Jeff Gallimore, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer and Co-founder of Excella, joined host John Gilroy of Federal Tech Podcast to share insights on measuring productivity and effectiveness in federal IT systems. Throughout their conversation, Jeff explained how agencies can use data-driven approaches to improve performance and efficiency.
Understanding DORA: A Proven Framework for Measuring IT Performance
Using a structured framework is important when evaluating software productivity. At Excella, it’s DORA, a framework that the firm’s been using for the past decade. DORA, originally DevOps Research and Assessment, is now part of Google Cloud and offers research-based metrics that predict technology and organizational outcomes.
The framework focuses on four key metrics that fall into two categories:
Throughput Metrics:
- Deployment frequency: How often changes are made to the production environment
- Change lead time: How long it takes for code to go from committed in source control to running in production
Stability Metrics:
- Change fail percentage: How often changes cause service disruptions or outages
- Failed deployment recovery time: How long it takes to recover from failures
DORA uses these metrics to identify patterns for IT performance, ranging from Low to Elite performance. In practice, Elite performance teams release code multiple times a day, have lead times under one day, keep their change failure rate at no more than 5%, and bounce back from failures in under an hour. This level of efficiency gives Elite teams an edge over others: in 2024, compared to low performers, Elite teams deliver code 127x faster, make changes 182x more frequently, have 8x fewer failures, and recover 2293x faster from incidents.
At Excella, we’ve helped federal clients like the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) achieve Elite performance status by implementing these metrics and the capabilities that drive them.
Beyond Single Metrics: Why a Constellation Approach Works Better
Relying on single metrics like lines of code can lead to unhealthy behaviors and gaming the system. Drawing on Dr. Nicole Forsgren’s “constellation of metrics” concept, Jeff explained why multiple measurements provide more valuable insights.
Jeff says, “Problems occur when our work is reduced down to just one single metric. There’s risk of gaming those metrics and a risk of unhealthy behaviors. DORA puts metrics out there but also encourages learning and improvement in a way that is informed by the metrics.”
This careful balance helps teams focus on continuous improvement without turning measurements into rigid targets that stall the mission.
For metrics to drive positive change, they need the right organizational context. When teams collect and analyze metrics in an environment that values learning over blame, these measurements become powerful tools for growth rather than sources of fear. The key lies in having a culture that treats data as building blocks for improvement.
The Essential Role of Culture in High-Performing Teams
A healthy workplace culture is key to making measurement systems work. Jeff highlighted Dr. Ron Westrum’s three types of workplace cultures:
- Pathological: Power-oriented with low cooperation
- Bureaucratic: Rule-oriented with moderate cooperation
- Generative: Performance-oriented with high cooperation
Jeff says, “Generative is the one that you really want, with its presence of high psychological safety, lots of information sharing, safe to fail environments that support experimentation, and learning from failure.”
These qualities predict high-performing organizations where metrics drive improvement rather than punishment.
Creating a generative culture requires leaders who embrace learning and collaboration. Without them to champion psychological safety, even the best frameworks can fail.
Transformational Leadership: Setting the Tone for Success
Leadership significantly impacts how teams implement and view measurement frameworks. Jeff described the five key characteristics of transformational leadership:
- Vision: The ability to set a clear direction
- Inspirational communications: Motivating people toward that vision
- Intellectual stimulation: Challenging existing processes and assumptions
- Supportive leadership: Recognizing individual needs
- Personal recognition: Celebrating achievements and good work
“Leadership – good, bad or indifferent – really sets the tone and the pace for the performance of the organization,” said Jeff.
These leadership qualities will help improve organizational performance and create buy-in when bringing on frameworks like DORA.
Putting Metrics in Service of Mission Goals
While improving IT performance is important, it must support larger organizational objectives. “If you’re not doing the right thing, doing it faster doesn’t really help you,” Jeff observed.
For federal agencies focused on effectiveness and efficiency, Jeff offered a clear perspective: “Teams that deliver faster, more frequently, with higher stability, reliability, security and quality are more efficient and productive.”
However, technical capabilities must align with mission goals.
Jeff explains, “IT performance is great and creating a higher performing technology environment is great. But that should always be in service of mission goals or business goals. This is how the mission wins, the technology group wins, and the stakeholders win.”
The bottom line
With federal agencies under pressure to do more with less, frameworks like DORA provide proven approaches to measuring and improving IT performance. By using multiple metrics, fostering a culture of learning, practicing transformational leadership, and aligning technology with mission goals, federal IT systems can achieve higher performance and better outcomes.
As Jeff put it, “When you’re doing the right thing and you’re doing it in the right way, you’re better,” and thus more efficient. By measuring what truly matters, federal agencies can build more effective IT systems that better serve their missions and stakeholders.