DORA Classifications

Introduction

DORA (the DevOps Research and Assessment organisation) is the largest and longest running research program of its kind, that seeks to understand the capabilities that drive software delivery and operations performance. DORA helps teams apply those capabilities, leading to better organisational performance.

DORA Classification Levels

Each year DORA ask survey respondents about the software delivery performance of the primary application or service they work on. DORA analyse their answers using cluster analysis, which is a statistical method that identifies responses that are similar to one another but distinct from other groups of responses.


DORA performs cluster analysis on the original four software delivery metrics to remain consistent with previous years' cluster analyses. In the analysis of software delivery performance, four clusters of responses emerged. DORA do not set these levels in advance, rather they let them emerge from the survey responses. This gives them a way to see a snapshot of software delivery performance across all respondents each year. Four distinct clusters emerged from the data, as shown below:

elitehighmediumlow
lead TimeLess than one dayBetween one day and one weekBetween one week and one monthBetween one month and six months
deployment FrequencyOn demand (multiple deploys per day)Between once per day and once per weekBetween once per week and once per monthBetween once per month and once every six months
change Failure Rate0%5%10%15%
time To RestoreLess than one hourLess than one dayLess than 1 weekMore than 1 week