Project Health

Project Health Check

Assess project health with scored metrics across delivery, code quality, technical debt, team performance, and dependencies.

Instructions

1. Gather Data

Collect metrics from available sources. Gracefully skip any tool or data source that is unavailable.

Git and Code Metrics

# Code churn — most frequently changed files
git log --format=format: --name-only --since="30 days ago" | sort | uniq -c | sort -rg

# Contributor activity
git shortlog -sn --since="30 days ago"

# Stale branches
git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short) %(committerdate:relative)' refs/heads/ | grep -E "(months|years) ago"

# Lines of code (if cloc is available)
cloc . --json --exclude-dir=node_modules,dist,build

# Test coverage
npm test -- --coverage --json 2>/dev/null || echo "Coverage command not available"

Dependency Health

# Outdated packages and security vulnerabilities
npm outdated --json 2>/dev/null || pip list --outdated --format=json 2>/dev/null || echo "No package manager detected"
npm audit --json 2>/dev/null || pip-audit --format=json 2>/dev/null || echo "Audit not available"

Task Management (if Linear/GitHub Projects available)

• Sprint velocity trends
• Cycle time analysis
• Bug vs. feature ratio
• Backlog growth rate

If Linear MCP is not connected, note it and proceed with git/GitHub data only.

2. Analyze

• Score each dimension 0-100 based on the data collected
• Identify trends (improving, stable, declining) by comparing to prior periods
• Flag items that cross critical thresholds
• Assess risk by combining likelihood and impact

3. Produce Scored Report

Use the template below. Fill in every field you have data for. Mark fields without data as "N/A - [reason]".

# Project Health Report - [Project Name]
Generated: [Date]

## Executive Summary
Overall Health Score: [Score]/100 [GREEN Healthy | YELLOW Needs Attention | RED Critical]

### Key Findings
- Strengths: [Top 3 positive indicators]
- Concerns: [Top 3 areas needing attention]
- Critical Issues: [Immediate action items]

## Detailed Health Metrics

1. **Delivery Health** (Score: [X]/100)
| Metric | Current | Target | Status |
|--------|---------|--------|--------|
| Sprint Velocity | [X] pts | [Y] pts | GREEN |
| On-time Delivery | [X]% | 90% | YELLOW |
| Cycle Time | [X] days | [Y] days | GREEN |
| Defect Rate | [X]% | <5% | RED |

2. **Code Quality** (Score: [X]/100)
| Metric | Current | Target | Status |
|--------|---------|--------|--------|
| Test Coverage | [X]% | 80% | YELLOW |
| Code Duplication | [X]% | <3% | GREEN |
| Complexity Score | [X] | <10 | YELLOW |
| Security Issues | [X] | 0 | RED |

3. **Technical Debt** (Score: [X]/100)
- Total Debt Items: [Count]
- Debt Growth Rate: [+/-X% per sprint]
- Estimated Debt Work: [X days]
- Debt Impact: [Description]

4. **Team Health** (Score: [X]/100)
| Metric | Current | Target | Status |
|--------|---------|--------|--------|
| PR Review Time | [X] hrs | <4 hrs | GREEN |
| Knowledge Silos | [X] | 0 | YELLOW |
| Work Balance | [Score] | >0.8 | GREEN |
| Burnout Risk | [Level] | Low | YELLOW |

5. **Dependency Health** (Score: [X]/100)
- Outdated Dependencies: [X]/[Total]
- Security Vulnerabilities: [Critical: X, High: Y]
- License Issues: [Count]

## Trend Analysis

### Velocity Trend (Last 6 Sprints)
Sprint 1: ████████████ 40 pts
Sprint 2: ██████████████ 45 pts
Sprint 3: ████████████████ 50 pts
Sprint 4: ██████████████ 45 pts
Sprint 5: ████████████ 38 pts
Sprint 6: ██████████ 35 pts -- Declining

### Bug Discovery Rate
Week 1: ██ 2 bugs
Week 2: ████ 4 bugs
Week 3: ██████ 6 bugs -- Increasing
Week 4: ████████ 8 bugs -- Action needed

## Risk Assessment

### High Priority Risks
1. **[Risk Name]**
   - Impact: [Critical/High/Medium/Low]
   - Likelihood: [Confirmed/Likely/Possible]
   - Mitigation: [Specific action]

## Actionable Recommendations

### Immediate (This Week)
1. [Most urgent action]

### Short-term (This Sprint)
1. [Important improvement]

### Long-term (This Quarter)
1. [Strategic initiative]

## Comparison with Previous Health Check
| Category | Last Check | Current | Trend |
|----------|------------|---------|-------|
| Overall Score | [X]/100 | [Y]/100 | [arrow] |
| Delivery | [X]/100 | [Y]/100 | [arrow] |
| Code Quality | [X]/100 | [Y]/100 | [arrow] |
| Technical Debt | [X]/100 | [Y]/100 | [arrow] |
| Team Health | [X]/100 | [Y]/100 | [arrow] |

4. Graceful Degradation

When tools or data sources are unavailable:

• No Linear/task tracker: Skip delivery velocity metrics; estimate from git commit frequency instead
• No test runner: Skip coverage metrics; note as "manual assessment needed"
• No cloc/npm: Use git-based heuristics for code metrics
• Always state which data sources were available and which were not, so the reader knows the confidence level of each score

Configuration

See references/configuration.md for threshold customization and custom metric definitions.