Lead Time for Changes
Average time from code commit to running in production (DORA metric)
What is Lead Time for Changes?
Lead time for changes is the average time from a code change being committed to it running in production. It shows how quickly a team can deliver a change once it is written.
Short lead times mean faster feedback and value delivery, so it is a key measure of software delivery performance.
How this KPI is measured
- Function
- Information Technology
- Sub-function
- Software Delivery
- Industry
- All Industries
- Type
- Leading
- Impact
- Efficiency
- Unit
- hrs/days
- Measurement frequency
- Weekly / Monthly
- Formula
- Sum of time from commit to production deployment / Number of deployments
How to calculate it
Add up the time from commit to production deployment and divide by the number of deployments.
For example, if 50 deployments had a combined lead time of 1,200 hours, the average is 24 hours.
Look at the median as well as the average, and at time spent in each stage, such as review, testing and release, to find bottlenecks.
Where it is used
Finding delivery bottlenecks
See where changes wait.
Improving speed
Test process changes.
Measuring delivery performance
Compare over time.
How to improve it
Tips and common mistakes
- Use the median as well as the average.
- Speed must not reduce quality.
- Read with change failure rate.
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