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DORA - DevOps Research and Assessment

DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) identifies key capabilities driving software delivery performance, while DORA Metrics are the four core measurements from this research used to assess software team speed and stability: Deployment Frequency, Lead Time for Changes, Change Failure Rate, and Time to Restore Service (MTTR), helping teams benchmark and improve their DevOps practices. By tracking these metrics together, organizations aim to improve their software delivery, leading to faster, more reliable, and higher-quality software.

DORA Introduction

DORA Area Description

DORA-Metrics

The metrics were developed to measure the performance and effectiveness of development teams. They offer a framework to measure velocity as well as quality of the development process.

They define two metrics for velocity and two for stability:

Velocity

  • Deployment Frequency: Measures how often a team successfully delivers code to a productive environment. Higher frequency indicates fast iteration cycles and the ability to react to market and customer demands quickly.
  • Lead Time for Changes: Measures the timeframe from the first code commit until the successful deployment. A short lead time indicated an efficient, automatic delivery process.

Stability

  • Change Failure Rate: Measures the amount of deployments that lead to failures in production and require hotfixes or rollbacks. A low rate is critical for service quality and customer satisfaction.
  • Mean Time to Restore Service: Measures how long a team takes to restore service after an incident. Fast mean time to restore service minimizes downtimes and indicates robustness of the service.

Why are DORA-Metrics worthwhile?

They help organizations to make data-driven decisions and identify areas of improvement in their development processes. Research shows that performant teams that reach high ratings on the DORA metrics are more likely to fulfil their business objectives.

What Problems might arise when following DORA-Metrics?

  • If teams don't follow continuous delivery but release based on fixed dates, the metrics are hard to measure.
  • Focusing on a specific metric might lead to problems in the other areas. There has to be a balance between them.
  • Reliable data collection for the metrics can be hard because different tools (version control, CI observability, incident tracking) are necessary. Incomplete or wrong data can lead to false conclusions and decisions.
  • The target values of the metrics might be specific to the software product and where it will be used (medical, mobile, on-premise).
  • Team will optimize to fulfill the metrics, which can lead to side effects on other areas.

DORA-Capabilities

The DORA capability catalog provides a list of practices and capabilities that foster a learning environment, efficient processes and rapid feedback with the objective to accelerate software delivery and enhance overall organizational performance.