Calculate the DORA lead time for changes from commit to production deployment.
Lead Time for Changes is a core DORA metric measuring the time from code committed to code successfully running in production: lead_time = deploy_time − commit_time, averaged across a sample of recent deployments. DORA performance tiers classify this as Elite (under 1 hour), High (under 1 day), Medium (between 1 day and 1 month), and Low (over 1 month) — shorter lead times indicate a more efficient, less risky delivery pipeline.
leadTimeDays = avgCommitToDeployHours / 24
DORA's definition specifically measures from merge to main (i.e. code committed to the trunk/main branch) to production deployment — time spent on a long-lived feature branch before merging isn't counted.
Cycle time often includes the full development process starting from work beginning (e.g. ticket picked up); DORA's lead time for changes starts specifically at commit-to-main, a narrower and more consistently measurable window.
Commonly: slow or flaky CI pipelines, manual approval gates, batch/scheduled deployment windows instead of continuous deployment, and large batch sizes that require more testing and review before shipping.
Individual deployments can vary widely due to one-off circumstances (a hotfix vs. a large feature); averaging over a rolling window of recent deployments gives a more representative and stable metric.