DORA Metrics & Delivery Health
The four metrics that predict engineering team performance, and how we track them.
The Four DORA Metrics
| Metric | What It Measures | Elite Target | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deployment Frequency | How often you ship to production | Multiple per day | High frequency = smaller changes = lower risk per deploy |
| Lead Time for Changes | Time from commit to production | < 1 hour | Short lead time = fast feedback = rapid iteration |
| Change Failure Rate | % of deploys that cause incidents | < 5% | Low failure = pipeline catches problems before production |
| Mean Time to Recovery | How fast you restore from failure | < 1 hour | Fast recovery = automated rollback + good observability |
Why These Metrics Matter
DORA metrics aren't vanity numbers. Research from Google's DORA team (spanning thousands of organizations over 8 years) shows these four metrics are predictive of both engineering performance and business outcomes.
Teams that score "elite" on all four metrics ship faster, fail less, recover quicker, and, critically, report higher job satisfaction. Good process doesn't just protect the business; it makes engineers happier.
How We Track Them
Automated Collection
Metrics are collected from your CI/CD system, incident tracker, and monitoring stack automatically. No manual reporting, no spreadsheets, no estimates.
Weekly Delivery Reviews
Every week, we review your DORA metrics with your team. What improved, what regressed, and what's the next highest-leverage improvement to make.
Trend Analysis
Individual metric values matter less than trends. A team deploying daily with 10% failure rate and improving is healthier than one deploying weekly with 5% and stagnating.
Actionable Insights
We don't just measure: we act. If lead time is increasing, we investigate the pipeline stages. If failure rate spikes, we review recent test coverage changes. Metrics drive improvements.