Scientific research identifying four key metrics and 24 capabilities that drive high-performing software delivery teams
Accelerate brings scientific rigor to software delivery, proving what practices actually improve performance. Based on four years of research surveying thousands of organizations, it identifies what truly matters for high-performing teams.
The four key metrics that matter are: Lead Time (commit to production), Deployment Frequency (how often you deploy), Mean Time to Restore (recovering from failures), and Change Failure Rate (percentage of deployments causing failures). Elite performers excel at all four simultaneously.
The research identifies 24 capabilities that drive improvement across five categories: Continuous Delivery (version control, automated testing, deployment automation), Architecture (loosely coupled systems, empowered teams), Product and Process (customer feedback, working in small batches), Lean Management (limiting WIP, visual management), and Culture (learning culture, transformational leadership).
Key findings challenge common assumptions: velocity doesn't predict performance, maturity models don't work, and you can improve both speed and stability simultaneously (they're not tradeoffs).
For technical leaders, this book provides evidence-based arguments for engineering practices, helping justify investments in CI/CD, automated testing, and architectural improvements with data that ties technical practices to business outcomes.
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