Introduction

DORA you hear me say, what's that, and you may already know? Let's take a brief moment to summarise. Nothing to do with Dory I'm afraid, sorry!

First of all, what does DORA stand for? DevOps Research and Assessment, it's a research programme and more, it seeks to understand the capabilities that drive software delivery and operations performance. The data it gathers through its research programme helps teams apply capabilities, leading to better organisational performance.

It's a big undertaking and DORA reports go back to 2014, useful to see trends as well as understand some history.

DORA started as a team at Google Cloud and focused on understanding DevOps performance by using data; metrics. The ultimate goals was to improve performance and collaboration whilst continuing to drive velocity. These metrics as used as a continuous improvement mechanism, teams can understand their current performance and set goals to progress against them.

4-Key Metrics

If you have heard of DORA, you may have heard of the 4-key metrics.

Deployment frequency
Lead time for changes
Change failure rate
Time to restore service

Deployment Frequency: Measure how often code is successfully released to production.

Lead Time for Changes: Measures the amount of time it takes a code change to be committed to production.

Change Failure Rate: Measures the percentage of deployments that result in a failure.

Time to Restore Service: Measure the time it takes to restore service after a deployment failure.

DORA Core Model

Now we've had a general overview, those who have heard about DORA or have even applied it previously may understand those metrics, the journey usually stops there. Teams focus on the 4-key metrics, track where they are, set targets to achieve; hopefully leads to an increase in overall performance, collaboration and velocity.
You'd think that is it... but it isn't.

DORA is more than DORA!

DORA's research programme formulated a model known as DORA Core.
Their research team applied behavioural science methodology to uncover the predictive pathways which connect ways of working, via software delivery performance, to organisational goals and individual well-being.

You can checkout the DORA Core Model here: https://dora.dev/research/

The DORA Core Model is a collection of capabilities, metrics, and outcomes that represent the most firmly-established findings from across the history and breadth of DORA’s research programme. Core is derived from DORA’s ongoing research, including the analyses presented in their annual Accelerate State of DevOps Reports. Core is intended to be used as a guide in practitioner contexts: it deliberately trails the research, evolving more conservatively. The concepts and relationships shown in the Core Model have been repeatedly demonstrated by their research, and have been successfully used by software engineering teams to prioritise continuous improvement.

This is an interactive diagram, I encourage you to checkout: DORA Core Model

Explanation

What does this actually convey? Well, there are a number of capabilities, mostly technical capabilities on the left. You can see how elements contribute to other elements, for instance Documentation quality predicts a whole range of technical capabilities it impacts, this range of technical capabilities contributes to Shift left security and Continuous delivery.

Continuous delivery helps cultivate a Generative organisational culture, and if and when you have Streamlined change approval you'll be able to predict your Software Delivery Performance (DORA Metrics).

Software Delivery Performance, the 4-key metrics are important but are not the be all and end all, i.e. we are software engineering professionals and we have a great deal to do!

As software engineering professionals we care about all the things on the left, including software delivery performance so much that we can at times forget about outcomes. These are vitally important, whatever software product or software capability we are producing there is always a reason, and these metrics predict it will drastically impact an organisation, whether commercially or non-commercially.

Commercial / non-commercial examples:

Profitability
Productivity
Market share
Number of customers
Quantity of products or services
Operating efficiency
Customer satisfaction
Quality of products or services provided
Achieving organisation or mission goals

Well-being

I like to think that happy people are more productive people, no matter what the profession, software engineering is no exception to this. The well-being of your people, your team is always paramount.

When we have less deployment pain, less rework, less burnout, we have a greater chance of success which leads towards achieving our organisational outcomes. Trace those lines back in the DORA Core Model and you'll see Continuous delivery and Streamlined change approval will likely predict the outcomes of Well-being; follow the lines back and you'll see more signs as per the diagram, clear isn't it?

Final Thoughts

I wanted to keep this somewhat short so you can explore more about the model yourself, the title of this article says a lot, DORA is more than DORA, the misconception around it's just 4-key metrics and sometimes no one else around you may care about those metrics either!

DORA is so much more, the DORA Core Model can really help you understand the landscape better, giving you tools, guidance and advice to ultimately achieve the desired for your organisation is seeking. Furthermore, it doesn't stop with DORA's 4-key metrics and its core model either, there are other metrics that can be somewhat leading indicators that can help any software delivery team improve their performance, collaboration and velocity - I may just cover these in a separate article. Stay tuned!

There is a new DORA Core Model V2 available - https://dora.dev/core-v2/

I hope that by reading this you have learnt a little something and are more curious about DORA.

More Information

DORA - https://dora.dev/
DORA Research (DORA Core Model) - https://dora.dev/research/
DORA Capabilities Catalogue - https://dora.dev/devops-capabilities/
DORA Guides - https://dora.dev/guides/
DORA Community of Practice - https://dora.community/

DORA is More Than DORA