Build Cycle Time

The time from code commit to production deploy. This is the minimum time changes can be applied to production. This is referenced as “hard lead time” in Accelerate

What is the intended behavior?

Reduce pipeline duration to improve MTTR and improve test efficiency to give the team more rapid feedback to any issues. Long build cycle times delay quality feedback and create more opportunity for defect penetration.

How to improve it

• Identify areas of the build that can run concurrently.
• Replace end to end tests in the pipeline with virtual services and move end to end testing to an asynchronous process.
• Break down large services into smaller sub-domains that are easier and faster to build / test.
• Add alerts to the pipeline if a maximum duration is exceeded to inform test refactoring priorities.

How to game it

• Reduce the number of tests running or test types executed.

Guardrail Metrics

Metrics to use in combination with this metric to prevent unintended consequences.

• Defect rates increase if quality gates are skipped to reduce build time.