Formula
SCS = (present governance artifact
categories / 7) × 100Thresholds
Governance foundation present
Partial — categories missing
Incomplete — DCS and PCR unreliable
Reading it
SCS is the foundation check. Before any other rkito metric has meaning, the governance foundation must exist. An SCS below 60 means the org has not yet defined what it wants its architecture to be. DCS at 90% with SCS at 40% means 90% of PRs are passing evaluation against an incomplete standard — that is not conformance, it is measurement of a narrow slice.
SCS asks a binary question per category: is at least one active artifact present? It does not measure quality, depth, or currency of those artifacts — that is SF (Steering Freshness). SCS is the presence gate. If Manifesto, Pillar, Policy, Compliance, ADR, Risk, and Opportunity all have at least one record, SCS=100. The question of whether they are good is a different metric.
SCS=100 should be treated as a prerequisite, not an achievement. An org where SCS has been at 100 for 6 months and is not trending has checked a box. An org actively expanding GD from 5 to 25 has a governance foundation and is building depth. SCS gates the meaningfulness of the deeper metrics; it does not substitute for them.
How rkito produces it
rkito checks for the presence of at least one non-deleted record in each of 7 governance categories. SCS is calculated as the count of present categories divided by 7, multiplied by 100. Navigate to /steerings/dashboard to see the completeness signal.
- 01
rkito checks for at least one record in each of 7 categories
A binary presence check per category — quality is not evaluated here
- 02
Manifesto: at least one at /steerings/manifestos
Category present → contributes 1/7 to SCS
- 03
Pillar: at least one at /steerings/pillars
Category present → contributes 1/7 to SCS
- 04
Policy: at least one at /steerings/policies
Category present → contributes 1/7 to SCS
- 05
Compliance: at least one at /steerings/compliances
Category present → contributes 1/7 to SCS
- 06
ADR: at least one Proposed or Accepted at /decisions/adrs
Category present → contributes 1/7 to SCS
- 07
Risk: at least one at /steerings/risks
Category present → contributes 1/7 to SCS
- 08
Opportunity: at least one at /steerings/opportunities
Category present → contributes 1/7 to SCS
- 09OUTPUT
SCS = (count of present categories / 7) × 100
Surfaced on /steerings/dashboard as the completeness signal
Who reads it
SCS is the check to run before reporting DCS or PCR numbers to leadership. If SCS < 80, those numbers are measuring conformance against an incomplete standard.
SCS contextualises DHS. A DHS of 94 with SCS of 60 means 40% of the governance foundation is missing — the health score is incomplete data.
How it misleads
What to do at each threshold
Step-by-step response playbook for each signal state.
The governance foundation is present. Shift attention to whether it is current and deep.
- Check SF alongside SCS — governance that exists but has not been updated in >180 days may be stale. Stale artifacts produce stale Lenses.
- Confirm GD is growing alongside SCS=100. Coverage should be deepening, not just present. SCS=100 with GD=2 is a presence box checked, not a governance foundation.
At least one of the 7 governance categories is absent. Identify it and assign ownership.
- Navigate to
/steerings/dashboardto identify which of the 7 categories is absent or inactive. - Assign a named steward and a 30-day deadline for each absent category. Absent categories mean Lens coverage for that domain cannot exist.
The governance foundation is critically incomplete. Other metrics are measuring against a broken standard.
- Pause Lens authoring and pause reporting DCS or PCR numbers to leadership — they are measuring against an incomplete standard.
- Assign each missing category to a steward. Escalate to architecture lead with a hard deadline for completion.