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Continuous Merge Guide to DORA Metrics
Inside you’ll find:
Tactical advice on how to implement policy-as-code on your team
A breakdown of Continuous Merge philosophy and its many benefits
10 of our favorite workflow automations that boost efficiency and enhance stability
Take the first step towards improving your DORA metrics.
How to Start Your Engineering Metrics Program
What is Continuous Merge?
Continuous Merge is the practice of automating the classification of pull requests in order to optimize the path to merge.
Engineering teams using Continuous Merge best practices will see the following benefits:
Higher quality code and better adherence to SOC2 compliance
Streamlined collaboration for an average 44% decrease in cycle time
Higher merge frequency and subsequently, an improved developer experience
Workflow Automations That Enhance Stability
DORA stability metrics can be improved in two ways: 1.) Preventing bugs before they happen, or 2.) Fixing the issue quickly.
Here are some workflow automations that can help with both:
Code Experts: Assign experts to review sensitive code
Deprecated API Alert: Request changes on deprecated APIs
Review Sensitive Files: Define a custom list of files that trigger additional reviews
Workflow Automations That Boost Efficiency
It’s a common misconception that engineering teams must sacrifice code quality at the expense of pace. Rather, DORA research has “consistently shown that speed and stability are outcomes that enable one another.”
Here are the most effective workflow automations that teams can use to improve their DORA efficiency metrics:
Auto-Approvals: Fast track PR merges.
CI Orchestration: Selectively trigger CI Pipelines
Pull Request Labels: Add vital context to every PR