The Art of CTO Codebase Health Analyzer assesses technical debt, code quality, and maintainability across dimensions including complexity, test coverage, dependency freshness, and documentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you measure codebase health?
Codebase health is measured across five key dimensions: complexity (cyclomatic complexity, cognitive complexity per function), test coverage (line and branch coverage, test quality), dependency health (outdated packages, known vulnerabilities, license risks), documentation (API docs coverage, README freshness, architecture decision records), and change velocity (how quickly and safely the team can ship changes). No single metric tells the full story — healthy codebases score well across all dimensions.
What is a good test coverage percentage?
The optimal test coverage target depends on the criticality of the system. For most business applications, 70-80% line coverage with meaningful assertions (not just exercising code paths) provides a strong safety net. Critical systems (payments, healthcare, security) should target 85-95%. Below 60%, teams typically lack confidence to refactor safely. Above 90%, returns diminish rapidly and maintenance cost of tests themselves becomes significant. Focus on covering critical paths and business logic rather than chasing a number.