What is Deployment Frequency?
How often an organization successfully releases to production.
Definition
Deployment frequency measures how often a team ships code to production (or releases to end users). It is one of the four DORA metrics and the primary indicator of delivery throughput.
How it’s measured
Count successful production deployments over a period (per day, week, or month). Most teams derive it from CI/CD pipeline runs, deployment events, or platform webhooks (e.g. GitHub Actions, Vercel, Jenkins) rather than counting manually.
What good looks like
Elite performers deploy on demand — multiple times per day. High performers deploy between once per day and once per week. Frequent, small deployments are safer than large, infrequent ones.
Why it matters
Higher deployment frequency usually reflects smaller batch sizes, more automation, and faster feedback — all of which reduce risk. It is the easiest DORA metric to start tracking and a strong leading indicator of delivery health.
Related terms
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