DORA change failure rate – what, why, and how

Change failure rate, one of the four DORA metrics, is a key performance indicator for engineering organizations, often posing challenges in accurate measurement. It represents the percentage of changes leading to production failures that require remediation, and its importance lies in balancing speed and quality in software delivery. Calculating it involves dividing failed changes by total changes, excluding "fix-only" deployments to avoid skewed results. Common pitfalls include misclassification of incidents, inclusion of irrelevant data, and misinterpretation of deployment failures as change failures. Additionally, the metric's definition allows flexibility, which can lead to manipulative practices if not carefully managed. Despite its limitations, such as low granularity and variability in incidents, change failure rate is useful for prioritizing quality improvements and tracking engineering trends, though a deeper understanding of productivity may require insights beyond DORA metrics.