Methodology
How the rankings are decided
The Luvo 100 recognises the people influencing software quality — testing, quality engineering, reliability, developer experience, accessibility, performance and the practices around them. Every ranking is half community, half editorial.
Fifty-fifty
50%
Community voting
Anyone with a verified email address can submit one ranked Top 10 per ranking, per market. Points are awarded by position: a first place is worth 10 points, second 9, and so on down to 1 point for tenth. One ballot per person per ranking — resubmitting replaces your previous ballot rather than adding to it.
50%
Luvo editorial assessment
Every eligible candidate is assessed independently against five published criteria, supported by evidence. Editorial scoring exists so that sustained, substantive contribution counts as much as visibility.
Community score and editorial score are weighted equally to produce the final score, which sets the order of the list. Votes are a powerful signal, never the whole answer — that is what keeps this from becoming a social-media popularity contest.
Each list stands on its own
Global and Australia & New Zealand are scored and ranked independently. A rank is a position within that list's own 100 — never an absolute score. So someone can sit higher on the Global list than on the ANZ list: Global measures their standing among the world's top 100, ANZ among the region's top 100. The two lists ask two different questions, and each answers on its own terms.
Editorial criteria
- Impact35
- How significantly have they influenced software quality in their market?
- Innovation20
- Have they introduced important new ideas, approaches or technology?
- Scale15
- How broadly does their work reach practitioners and organisations?
- Industry contribution15
- Do they educate, mentor, open-source, speak or build community?
- Leadership15
- Are they actively shaping where the profession goes next?
Individual editorial scores and assessor notes are never published. Every ranking is reviewed and approved before it goes live.
The ranking cycle
The Global ranking is published once a year, on 9 September. The Australia & New Zealand ranking is published each season, on 1 December, 1 March, 1 June and 1 September.
01
Nominate
Nominations stay open all year. Each one is reviewed and researched before anyone joins the candidate pool.
02
Vote
Voting opens between rankings. Build a ranked Top 10 from the candidate pool and confirm it with your email address.
03
Assess
Voting closes, community points are totalled, and editorial assessment is finalised for the period.
04
Publish
A new ranking is published with movement against the previous one — up, down, new or re-entry.
Each market runs its own cycle. Past rankings are kept as a permanent record, so a person's history is visible on their profile.
Keeping voting honest
- Every ballot is confirmed by email before it counts.
- One counted ballot per person, per market, per ranking.
- You cannot vote for the same person twice on one ballot.
- Unusual voting patterns are reviewed before publication.
What the Luvo 100 is not
- A place in the Luvo 100 cannot be bought.
- Commercial relationships do not guarantee inclusion.
- Follower counts alone do not determine inclusion.
- The most votes does not automatically mean the highest rank.
- A nomination does not guarantee entry to the candidate pool.
- Every published ranking requires editorial approval.