Cycle time
Cycle Time measures the duration from the first commit until a pull request is deployed into production. If deployment information is unavailable, Cycle Time is computed from the first commit until the pull request is merged. Draft PRs are included in this calculation: time spent in the draft stage is counted as part of Coding Time, until the PR is marked as ready-for-review. Note that any local branches on the developer’s local Git repository are not included in this computation.
Computation of the metric
- The timestamp of the first commit on a branch is tracked.
- The timestamp of code deployment to production is recorded.
- For draft PRs, time spent in draft status is added to Coding Time. Pickup Time begins once the PR is moved from draft to ready-for-review.
- First commit timestamp is subtracted from the release timestamp.
- The result yields the Cycle Time metric. Therefore, Cycle Time = Sum of Coding Time (including draft) + Sum of Pickup Time + Sum of Review Time + Sum of Time to Deploy.
Industry benchmarks
The Accelerate State of DevOps Report research of 500 engineering teams suggests that
- Top 25% of successful engineering teams achieve a cycle time of 1.8 days,
- Industry-wide median is 3.4 days
- The bottom 25% of teams have a cycle time of 6.2 days.
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Dashboards where this metric is used
- Developer Summary
- Dev metric Grid
- Dev cycle time
- DORA Metrics
Use cases of this metric
- Cycle time is the macro indicator for a team’s agility.
- Reduced cycle times signify streamlined processes and expedited market entry.
- Decreased cycle times for software teams yield boosted revenue, enhanced customer retention rates, and a more content and effective development team.
- Extended cycle times indicate inefficiencies in the workflow and delayed market launches.
- Prolonged cycle times for software teams result in delivery setbacks, missed opportunities, and diminished team morale.