Help (%)

Calculated in percentage, indicates code that has been updated by another contributor, not the one who initially wrote it.

How to Use It?

  • Fostering Collaboration: Tracks how frequently team members collaborate on code, reinforcing a team culture where seeking and providing help is encouraged, which enhances teamwork and knowledge transfer.
  • Identifying Mentoring Opportunities: By monitoring which contributors frequently assist others, this metric helps in formalizing mentoring roles to ensure that less experienced team members receive necessary guidance.
  • Balancing Workloads: Use data on who is helping their peers to more effectively distribute workload, ensuring that assistance is given where needed and that all team members are contributing equitably.

Strategic Use of Help

  • Knowledge Transfer and Code Familiarity: High Help percentages indicate effective knowledge transfer and a shared understanding of the codebase, reducing the risk associated with isolated expertise.
  • Code Ownership Dynamics: Monitoring Help can reveal insights into code ownership dynamics across the team, identifying potential bottlenecks caused by uneven responsibility distribution.
  • Mentorship and Professional Growth: Recognize contributors who frequently update others' code as potential mentors, leveraging their expertise to elevate the team's overall proficiency.

Considerations for Implementation

  • Complementary Metric: Employ Help alongside other metrics to gain comprehensive insights into team dynamics, collaboration levels, and code health.
  • Promoting Positive Behaviors: Encourage a positive view of the Help metric as a tool for improvement and collaboration rather than a measure of dependency or inefficiency.
  • Feedback and Adjustment: Regularly review and adjust the approach based on team feedback and the evolving needs of projects, ensuring that the Help metric is used to genuinely bolster teamwork and code quality.