Explain like I'm five · SRE

What are DORA Metrics?

DORA metrics, told as a story about a report card that measures a crew by four numbers instead of a feeling.

is our crew doing okay or not?hmm... seems like they're trying hard?the manager asks, and the answer is just a feeling

"Is our crew doing okay?" "Seems like they're trying hard."Answering with just a feeling doesn't tell you if they're really doing well.

LAST MONTH'did pretty well'THIS MONTH'so-so, I guess'so... did we get better, or worse?a feeling alone can't be compared month to month

Feelings alone can't tell you whether things got better or worse.You need to line them up side by side to really know.

CREW REPORT CARD① how often② prep-to-done time③ chance it breaks④ time to fixmeasure the crew not by feeling, but by four numbershow often, how fast, how safely, how fast to fix

Measure the crew's skill with four numbers.How often, how fast, how safely, and how fast to fix.

Build often, in small bitsraise the frequency
Get ready fastershorten the lead time
Make fewer mistakeslower the failure rate
Fix mistakes fastshorten the recovery time
LAST YEAR vs THIS YEARfrequency: 2/month -> 1/week ✓lead time: 10 days -> 2 days ✓failure rate: 30% -> 12% ✓recovery time: 1 day -> 2 hours ✓all four got better than last year

All four numbers are better this year than last year.More often, faster to prepare, fewer failures, faster to fix.

frequency alone — it's done often, but...ALL FOUR TOGETHERoften + safe + fast recoverythat's a truly good crewwatching just one isn't enough — frequent but careless isn't good either

Watching just one isn't enough — all four together show a truly good crew.Build often while ignoring the failure rate, and you just have a crew that breaks things often.

In one breath

DORA metrics = a report card of four numbers — deployment frequency, lead time, failure rate, recovery time — that measure a crew's real performance instead of a feeling.

Four software delivery performance metrics defined by DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment): Deployment Frequency, Lead Time for Changes, Change Failure Rate, and Time to Restore Service. Looking at all four together is what lets you place a team on a scale from 'Elite' down to 'Low'.

When grown-ups say it

DORA metrics
The four numbers that measure a crew's skill. One piece of the whole job of keeping the park running. → the people who keep an amusement park open
Deployment frequency
How often the crew builds. Once a week is a better sign than twice a month.
Lead time for changes
The time from starting the prep to finishing the build. Shorter means guests see the new ride sooner.
Change failure rate
The chance a build goes wrong. Lower means the crew is working safely.
Time to restore service (MTTR)
How fast things get fixed when they go wrong. You can't avoid every mistake, but fixing it fast is what counts.
Performance tiers (Elite/High/Medium/Low)
A label given by combining all four numbers. Just knowing the names is enough — exact thresholds vary by context.
Relation to rollback and postmortems
Rollback shortens recovery time; postmortems lower the failure rate. If something's wrong, switch back to yesterday's version, then write it down without blame.
Relation to capacity planning
Even with great numbers, a day of crowds still needs its own kind of preparing. That means counting last year's numbers and this year's events in advance. → counting next year's guests in advance
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