Accessing the Health Monitor
Navigate to Health Monitor from the left sidebar under Analytics. The page loads a heatmap grid for your selected teams and date range.
What the Heatmap Shows
The Health Monitor displays a grid where:
Rows = teams (Organization Average at the top, then individual teams)
Columns = weekly time periods
Cell color = how that team's Change Lead Time compared to your target that week
The subtitle reads: "Discover Change Lead Time trends across teams and repositories."
Color Coding
Color | Meaning |
Green | Change Lead Time is well within your target |
Yellow | Change Lead Time is approaching your target threshold |
Orange | Change Lead Time is near or slightly exceeding target |
Red | Change Lead Time significantly exceeds your target |
Gray | No data available for that team/week (no PRs merged) |
Colors are relative to your configured target. A team showing green is delivering within the target; red means they are well over.
Setting the Target
The target appears at the top of the heatmap (e.g., "Target: 8 Days"). This is the Change Lead Time threshold that determines color scoring.
To change the target
Click Adjust next to the target value at the top of the heatmap
Enter a new target in days
The heatmap re-colors immediately based on the new threshold
You can also click Adjust Scoring in the top-right corner to fine-tune how colors map to your target ranges.
Filtering
The Health Monitor has four filter controls at the top of the page:
Filter | Options |
Date range | Preset ranges (Last 3 Months, Last 6 Months, etc.) or custom dates |
Team selector | My Teams, All Teams, or specific teams |
Apply Filter | Additional filters (repositories, members) |
Group by | Team (default) or Repository |
A "Showing all Repositories" badge appears below the filters when no repository filter is applied. Click it to scope the heatmap to specific repos.
Team vs. Repository view
Group by Team (default) — each row is a team, showing that team's Change Lead Time per week
Group by Repository — each row is a repository, useful for identifying slow repos across teams
Reading the Heatmap
Organization Average
The first row shows the organization-wide average Change Lead Time per week. Use this as a baseline — if the org average is green but individual teams are red, the fast teams are masking slower ones.
Individual Teams
Each subsequent row shows a single team. Look for:
Pattern | What it means | Action |
Consistently green | Team is reliably delivering within target | Share their practices with other teams |
Trending green → red over time | Team is slipping — lead time is increasing | Investigate: growing PR size? Slower reviews? Fewer deployments? |
Alternating red and green | Inconsistent delivery — some weeks fast, some slow | Check for batch-merging patterns or sprint boundary effects |
Persistently red | Team is chronically over target | Dig into Change Lead Time breakdown (Development Time vs. Review Time vs. Release Time) |
Mostly gray | Team has little or no PR activity in tracked repos | Verify repo assignments and team membership |
Best Practices
Review the heatmap weekly in leadership syncs. It gives an instant visual of which teams need attention without opening individual reports.
Set a realistic target. Start with your organization's current 85th percentile Change Lead Time, then tighten it as teams improve.
Use the repository view to find slow repos. A team may look red overall, but the problem could be one slow repo dragging down the average.
Pair with the Speed report. The Health Monitor shows which teams are slow; the Speed report (North Star Metrics > Speed) shows where the time is spent (Development, Review, or Release).
Don't react to a single red week. Look for trends over 3-4 weeks before escalating. One red week could be a holiday, on-call rotation, or a large feature merge.
FAQ
Q: What metric does the Health Monitor track? A: Change Lead Time — the time from a developer's first commit to that code being deployed. This is one of the four DORA key metrics.
Q: How often does the heatmap refresh? A: Data refreshes each time you load the page. It pulls the latest synced data from your connected Git providers.
Q: Can I change the metric the heatmap tracks (e.g., show Deployment Frequency instead)? A: No. The Health Monitor is specifically designed around Change Lead Time. For other metrics, use the North Star Metrics dashboard or individual metric reports.
Q: What does the "Adjust Scoring" button do? A: It lets you customize the color thresholds — how many days maps to green vs. yellow vs. red. This is separate from the target itself.
Q: Does the Health Monitor work without deployment rules configured? A: Partially. Without deployment rules, Release Time cannot be calculated, so the heatmap reflects only Development Time + Review Time. Configure deployments for the full picture.
Q: Who can see the Health Monitor? A: Both Admin and Member roles can access it. The data shown depends on the team filter — Members see teams they belong to by default ("My Teams").
Q: Why are some cells gray? A: Gray means no PR data for that team in that week. The team either had no merged PRs, or their repos are not tracked in Haystack.