What gets measured gets managed. Without metrics, maintenance is faith-based: you hope code is healthy, believe things are improving, trust that effort is well-spent. With the right metrics, maintenance becomes data-driven: you know the current state, see trends over time, and prove the value of maintenance investment.
The key is measuring what matters, not just what's easy to measure.
Why Metrics Matter
Metrics enable better decisions.
Visibility
Know the current state:
@devonair show current code health metrics
You can't manage what you can't see.
Progress Tracking
See improvement:
@devonair show maintenance trends over time
Are we getting better?
Resource Justification
Prove value:
@devonair show maintenance ROI metrics
Justify continued investment.
Focus
Prioritize effort:
@devonair show where maintenance effort is most needed
Code Health Metrics
Technical Debt
Measure accumulated debt:
@devonair track technical debt metrics:
- Debt estimate (time to fix all issues)
- Debt trend (increasing or decreasing)
- Debt by component
- Debt age (how long issues have existed)
Code Quality
Measure code quality:
@devonair track quality metrics:
- Lint violation count
- Complexity scores
- Duplication percentage
- Code smell count
Test Coverage
Measure testing:
@devonair track coverage metrics:
- Line coverage percentage
- Branch coverage
- Coverage trend
- Coverage by component
Dependency Health
Measure dependencies:
@devonair track dependency metrics:
- Dependencies out of date
- Security vulnerabilities
- Major version behind
- Deprecated dependencies
Maintenance Activity Metrics
Issue Resolution
Measure fix rate:
@devonair track issue metrics:
- Issues found per week
- Issues fixed per week
- Net change (found - fixed)
- Backlog size
PR Metrics
Measure maintenance PRs:
@devonair track PR metrics:
- Maintenance PRs created
- Maintenance PRs merged
- Time to merge
- PRs stuck in review
Automation Effectiveness
Measure automation:
@devonair track automation metrics:
- Auto-fixed issues
- Auto-fix success rate
- Manual interventions required
Time-Based Metrics
Detection Time
How fast are issues found?
@devonair track detection time:
- Time from issue introduction to detection
- Goal: detect within hours, not weeks
Resolution Time
How fast are issues fixed?
@devonair track resolution time:
- Time from detection to fix
- Time by severity level
- Time by issue type
Review Time
How fast are maintenance PRs reviewed?
@devonair track review time:
- Time to first review
- Time to approval
- Time to merge after approval
Cycle Time
End-to-end time:
@devonair track cycle time:
- Time from issue creation to merge
- Full maintenance lifecycle
Trend Analysis
Direction
Are things improving?
@devonair show trends:
- Code health: improving ↑
- Tech debt: decreasing ↓
- Test coverage: increasing ↑
- Security issues: decreasing ↓
Velocity
How fast are we improving?
@devonair show velocity:
- Issues resolved per week
- Debt reduced per month
- Coverage added per sprint
Comparison
Compare to baseline:
@devonair compare to baseline:
- Code health vs 3 months ago
- Code health vs last year
- Code health vs target
Team Metrics
Contribution
Who's helping with maintenance?
@devonair track contributions:
- Reviews by team member
- Fixes by team member
- Maintenance PRs merged
Workload
Is maintenance distributed fairly?
@devonair track workload:
- Reviews per person
- Issues assigned per person
- Balance across team
Capacity
How much can the team handle?
@devonair track capacity:
- Maintenance throughput
- Sustainable pace
- Bottlenecks
Repository Metrics
Per-Repository Health
Compare repos:
@devonair show health by repository:
- Healthiest repositories
- Most problematic repositories
- Repositories improving
- Repositories declining
Hot Spots
Where are problems concentrated?
@devonair identify hot spots:
- Files with most issues
- Components with most debt
- Areas needing attention
Business Impact Metrics
Incident Connection
Connect to incidents:
@devonair track impact:
- Incidents related to code quality
- Incidents prevented by maintenance
- Time saved by early detection
Velocity Impact
Connect to development speed:
@devonair track impact:
- Time saved by automation
- Development velocity changes
- Onboarding time changes
Reporting
Dashboards
Real-time visibility:
@devonair maintain dashboard showing:
- Current health status
- Recent activity
- Trending metrics
- Alerts and attention needed
Regular Reports
Periodic summaries:
@devonair generate reports:
- Daily: critical issues and activity
- Weekly: trends and summary
- Monthly: comprehensive review
- Quarterly: strategic assessment
Stakeholder Reports
Communication:
@devonair generate stakeholder reports:
- Executive summary (high level)
- Engineering leadership (details)
- Individual team (their repos)
Setting Targets
Realistic Goals
Set achievable targets:
@devonair set targets:
- Test coverage: 80%
- Zero critical security issues
- Dependencies < 3 months out of date
- Technical debt decreasing quarter over quarter
SLAs
Define service levels:
@devonair set SLAs:
- Critical issues: resolved in 24 hours
- High priority: resolved in 1 week
- Medium priority: resolved in 1 month
Avoiding Bad Metrics
Vanity Metrics
Metrics that look good but don't matter:
Avoid:
- Lines of code removed (easy to game)
- PRs merged (quantity over quality)
- Issues closed (might just be closing without fixing)
Gaming
Metrics that create bad incentives:
Avoid:
- Individual rankings (creates competition not collaboration)
- Pure velocity (speed without quality)
Missing Context
Numbers without meaning:
Always provide:
- Comparison to baseline
- Trend direction
- Context for changes
Getting Started
Define key metrics:
@devonair configure tracked metrics:
- Code health score
- Tech debt estimate
- Issue resolution rate
- Time to fix
Set up tracking:
@devonair enable metric collection and trending
Create dashboard:
@devonair configure maintenance dashboard
Start reporting:
@devonair configure weekly maintenance report
The right metrics make maintenance visible and improvable. When you can see code health, track trends, and measure improvement, maintenance becomes a manageable engineering discipline rather than an ignored burden.
FAQ
How many metrics should I track?
Start with 3-5 key metrics. More metrics create more noise. Focus on metrics that drive decisions.
How do I handle metrics that make the team look bad?
Metrics are for improvement, not blame. Share metrics as team data, not individual performance. Focus on trends, not absolute numbers.
What if metrics don't improve despite effort?
Re-examine the metrics - are they measuring the right things? Review the effort - is it focused on high-impact areas? Consider whether baseline was accurate.
How often should I review metrics?
Key metrics daily (alerts). Summary metrics weekly. Strategic metrics monthly or quarterly.