SDLC Metrics Standard

Priority: P2 (MEDIUM)

Measure the handoffs, not the keystrokes. Every metric here is derived from committed artifacts and git history, so it survives a change of runtime and cannot be inflated by activity.

1. Contract, Not Collector

• This skill defines what to report and how. It does not gather provider or CI telemetry itself.
• The host runtime or orchestrator supplies the raw counts; unavailable inputs are reported as unavailable, never estimated.
• Emit artifacts/sdlc-metrics.md at a workflow terminal state, alongside artifacts/session-cost.md.
• Load references/metrics-schema.md for the report skeleton.

2. Aggregate Health (DORA)

• Deployment frequency: successful deploys per period, from deployment reports.
• Lead time for changes: first commit to production, per change.
• Change failure rate: deploys needing hotfix or rollback, divided by deploys.
• Time to restore: mitigation timestamp minus incident detection, from the incident record.

3. Per-Stage Indicators

4. Control Bands

• Define bands in docs/ops/bands.yaml, version controlled and reviewed like code. Schema: references/bands-template.yaml.
• Baseline is a rolling window, not a fixed target. Detection is deterministic and computed before any agent reads the signal.
• Tiers escalate by evidence: log, then read-only diagnose, then propose a change. Never let a tier act beyond its declared tools and routes.
• Dismissals tune the band. A band that fires constantly is miscalibrated, not urgent.

5. Reporting Rules

• Trend over snapshot: report direction against the previous period, not a bare number.
• Name the source: every value cites the artifact, commit range, or pipeline run it came from.
• No composite scores: do not blend indicators into a single productivity number.
• Separate agent and human runs: attribute a change to the identity that produced it.

Anti-Patterns

• No unavailable value guessed: Mark it unavailable and say why.
• No lines-of-code or commit-count metrics: Measure outcomes and handoffs.
• No fixed baseline: Use a rolling window per band.
• No metric without a source: Cite the artifact or commit range.
• No band with no owner: Name who triages a breach.

Red Flags

• Stop if a metric ranks individuals: Report the flow, not the person.
• Stop if a band fires every run: Recalibrate before responding.
• Stop if adherence is measured against an unwritten plan: Require the committed docs/srs/srs-task-list-[slug].md.

References

• Metrics Report Schema
• Control Bands Template

Canonical response anchors

When this skill applies, preserve the following domain terminology or equivalent concrete examples in the answer when relevant:

• artifacts/sdlc-metrics.md
• DORA
• plan adherence
• rolling baseline
• docs/ops/bands.yaml
• report unavailable
• artifacts/runs//