DORA the Explorer - how to unpack AI capabilities paradoxes - and why you need to know if you're in coding

Google’s DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) has released its first-ever analysis on how companies are succeeding or struggling with AI-driven coding. The research group has been making valuable contributions to advancing the academic rigor in understanding software development maturity frameworks since 2012, and was acquired by Google in 2018.

They began by alluding to AI’s impact on software development in 2023 and, in 2025, introduced a mid-cycle special report on the Impact of AI in Software Development. This more recent version introduces an inaugural DORA AI Capabilities Model that identifies seven AI-related organizational capabilities associated with high-performing organizations. These have varying statistical associations with ten potential outcomes worth measuring.

This feels like an excellent starting point for organizations to assess their current use of AI tools and identify opportunities for improvement, regardless of where they sit on the AI maturity curve. They frame it as how AI can ...