DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) metrics are considered important in software engineering and DevOps practices because they focus on key aspects of software development and delivery that directly impact the efficiency, reliability, and overall success of a software project. DORA metrics are not inherently more important than other metrics, but they are highly regarded for several reasons:
- Customer-Centric: DORA metrics often include measures related to customer satisfaction, such as the frequency of user-reported incidents and the time it takes to resolve them. This customer-centric approach ensures that software engineering efforts are driven by the needs of users.
- End-to-End View: DORA metrics cover the entire software delivery pipeline, from code commit to deployment and monitoring in production. This end-to-end view helps teams identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement across the entire development lifecycle.
- Empirical Research: DORA metrics are the result of extensive empirical research conducted by the DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) team. They have found that organizations that perform well on these metrics tend to have higher-performing software delivery and operational practices.
- Focus on Outcomes: DORA metrics emphasize outcomes over outputs. For example, they measure how quickly changes are delivered to users, how frequently deployments fail, and how long it takes to recover from failures. These metrics directly reflect the impact on users and the business.
