Lead Time for Changes

I. Formal Definition

The elapsed time between a code change being committed and that change running successfully in production, measured at the median or higher percentile across a defined population of changes. Lead time is the second of the four DORA metrics and is interpreted as a proxy for the responsiveness of the change pipeline. The federation requires that lead time be reported as both median and ninety-fifth-percentile values: the median characterises the typical experience while the high percentile characterises the worst that the pipeline regularly produces.

II. Etymology

Borrowed from manufacturing and operations research; specifically applied to software change pipelines by the DORA programme in the mid 2010s.

III. Federation Usage

Federation members reporting lead time must include both median and ninety-fifth-percentile values. Reporting only one is non-conforming under MEV-Annex:3.2.

IV. Related Terms

• deployment-frequency
• continuous-delivery
• error-budget
• incident-postmortem

V. Authoritative Citations

• UFMS-001:2.4UFMS Article II - Lead Time Standard
• MEV-Annex:3.2MEV Annex III - Percentile Reporting

VI. Citation in BibTeX

@misc{ifo4_glossary_lead_time,
  title        = {{Lead Time for Changes}},
  author       = {{IFO4 Federation Editorial Board}},
  howpublished = {{IFO4 Federation Glossary, slug \texttt{lead-time}}},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://ifo4.org/glossary/lead-time},
  note         = {Category: DevOps; key: LeadTimeforChanges}
}

VII. Challenge This Definition

Federation members and accredited practitioners may challenge any entry under TGS-002:1.7. Filed challenges are routed to the editorial board, triaged into the revision register, and resolved in writing on the public docket. The slug remains stable through any revision.