Calculate end-to-end release time from build trigger through production deployment.
End-to-end release time = build + test + publish + staging + approval + production. Manual approval gates often dominate total release time. Automating promotion decisions (via canary analysis or automated quality gates) is the biggest lever for reducing release cycle time.
Release Time
release = build + test + publish + staging + approval + prodDeploy
Implement automated quality gates (canary analysis, error rate thresholds, performance benchmarks) that auto-promote if criteria pass, reserving manual approval only for high-risk changes.
Elite DORA performers deploy on-demand with release times under 1 hour end-to-end. Most organizations should aim to reduce release time iteratively by identifying and eliminating the largest bottleneck.