Cycle time

Time taken for a pull request from First commit until it is Deployed into production. If Deployment information is unavailable, the Cycle Time is computed from first commit until the pull request is Merged. Note that any Local branches on the developer’s local git repository are not included in this computation.

Computation of the metric

1. Timestamp of the first commit on a branch is tracked.
2. Timestamp of the code deployed to production is recorded.
3. First commit timestamp is subtracted from the release timestamp.
4. The result yields the cycle time metric. Therefore, Cycle time = Sum of coding time + Sum of pickup time + Sum of review time + Sum of time to deploy.
5. The tracking can be done either through Git acitvity or project managemnet status.

Industry benchmarks

The Accelerate State of DevOps Report research of 500 engineering teams suggests that

1. Top 25% of successful engineering teams achieve a cycle time of 1.8 days,
2. Industry-wide median is 3.4 days
3. The bottom 25% of teams have a cycle time of 6.2 days.

Read more here (opens in a new tab) .

Dashboards where this metric is used

1. Developer Summary
2. Dev metric Grid
3. Dev cycle time
4. DORA Metrics

Use cases of this metric

1. Cycle time is the macro indicator for a team’s agility.
2. Reduced cycle times signify streamlined processes and expedited market entry.
3. Decreased cycle times for software teams yield boosted revenue, enhanced customer retention rates, and a more content and effective development team.
4. Extended cycle times indicate inefficiencies in the workflow and delayed market launches.
5. Prolonged cycle times for software teams result in delivery setbacks, missed opportunities, and diminished team morale.