The third company seems a bit weird to include in other ways as well. In raw numbers in table 1, there seem to be exactly zero effects from the use of CoPilot. Through the use of their regression model -- which introduces other predictors such as developer-fixed and week-fixed effects -- they somehow get an estimated effect of +54%(!) from CoPilot in the number of PRs. But the standard deviations are so far through the roof that the +54% is statistically insignificant within the population of 3000 devs.
Also, they explain the introduction of the week fixed effect as a means of controlling for holidays etc., but to me it sounds like it could also introduce a lot of unwarranted flexibility into the model. But this is a part where I don't understand their methodology well enough to tell whether that's a problem or not.
I generally err towards the benefit of the doubt when I don't fully understand or know something, which is why I focused more on the presentation of the results than on criticizing the study and its methodology in general. I'd have been okay with the summary saying "we got an increase of 27.3% for Microsoft and no statistically significant results for other participants".
The third company seems a bit weird to include in other ways as well. In raw numbers in table 1, there seem to be exactly zero effects from the use of CoPilot. Through the use of their regression model -- which introduces other predictors such as developer-fixed and week-fixed effects -- they somehow get an estimated effect of +54%(!) from CoPilot in the number of PRs. But the standard deviations are so far through the roof that the +54% is statistically insignificant within the population of 3000 devs.
Also, they explain the introduction of the week fixed effect as a means of controlling for holidays etc., but to me it sounds like it could also introduce a lot of unwarranted flexibility into the model. But this is a part where I don't understand their methodology well enough to tell whether that's a problem or not.
I generally err towards the benefit of the doubt when I don't fully understand or know something, which is why I focused more on the presentation of the results than on criticizing the study and its methodology in general. I'd have been okay with the summary saying "we got an increase of 27.3% for Microsoft and no statistically significant results for other participants".
But perhaps I should have been more critical.