What is DORA?
DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) metrics are a set of four key metrics that enable organizations to measure the effectiveness of their DevOps practices. These metrics were developed by DORA, a research organization that aims to advance DevOps practices and help organizations improve their software delivery performance.
The four DORA metrics are:
Lead time for changes: This metric measures the time it takes for a code change to go from a commit in source control to a production deployment. A shorter lead time indicates that the organization can release changes more quickly and respond to customer needs faster.
Deployment frequency: This metric measures the frequency of deployments to production. A high deployment frequency indicates that the organization can release changes quickly and often, which helps to reduce the risk of errors and increase customer satisfaction.
Mean time to recover (MTTR): This metric measures the time it takes to recover from a production incident or outage. A shorter MTTR indicates that the organization can quickly identify and resolve issues, reducing the impact on customers and minimizing downtime.
Change failure rate: This metric measures the percentage of changes that result in a production incident or require remediation. A lower change failure rate indicates that the organization can release changes with a higher level of confidence, reducing the risk of errors and downtime.
By tracking these metrics over time, organizations can gain insight into the effectiveness of their DevOps practices and identify areas for improvement. For example, if the lead time for changes is high, the organization may need to focus on improving its automation and streamlining its development process. If MTTR is high, the organization may need to invest in better monitoring and incident management tools.
In addition to these four core metrics, DORA has also identified several supplemental metrics that can provide additional insight into an organization's DevOps practices. These metrics include code review, cycle time, deployment duration, and test coverage.
In conclusion, DORA metrics are a powerful tool for measuring the effectiveness of DevOps practices and driving continuous improvement. By tracking these metrics over time and focusing on areas for improvement, organizations can streamline their software delivery process, reduce errors and downtime, and improve customer satisfaction.