The four DORA metrics at a glance
| Metric | What it measures | Desired direction |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Deployment Frequency | How often the team successfully deploys changes to production. | Higher is generally better |
| 2. Lead Time for Changes | Time from a code commit to that change running successfully in production. | Lower is generally better |
| 3. Failed Deployment Recovery Time | Time to restore service after a production change causes a user-impacting failure. | Lower is generally better |
| 4. Change Failure Rate | The percentage of production changes that require immediate remediation such as a rollback, hotfix, fix-forward, or patch. | Lower is generally better |
Elite, High, Medium, and Low bands
1. Deployment Frequency
How often the team successfully deploys changes to production.
| Band | Deployment Frequency |
|---|---|
| Elite | On demand (multiple deploys per day) |
| High | Between once per day and once per week |
| Medium | Between once per week and once per month |
| Low | Between once per month and once every six months |
2. Lead Time for Changes
Time from a code commit to that change running successfully in production.
| Band | Lead Time for Changes |
|---|---|
| Elite | Less than one day |
| High | Between one day and one week |
| Medium | Between one week and one month |
| Low | Between one month and six months |
3. Failed Deployment Recovery Time
Time to restore service after a production change causes a user-impacting failure.
Terminology: Failed Deployment Recovery Time is formerly Time to Restore Service; often shortened to MTTR. For DORA, it measures recovery from a failed production change; it is narrower than a general incident MTTR across every cause.
| Band | Failed Deployment Recovery Time |
|---|---|
| Elite | Less than one hour |
| High | Less than one day |
| Medium | Less than one day |
| Low | Between one week and one month |
4. Change Failure Rate
The percentage of production changes that require immediate remediation such as a rollback, hotfix, fix-forward, or patch.
| Band | Change Failure Rate |
|---|---|
| Elite | 5% |
| High | 20% |
| Medium | 10% |
| Low | 40% |
What are DORA metrics?
DORA metrics are four measurements of software delivery performance developed by the DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) team. They emerged from six years of research involving tens of thousands of engineering teams worldwide and are now the most widely validated framework for assessing DevOps capability.
The core finding: high-performing teams are not trading speed for stability. Elite performers deploy more frequently and more reliably than low performers — speed and quality move together.
Key research findings
Elite performers are significantly more likely to meet their reliability and performance targets. They also report lower burnout rates and better team culture. The research consistently finds that you do not have to choose between speed and stability — the practices that improve one tend to improve the other.
The strongest levers for improvement are: investing in CI/CD automation (improves deployment frequency and lead time), improving test coverage and quality (reduces change failure rate), and investing in observability and runbooks (reduces MTTR).