It is good practice to get together with the team on a regular basis and review the health.

Setup

Create a spreadsheet

Create a spreadsheet where a row will represent a single review, the first column being the date of the review.

Add the any of the following statements as columns, which will form your health review:

• I am happy with the team’s progress this week/fortnight/sprint.
• I am clear about what is expected of me.
• I think the priorities of our work is correct.
• I have what I need to do what is expected of me.
• I am happy with the time I spend in meetings.
• I see a positive team culture.
• I am happy with the overall state of the code.
  • I think the software is reliable
  • I think the software is scalable
  • I think the software is secure
  • I think the software is observable / maintainable

Write an explanation

Write a document to accompany the review that will clarify how an individual is to interpret the question and to score it. This could be -1 (disagree/thumb down), 0 (ambivalent/thumb horizontal), +1 (agree/thumb up).

Schedule

Setup up a meeting at the cadence you want the review to happen.

The Routine

Each meeting:

• Get each team member to state their level of agreement for each statement. There can be an open discussion before hand if needed.
• Average out the votes so it becomes “Good”, “Ok”, “Bad”
• Compare to last meeting to give you the change as: “Stable”, “Improving”, or “Needs Attention”
• Discuss and set goals for anything with is “Bad” and/or “Needs Attention