1. Deployment frequency
How often you release to production. Small, frequent releases are safer than big, rare ones.
2. Lead time for changes
How long it takes a code change to go from commit to running in production.
3. Change failure rate
The share of releases that cause a failure in production and need a fix or rollback.
4. Time to restore service
How quickly you recover when something breaks.
Key idea
Speed and stability go together. The best teams are fast and stable, not one or the other.
What elite teams achieve (DORA benchmarks)
- Deploy on demand, often several times a day
- Lead time of under a day
- Change failure rate around 5%
- Restore service in under an hour
Why it matters for your career
DORA metrics are the common language of DevOps and SRE teams. Knowing how to measure and improve them stands out in interviews.
