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## DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) key metrics **(ULTIMATE)**
> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/275991) in GitLab 13.7.
> - [Added support](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/291746) for lead time for changes in GitLab 13.10.
The [DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA)](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/devops-sre/using-the-four-keys-to-measure-your-devops-performance)
team developed several key metrics that you can use as performance indicators for software development
teams.
### Deployment frequency
Deployment frequency is the frequency of successful deployments to production (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly).
This measures how often you deliver value to end users. A higher deployment frequency means you can
get feedback sooner and iterate faster to deliver improvements and features. GitLab measures this as the number of
deployments to a production environment in the given time period.
Deployment frequency displays in several charts:
- [Group-level value stream analytics](../group/value_stream_analytics/index.md)
- [Project-level value stream analytics](value_stream_analytics.md)
- [CI/CD analytics](ci_cd_analytics.md)
### Lead time for changes
Lead time for changes measures the time to deliver a feature once it has been developed,
as described in [Measuring DevOps Performance](https://devops.com/measuring-devops-performance/).
Lead time for changes displays in several charts:
- [Group-level value stream analytics](../group/value_stream_analytics/index.md)
- [Project-level value stream analytics](value_stream_analytics.md)
- [CI/CD analytics](ci_cd_analytics.md)
### Time to restore service
Time to restore service measures how long it takes an organization to recover from a failure in production.
GitLab measures this as the average time required to close the incidents
in the given time period. This assumes:
- All incidents are related to a production environment.
- Incidents and deployments have a strictly one-to-one relationship. An incident is related to only
one production deployment, and any production deployment is related to no more than one incident).
To retrieve metrics for time to restore service, use the [GraphQL](../../api/graphql/reference/index.md) or the [REST](../../api/dora/metrics.md) APIs.
### Change failure rate
Change failure rate measures the percentage of deployments that cause a failure in production. GitLab measures this as the number
of incidents divided by the number of deployments to a
production environment in the given time period. This assumes:
- All incidents are related to a production environment.
- Incidents and deployments have a strictly one-to-one relationship. An incident is related to only
one production deployment, and any production deployment is related to no
more than one incident.
To retrieve metrics for change failure rate, use the [GraphQL](../../api/graphql/reference/index.md) or the [REST](../../api/dora/metrics.md) APIs.
| `deployment_frequency` | Project | [GitLab 13.7 and later](../../api/dora/metrics.md) | GitLab 14.8 and later | The [previous API endpoint](../../api/dora4_project_analytics.md) was [deprecated](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/323713) in 13.10. |
| `deployment_frequency` | Group | [GitLab 13.10 and later](../../api/dora/metrics.md) | GitLab 13.12 and later | |
| `lead_time_for_changes` | Project | [GitLab 13.10 and later](../../api/dora/metrics.md) | GitLab 13.11 and later | Unit in seconds. Aggregation method is median. |
| `lead_time_for_changes` | Group | [GitLab 13.10 and later](../../api/dora/metrics.md) | GitLab 14.0 and later | Unit in seconds. Aggregation method is median. |
| `time_to_restore_service` | Project and group | [GitLab 14.9 and later](../../api/dora/metrics.md) | Not supported | |
| `change_failure_rate` | Project and group | [GitLab 14.10 and later](../../api/dora/metrics.md) | Not supported | |
We use the following terms to describe GitLab analytics:
- **Cycle time:** The duration of only the execution work. Cycle time is often displayed in combination with the lead time, which is longer than the cycle time. GitLab measures cycle time from the earliest commit of a [linked issue's merge request](../project/issues/crosslinking_issues.md) to when that issue is closed. The cycle time approach underestimates the lead time because merge request creation is always later than commit time. GitLab displays cycle time in [group-level Value Stream Analytics](../group/value_stream_analytics/index.md) and [project-level Value Stream Analytics](../analytics/value_stream_analytics.md).
- **Deploys:** The total number of successful deployments to production in the given time frame (across all applicable projects). GitLab displays deploys in [group-level Value Stream Analytics](../group/value_stream_analytics/index.md) and [project-level Value Stream Analytics](value_stream_analytics.md).
