The Total Code Quality Index (TCQI) is a composite metric in Oobeya that quantifies code quality by analyzing SonarQube issue data through multiple lenses: severity, category impact (security, reliability, maintainability), remediation effort, and codebase volume. It provides engineering leaders with a clear, standardized, and customizable way to monitor and improve software quality.
The TCQI goes beyond raw issue counts. It evaluates:
How risky issues are, based on severity and fix effort.
What impact they have across key quality dimensions.
How clean the codebase is by factoring in total code volume.
How the project compares to an ideal maximum through normalization.
This results in a set of actionable, easy-to-compare indices:
Total Code Quality Index (TCQI)
Security Index
Reliability Index
Maintainability Index
TCQI is built on three core inputs from SonarQube:
Severity
Indicates how critical an issue is (Blocker, High, Medium, etc.).
Quality Categories
Reflects the issue’s domain: Security, Reliability, Maintainability. An issue may belong to more than one category.
Remediation Effort
The estimated time required to fix the issue (e.g., 10 minutes, 8 hours, etc.).
These inputs are transformed into scores using configurable coefficients defined by your organization.
All coefficients can be customized in Admin Settings > Code Quality > Code Quality Index.
High
0.6
Medium
0.3
Low
0.1
Security
0.55
Reliability
0.35
Maintainability
0.1
Each issue is scored independently per quality category it belongs to:
Because issues may belong to multiple categories, the same issue may contribute to multiple risk scores (e.g., both Security and Reliability).
For each category:
Standardized and Scalable: Works across small and large codebases alike.
Actionable: Highlights critical areas in security, reliability, or maintainability.
Customizable: Adapt coefficients to align with your company’s engineering standards.
Measurable Over Time: Track quality regressions or improvements release by release.
To tailor the TCQI model to your organization:
Go to:
Admin Settings > Code Quality > Code Quality Index
There, you can:
Define severity weights
Set quality category priorities
Oobeya’s Total Code Quality Index provides a balanced, flexible, and insightful view of your engineering organization’s code health. It connects static code analysis to strategic engineering decisions—helping you drive long-term quality improvements.
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Issue_Risk_Score = Severity_Coefficient × Category_Coefficient × Remediation_EffortProject Category Risk Score = Sum(Issue Risk for that category)
Project Security Risk Score = Sum(Security_Issue_Risk_Score)
Project Reliability Risk Score = Sum(Reliability_Issue_Risk_Score)
Project Maintainability Risk Score = Sum(Maintainability_Issue_Risk_Score)Total_Risk_Score = Sum(Issue_Risk_Score)
TCQI = 5 × (1− (Total_Risk_Score / (Lines_of_Code + Total_Risk_Score))