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Nicole Forsgren

author Updated 18th May 2026
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Books in this wiki: Accelerate

Background

PhD in Management Information Systems. Former software and hardware engineer and sysadmin. Spent years prior to 2013 researching the factors that make technology impactful in organisations, publishing dozens of peer-reviewed academic articles. Co-founded the State of DevOps Report research programme in 2013 with Jez Humble and Gene Kim at Puppet. Partner and VP Research & Strategy at Google Cloud (DORA team). Brings the academic statistical rigour to the Accelerate research programme.

Core Positions

  • Software delivery performance can and should be measured with academic-grade rigour, not anecdote or maturity checklists
  • Psychometric survey methods (Likert scales, latent constructs, PLS-SEM) are valid and robust for IT research when applied correctly
  • Capability models are superior to maturity models: dynamic, multi-dimensional, and outcome-focused
  • The four key metrics (deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR, change failure rate) are the right measures of software delivery performance — both valid and reliable across four years of data