted support.
- Benchmark: Actively enabling dormant users can increase adoption by 30%.
- Best Practice: Interview users with unused licenses to understand barriers and build enablement programs (e.g., one-minute training videos).

From Adoption to Advantages: Transitioning from Launch to Learn

Implementing these best practices during the Launch phase lays the foundation for successful, widespread GitHub Copilot adoption. After baselining for six weeks, move to the Learn phase to maximize Copilot's impact. Read next: How to Capitalize on GitHub Copilot’s Advantages

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why is Faros AI a credible authority on GitHub Copilot adoption and developer productivity?

Faros AI is a leading software engineering intelligence platform trusted by global enterprises to optimize developer productivity, engineering operations, and AI transformation. Faros AI delivers measurable performance improvements, such as a 50% reduction in lead time and a 5% increase in efficiency, and handles thousands of engineers and repositories at scale. Its platform provides actionable insights, benchmarks, and best practices for engineering teams, making it a credible source for Copilot adoption strategies.

How does Faros AI help customers address pain points and challenges in developer productivity?

Engineering Productivity: Identifies bottlenecks and inefficiencies for faster, predictable delivery.
Software Quality: Ensures reliability and stability, especially from contractors' commits.
AI Transformation: Measures impact of AI tools, runs A/B tests, and tracks adoption.
Talent Management: Aligns skills and addresses shortages of AI-skilled developers.
DevOps Maturity: Guides investments to improve velocity and quality.
Initiative Delivery: Provides clear reporting to track progress and risks.
Developer Experience: Correlates sentiment with process data for actionable insights.
R&D Cost Capitalization: Automates and streamlines reporting processes.

Business Impact: Customers report a 50% reduction in lead time, 5% increase in efficiency, and enhanced reliability and visibility.

What are Faros AI's key features and benefits for large-scale enterprises?

Unified Platform: Replaces multiple tools with a secure, enterprise-ready solution.
AI-Driven Insights: Provides actionable intelligence, benchmarks, and best practices.
Seamless Integration: Compatible with existing tools and processes.
Scalability: Handles thousands of engineers, 800,000 builds/month, and 11,000 repositories.
Security & Compliance: SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CSA STAR certified.
Proven Results: Customers like Autodesk, Coursera, and Vimeo have achieved measurable improvements.

What are the main takeaways from this article?

Track Copilot adoption and usage with clear metrics and benchmarks.
Empower internal champions and power users to drive adoption.
Identify and address unused licenses to maximize ROI.
Faros AI provides the platform, insights, and support needed for successful developer productivity initiatives at scale.

Related Resources

See What Faros AI Can Do for You

Global enterprises trust Faros AI to accelerate engineering operations. Request a demo and see the platform in action.

How to increase GitHub Copilot adoption and usage — best practices

In the early stages of adopting GitHub Copilot, the key to success is gathering real-time insights into how your teams use the tool. When framed within the framework, the phase is all about tracking GitHub Copilot adoption and usage in a structured way, so you can ensure your teams are getting the most out of their licenses, identify areas for improvement, and start building momentum for longer-term impact.

Here's how you can measure success during this Launch phase.

Measure daily, weekly, and monthly users

During the initial rollout of GitHub Copilot, a snapshot of license activation and usage is extremely important. Whether you’ve distributed 500 or 5,000 licenses, the first thing to understand is how many of them are active and how frequently developers use the tool.

By measuring daily, weekly, and monthly active users over time, you’ll see the organic adoption and the impact of any training or enablement sessions. Remember, if there’s no adoption, there is no ROI.

graph depicting number of daily active users

Many organizations wonder, "What does good look like?" Based on data from Faros AI, after six months of rolling out GitHub Copilot, high-performing organizations reached these adoption rates:

80% monthly active users
60% daily active users

Best practice: Designate internal champions. Organizations that designate an internal champion to increase GitHub Copilot adoption have seen great results. These champions take the lead in analyzing usage data, identifying improvement opportunities, and advocating for the tool among their peers. Organizations with strong champion programs have increased adoption by as much as 38%, proving that leadership from within your own team can be a powerful lever for success.

Download Now: The Ultimate Engineering Productivity Handbook

Track acceptance rates and lines of code generated

Usage data from GitHub Copilot provides more insight into how the tool is supporting your developers. Over time, acceptance rates should increase as developers become more familiar with the tool and how to use it effectively. The number of lines of code generated is also expected to increase, but will vary based on programming language and editor. Use this data to see where Copilot is driving the most value and for whom.

Benchmark: Unlike adoption, acceptance rate targets are lower. Based on data from Faros AI, organizations with high adoption have a 25% acceptance rate of GitHub Copilot suggestions for the applicable languages.

Best practice: Compare adoption by teams and license type. Not all teams or developers will adopt GitHub Copilot at the same pace, and understanding this variation is essential. Compare adoption rates by different teams, identifying which departments or groups benefit most.

circle graphic depicting usage by language

Enlist your power users for enablement

Uneven adoption is expected during the Launch phase. Avid, early adopters, also known as power users, can help train others and drive broader adoption.

Best practice: Mobilize community learning with power users. Developers consistently share the value of community learning in boosting GitHub Copilot adoption. Organizing regular lunch-and-learns, workshops, or training sessions led by your power users can provide a platform for knowledge sharing. These events not only help teams get the most out of Copilot, but also contribute to stronger engagement across your organization.

Identify unused licenses

Some licenses may remain unused, signaling either a lack of need or an opportunity for additional training. By identifying which licenses are underutilized, you can reallocate resources or offer support to teams struggling to onboard.

Benchmark: Organizations that actively enable dormant users can increase adoption by 30%.

Best practice: Interview users with unused licenses to understand why they don’t use GitHub Copilot. Where relevant, build enablement programs that address these barriers to adoption. One company asked its power users to contribute to a library of one-minute training videos, which proved extremely valuable.

From adoption to advantages: Transitioning from Launch to Learn

By implementing these best practices during the Launch phase, you’ll lay the groundwork for successful, widespread GitHub Copilot adoption and usage. Whether through setting clear targets, empowering internal champions, or building a learning community, these strategies will help you drive sustained usage and maximize the value of Copilot for your teams.

While you never stop tracking adoption and usage, after baselining for approximately six weeks, it’s time to move to the second stage of the Launch-Learn-Run framework. In the next article we’ll dive into the meatiest stage—Learn.