Review participation measures the share of teammates who actively participate in code review during the period. It's the most direct signal of how distributed your review load is.
What it measures
Of the teammates who could plausibly review (engineers with merge access), what share have left at least one substantive review in the period?
How Leanmote calculates it
review_participation = count(distinct_reviewers_in_period) / count(eligible_team_members)
"Substantive" excludes empty approvals or pure rubber-stamps when configurable.
Eligible-member set comes from your team mapping plus repository access.
How to interpret it
Below 60% usually means a small group is carrying review load. Watch for senior burnout.
Around 80–95% is healthy. Most teammates participate but it's not mandatory busywork.
100% sustained can indicate forced review checkmarks rather than genuine engagement.
What to do about it
If review participation is low, distribute reviews via auto-assignment or rotating reviewer rotas.
Pair junior engineers with seniors so review skills spread.
Surface review activity in 1:1s — sometimes participation is invisible because no one notices.
Related metrics
Review latency
Activity distribution
Team Collaboration Network — overview