Git annotate is a fantastic tool, even if the developers aren't great contributors. A lot of developers do not write good statements. They don't even link to a

Git annotate is a fantastic tool, even if the developers aren't great contributors. A lot of developers do not write good statements. They don't even link to a ticket. But you get to know those developers real quick when you're doing spelunking using annotate. And developers who don't write good commits probably didn't leave any other documentation behind of use. I've used this to illuminate "technical debt" from a different perspective. If you take a critical code path, find the important commits for critical logic, and then just show the "context" you're left with, you'll often be able to say "this is why your quality sucks" in a real concrete way. Managers love proof, and showing them what little context you have for critical areas can be a very different way of looking at the quality of their systems. Otherwise, I've often seen a LOT of overconfidence largely because "we have automation in place".