Elite vs High vs Medium vs Low: why DORA dropped the tiers

The named bands shipped from 2014 to 2023 and were removed in 2024. Here is why, and what to use instead.

Oliver Wakefield-Smith

Founder, Digital Signet. Built siemcost / monitoringcost / itbudgetcalculator.

Updated 21 Jun 2026

Direct answer

DORA published Elite (0-15% CFR), High (16-30%), Medium (31-45%), and Low (>45%) bands from early reports through 2023 DORA 2023 Report2023. The 2024 report removed the named tiers in favour of percentile-distribution framing because the cluster structure no longer matched the boundaries DORA 20242024.

The original thresholds

Elite teams: deploy on-demand, lead time under one day, MTTR under one hour, CFR 0-15%. High: deploy weekly to monthly, CFR 16-30%. Medium: monthly to every 6 months, CFR 16-30%. Low: less frequent, CFR 46-60% DORA 2023 Report2023. The bands were durable for almost a decade.

Why they no longer hold

By 2024 the elite-tier population had compressed into the sub-5% CFR range; the Medium / High gap had collapsed; and the Low tier had thinned. Continuing to publish the bands would have mis-labelled the cluster structure DORA 2024 Report2024. Percentile bands are a more honest description of the current distribution.

How to talk about performance now

For internal use: percentile band against the DORA distribution. For shorthand: the legacy tier labels remain in common usage and most boards still understand them, but treat them as historical reference points, not as DORA-defined tiers. This site preserves the legacy bands for cross-reference only.