"Time to Merge" Metric for Pull Requests

Tracking the right metrics is vital to ensure your software team is both efficient and effective. There are many software development metrics out there, from code churn to lead time to deployment frequency. Among the metrics, “Time to Merge” stands out with its unique ability to provide insight into both the velocity and quality of your development process.

What is “Time to Merge”?

The “Time to Merge” metric measures the time from a developer first creating a Pull Request (PR) until it’s finally merged into the main branch. This seemingly straightforward metric holds a treasure trove of information about your software team’s operational efficiency and collaboration dynamics.

Time to merge is sometimes abbreviated as “TTM”. When you track the “mean” or “average” Time to Merge, it’s abbreviated as “MTTM”.

Time to Merge vs PR Lifetime?

“Time to Merge” and “Pull Request Lifetime” are just different names for the same thing. (At GitDailies, we like “Pull Request Lifetime” as it’s more descriptive.)

Why Time to Merge Matters

Efficiency and Velocity

At its core, the Time to Merge provides a glimpse into how quickly your team is moving. Are PRs being merged within hours, days, or weeks? If it takes weeks to get code merged, it can indicate bottlenecks in your review process.

Quality Assurance

Rapid merging isn’t always a good sign either, as it might mean that PRs are not being reviewed thoroughly. A balanced Time to Merge indicates that the team is investing enough time for thorough code reviews, ensuring code quality and maintaining standards.

You want to detect and discourage “rubber stamp” reviews. Those are reviews that immediately approve the PR without truly checking the code!

Collaboration Dynamics

The metric can also highlight collaboration challenges. Extended Time to Merge might mean that developers and reviewers are not in sync, perhaps due to lack of clear communication or misaligned priorities.

Resource Allocation

If you find certain PRs consistently taking longer to merge, it might indicate that the team is overloaded or perhaps lacks expertise in that specific area. This can help managers make a case for allocating more resources or hiring for specific skill gaps.

Benefits of Tracking Time to Merge

Optimized Workflow: By identifying delays, team leads and managers can streamline workflows, introduce automation, or offer training to address specific challenges.
Improved Forecasting: For engineering managers and CTOs, having a grasp on the average time to merge can assist in better release planning and setting more accurate timelines for stakeholders.
Boosted Morale: Long waiting times can be highly demotivating for developers. Reducing the Time to Merge can improve team morale as developers see their work move swiftly through the pipeline and into production.
Enhanced Code Quality: Emphasizing an optimal Time to Merge ensures code reviews are neither rushed nor neglected, fostering a culture of quality and attention to detail.

Optimizing Time to Merge with GitDailies

Actively tracking, analyzing, and optimizing Time to Merge can be error-prone and time consuming without the right tools. This is where GitDailies can help.

With our Software Engineering Metrics platform:

Get real-time insights into your team’s Time to Merge for every PR, allowing for proactive adjustments.
Discover trends over time and identifying patterns. You can analyze by day, week, month or quarter and compare teams, repos, or projects.
Dive deep into analytics by drilling down into the details with the GitDailies Metrics Explorer. Instantly find the cause of a spike or a dip in your metrics.
Benefit from automation as GitDailies collects all required data automatically. You don’t need to add any data manually, thus saving time and eliminating errors.
Integrate seamlessly with your existing tools and platforms, ensuring a frictionless experience for your software team.

Want to learn more? Book a demo or install for free on GitHub

Conclusion: The Time is Now

As software development continues to evolve, staying ahead of the curve requires not just skill and innovation, but also the right insights. “Time to Merge” stands out as a critical metric that, when understood and optimized, can unlock efficiency and quality in your software engineering process.

For software team leads, engineering managers, and CTOs, now is the ideal time to start leveraging the power of Time to Merge.