A cognitive system, method and computer program product for maximizing a productivity of software development by a software development team. The system and method implement cognitive processes for determining what certain organizational factors and their optimal values which correspond to high performing software development teams. Based on the determinations correlating organization factors with productivity increases, the system prescribes what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to improve (e.g., increase and decrease), and determine what are the target improvement values. Use of the systems and methods described herein enable development managers and executives to build maximum performance teams (or transform existing teams, boosting their productivity), by leveraging customized quantitative recommendation provided as output. The system and method overcomes inefficiency of existing measures by enabling global and automated ways of maximizing the development productivity by continuously providing customized and targeted performance improvement.