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What are the four DORA metrics (Lead Time for Changes, Deployment Frequency, MTTR, Change Failure Rate)? How are they used?

The DORA metrics (DevOps Research and Assessment, now part of Google Cloud) are four objective measures of software delivery performance, validated across thousands of organizations.

  • 1. Lead Time for Changes — time from code commit to running in production.
    Elite: less than 1 hour.

  • 2. Deployment Frequency — how often you deploy to production.
    Elite: on-demand (multiple per day).

  • 3. Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) — time to recover from a production failure.
    Elite: less than 1 hour.

  • 4. Change Failure Rate — % of deployments causing a failure / rollback / hotfix.
    Elite: 0-15%.

Why these four: two measure throughput (Lead Time, Deploy Frequency); two measure stability (MTTR, CFR). High-performing teams beat low-performing teams on both.

Used to: benchmark teams, justify investment in tooling/automation, drive continuous improvement.

Memorize the four DORA metrics and what 'Elite' performance looks like for each. Citing them by name signals you've read 'Accelerate' or follow industry research.

What are the four DORA metrics (Lead Time for Changes, Deployment Frequency, MTTR, Change Failure Rate)? How are they used? | Hiprup