Tailwind CSS Dora Metrics: Impressive Cycle Time, Merged PRs Need Attention
5 min read
Table of Contents
- Tailwind CSS: Community Excellence with Solid Cycle Time and Responsive Collaboration
- Tailwind CSS Dora Metrics: Impressive Cycle Time, Merged PRs Need Attention
- Did you know?
- Further Resources
Tailwind CSS is a utility-driven wardrobe for web design. Instead of writing custom CSS for every element, Tailwind offers you a collection of stylish, pre-designed outfits (CSS classes) that you can mix and match.
Want a button to look blue and rounded? Just slap on the right "class" like bg-blue-500 and rounded-lg. It’s super customizable, so you can tweak things however you want without starting from scratch.
Tailwind CSS saves time, keeps your code tidy, and helps your designs look sharp right from the start.
As part of our initiative to dive deep into leading open-source repositories, we analyzed the DORA Metrics of Tailwind CSS's repo using Middleware OSS.
Middleware OSS is an engineering productivity platform that provides detailed metrics and insights into deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR, and change failure rate. It helps you gain better predictability and visibility, transforming your DevOps processes. Curious to see it in action? Check out our live demo!
Also read: What are Dora Metrics?
Tailwind CSS: Community Excellence with Solid Cycle Time and Responsive Collaboration
Tailwind CSS has established itself not just as a popular utility-first framework but a thriving open-source project. An analysis of its key engineering metrics over the past three months reflects an impressive balance between speed and quality. With 290 contributors actively participating, Tailwind CSS consistently delivers, maintaining strong first response times and well-managed cycle times.
Solid Cycle Time and Agile Delivery
The cycle time—a critical metric representing the time taken to deliver changes—has been steady and within industry standards. Over the past few months, the project reported cycle times of 16.02 hours in August and 23.25 hours in September. Even in July, the metric stood at a respectable 18.17 hours, reflecting that Tailwind’s engineering pipeline operates efficiently from ideation to delivery.
This consistency ensures new features, fixes, and updates are rolled out at an optimal pace without sacrificing quality.
Proactive First Response Time
Another metric that highlights Tailwind's collaborative spirit is its first response time, averaging between 8.45 to 15.36 hours. Contributors, whether raising issues or submitting pull requests, rarely face delays in receiving feedback. This prompt engagement is a result of dedicated maintainers like thecrypticace, RobinMalfait,, and adamwathan, ensuring the pipeline stays fluid with minimal friction.
Also read: Ideal Software Delivery Pipeline: A Three.js Dora Metrics case study
Tailwind CSS: Thriving, But What’s Holding Back Merged PRs?
Tailwind CSS is known for its robust documentation and thriving, yet small, community of 290 contributors—a lean team that punches above its weight in open-source performance. It excels across key engineering metrics, including cycle time, first response time, and minimal rework. However, there are opportunities for improvement, particularly in monthly merged PRs, where numbers have fluctuated.
Monthly Merged PRs: Inconsistent Numbers
July: 53 PRs
August: 53 PRs
September: 106 PRs
While the jump to 106 PRs in September reflects growth, the earlier plateau in July and August suggests the need for more consistency. Steady merged PRs are critical for sustained development momentum, but Tailwind CSS’s smaller contributor pool might be limiting its ability to merge consistently.
Strengths: Documentation and Efficient Cycle Time
Top-Notch Documentation: Tailwind CSS’s documentation is a standout feature, providing clear and detailed instructions. This encourages both new and experienced developers to adopt the framework, speeding up implementation and reducing the back-and-forth between contributors and maintainers.
Contributor-Driven Innovation: Although Tailwind has a smaller community, its members are incredibly passionate and enthusiastic. Their recent updates further demonstrate the community’s efficiency and Tailwind’s commitment to innovation. Notable contributions include:
Fixing compatibility with @tailwindcss/typography and @tailwindcss/forms by thecrypticace (PR 14221).
Adding support for the theme() function in the plugin API by adamwathan (PR 14207).
Supporting Tailwind in Vue <style> blocks by philipp-spiess (PR 14158).
Also read: VS Code Dora Metrics: Reveals Smooth Cycle Time Smooth; Raises Red Flags on Lead Time
Weakness: Small Contributor Community
While the 290 contributors make meaningful contributions, the community’s size can limit scalability. A smaller pool of active members can cause bottlenecks during periods of high activity, like the PR surge in September.
What’s Holding Back Merged PRs?
Limited Review Capacity: Despite active reviewers like adamwathan, thecrypticace, and RobinMalfait, handling a surge in PRs can strain the team.
Maintaining PR Volume: The drop in merged PRs over July and August suggests challenges in sustaining submission flow or final merges.
Balancing Quality and Speed: In smaller communities, maintaining code quality can sometimes slow down PR merges.
Recommendations for Improving Merged PRs
Expand the Contributor Base
Engagement Campaigns: Run campaigns to attract more contributors. This could include outreach to universities, coding boot camps, and tech communities to introduce Tailwind CSS.
Mentorship Programs: Create mentorship initiatives where experienced contributors can guide newcomers. This can increase the number of active contributors while enhancing the skills of newer ones.
Increase Review Capacity
Reviewer Rotation: Implement a rotating review process to distribute the workload more evenly among team members. This will prevent bottlenecks and ensure timely PR reviews.
Dedicated Review Teams: Form specialized review teams focusing on specific areas of the codebase. This can speed up the review process as reviewers will be more familiar with particular components.
Host Regular Hackathons
Themed Events: Organize themed hackathons to encourage contributions in specific areas of the project. This can boost PR volume while fostering community engagement.
Prizes and Recognition: Offer incentives such as prizes, recognition on social media, or shout-outs in community forums to motivate participation.
Tailwind CSS Dora Metrics: Impressive Cycle Time, Merged PRs Need Attention
Tailwind CSS has many of the right ingredients for long-term success: great documentation, quick feedback loops, and strong cycle times. However, to convert the fluctuating merged PR numbers into a consistent flow, they’ll need to leverage their community’s strengths while working around its size limitations.
With the right balance between quality, speed, and engagement, Tailwind CSS can transform its repository into a model of sustainable open-source success—one where contributors aren’t just engaged but continuously active. And that could set a new benchmark not only for design frameworks but for open-source communities at large.
If you are grappling with engineering dilemmas, then write to us at productivity@middlewarehq.com and we would be happy to help you provide actionable insights into your workflow or you can also try tracking your Dora metrics yourself using Middleware Open Source that too for free!
Did you know?
Tailwind CSS works seamlessly with popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular, making it a favorite among developers who work with modern JavaScript frameworks.