Lead Time for Changes is a DORA metric that encompasses the entire process of making a change to the codebase and deploying it to a production environment. This includes the time spent on coding, code review, testing, and deployment. A shorter lead time indicates a more efficient development process, while a longer lead time may signify bottlenecks or inefficiencies that need to be addressed.
For example, if a team implements a new feature and it takes two weeks from the initial code commit to deployment in production, the lead time for changes is two weeks. By tracking this metric over time, teams can identify trends and patterns, enabling them to optimize their development and deployment workflows.
Explore related concepts
Deployment Frequency
The rate at which new code changes are deployed to production. It measures how often a team releases updates to their application.
Change Failure Rate
The Change Failure Rate measures the percentage of changes to an application that result in failure. This metric helps you understand the impact of changes on application stability and reliability, enabling you to identify areas for improvement and reduce the risk of future failures.