Look, we know the software development process is not an easy one to measure and manage, particularly as it becomes more complex and more decentralized. In many companies, there are multiple teams working on smaller parts of a big project-and these teams are spread all over the world. It's challenging to tell who is doing what and when, where the blockers are and what kind of waste has delayed the process. Without a reliable set of data points to track across teams, it's virtually impossible to see how each piece of the application development process puzzle fits together. DORA metrics can help shed light on how your teams are performing in DevOps.
What Are DORA Metrics?
Well, these metrics didn't just come out of thin air. DORA metrics are a result of six years' worth of surveys conducted by the DORA (DevOps Research and Assessments) team, that, among other data points, specifically measure deployment frequency (DF), mean lead time for changes (MLT), mean time to recover (MTTR) and change failure rate (CFR). These metrics serve as a guide to how well the engineering teams are performing and how successful a company is at DevOps, ranging from "low performers" to "elite performers." They help answer the question: Are we better at DevOps now than we were a year ago?
The Human Side of SDM: An Impact Across the Organization
The goal of DevOps is to bring together two different teams with sometimes divergent missions — development and operations — forming a closer collaboration between them. In transforming into a DevOps culture, enabling stronger collaboration, and creating shared goals between these teams, software delivery is accelerated.
DevOps reduces the friction between the teams, fostering a combined focus on delivering software. A DevOps culture also fosters the automation of all stages of software creation, from development, integration, testing, and delivery to deployment, operation, and infrastructure maintenance and management.
The Strategy (or Lack Thereof) Around Software Today
Few would argue that, inside an organization, the teams that create software get a lot more respect than they used to.
For years, software was a manufacturing and/or maintenance function that got done out of sight, hidden away in some dark corner of a company. Software delivery was viewed as more of a cost center to be managed than a resource to be leveraged for strategic value. Now, companies rely heavily on the software they produce to perform critical tasks. They expect software to transform their inner operations, to help departments work smarter and improve productivity. Even more importantly, many are betting their companies’ futures on their ability to create innovative, impactful software applications that attract new customers.