What are DORA Metrics (DevOps)?

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DORA metrics, developed by the DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) team. DORA statistics are key performance indicators used to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of a software delivery. Providing insights into the performance of DevOps practices and help organizations improve their software development and delivery processes.

4 Primary DORA metrics:

1. Deployment Frequency: How often new code is successfully deployed to production.

Indicates the pace at which an organization is delivering new features, improvements, and fixes to users.
Measurement: Count the number of deployments to production in a given time period (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).

2. Lead Time for Changes: the time it takes for a code change to go from commit to deployment in production.

Purpose: Reflects the efficiency of the development process and the speed at which an organization can respond to changes.
Measurement: Track the time from code commit to code being deployed in production.

3. Change Failure Rate: the percentage of deployments to production that cause a failure (e.g., a service outage, a bug requiring a hotfix).

Purpose: Indicates the stability and quality of the software being released.
Measurement: Calculate the ratio of failed deployments to total deployments over a period of time.

4. Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR / SLA): Measures the average time it takes to restore service when a failure occurs in production.

Purpose: Reflects the organization’s ability to quickly recover from failures and minimize downtime.
Measurement: Track the time from when a failure is detected to when it is resolved and normal service is restored.

Importance of DORA Metrics

Performance Benchmarking: DORA metrics allow organizations to benchmark their performance against industry standards and identify areas for improvement.
Data-Driven Decisions: By quantifying different aspects of the software delivery process, organizations can make informed decisions to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
Continuous Improvement: Tracking these metrics over time helps organizations implement continuous improvement practices, fostering a culture of high performance and reliability.
Collaboration and Transparency: DORA metrics promote collaboration between development and operations teams by providing clear, objective data on the impact of their work.

Using DORA Metrics

Businesses use DORA metrics to:

Identify bottlenecks in the development and deployment process.
Implement and measure the impact of DevOps practices and tools.
Set goals and track progress toward improving software delivery performance.
Enhance team accountability and performance through regular monitoring and reporting.

DORA Statistics Example

A high-performing organization like PubNub has:

Deployment Frequency: Multiple times per day.
Lead Time for Changes: Less than an hour.
Change Failure Rate: Less than 5%.
MTTR: seconds

In contrast, a low-performing organization might see:

Deployment Frequency: Once a month or less
Lead Time for Changes: days or weeks
Change Failure Rate: above 15%.
MTTR: hours or days