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Time to Release Metric

Measures the time from the first deployment reported in the last configured deployment stage until the deployment is first reported in the Release stage.

Steven Silverstone
Updated by Steven Silverstone

Overview

The Time to Release metric measures how long it takes for code to move from the last configured deployment stage to the configured Release stage.

This metric represents the final deployment stage pattern: the time between the first deployment event reported for the last configured deployment stage and the first deployment event reported for the Release stage.

Time to Release is available in dashboards, reports, and custom metrics views that support predefined metrics.

Time to Release is a custom stage metric. Stage names are configured by your organization and may differ from the Release stage shown in this article.
Time to Release requires multi-stage release tracking and deployment events to be configured in LinearB.

Calculating Time to Release

Time to Release is calculated as: 

First deployment reported in the Release stage - First deployment reported in the last configured deployment stage

The timer starts when LinearB receives the first deployment event reported for the last configured deployment stage and ends when LinearB receives the first deployment event reported for the configured Release stage.

Example

  • Deployment first reported in Staging: Monday, 9:00 AM
  • Deployment first reported in Release: Wednesday, 3:00 PM

Time to Release = 54 hours

Aggregation Options

Time to Release supports the following aggregation methods:

  • AVG – Average Time to Release across all qualifying pull requests.
  • P50 – Median Time to Release.
  • P75 – 75th percentile Time to Release.
  • P90 – 90th percentile Time to Release.

The default aggregation is AVG.

Viewing the Metric

Time to Release is available as a predefined metric within LinearB.

When added to a dashboard, the metric displays the selected aggregation value for the chosen time period and filters.

The metric can be filtered using the same dimensions available for other delivery metrics, including teams, repositories, services, and time ranges.

Interpreting the Metric

A lower Time to Release value indicates that code is progressing efficiently through the final deployment stage into Release.

A higher Time to Release value may indicate delays such as:

  • Extended validation or testing activities.
  • Release approval processes.
  • Release scheduling constraints.
  • Change management requirements.
  • Production readiness reviews.

Monitoring Time to Release helps teams identify bottlenecks in the final stage of the deployment pipeline before code reaches the Release stage.

Limitations

  • Requires deployment events to be reported to LinearB.
  • Requires configured deployment stages within a multi-stage release workflow.
  • Only pull requests associated with tracked deployment events are included in the calculation.
  • The metric uses the first deployment event reported for each configured stage.
  • The stage names may differ depending on your organization's release pipeline configuration.
  • Time to Development – Measures the time from pull request merge until the deployment is first reported in the configured stage.
  • Time to Staging – Measures the time between the first deployment reported in the previous deployment stage and the first deployment reported in the configured stage.
  • Deploy Time – Measures the time required for code to move from merge to production deployment.

How did we do?

Time to Merge Metric

Time to Review Metric

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