DevOps Engineer interview question · Most asked
What are DORA metrics, and how would you use them without gaming them?
Summary
The DORA metrics measure software delivery performance: deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and time to restore service (with recent research adding measures such as rework rate). They are used together because speed and stability are linked: high performers do well on both.
Longer Answer
Use them for teams to understand and improve their own system, trending over time, not to rank teams or individuals. Gaming is easy (splitting deployments, not counting incidents), so pair metrics with qualitative insight and look for bottlenecks they reveal (long review queues, manual approvals, slow tests). Measure from systems (version control, CI/CD, incident tools) rather than self-reporting.
Key Points
- Deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate, recovery time.
- Speed and stability together.
- For improvement, not ranking.
- Collect from systems; look for bottlenecks.
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