timetofix

Timetofix is a metric used in incident management, software maintenance, and field service to measure the duration between the recognition of a problem and its resolution. In practice, timetofix is calculated as the elapsed time from when an issue is detected or reported to when a fix is verified and the service is restored or the change is deployed successfully. Different organizations may include or exclude certain steps, such as initial diagnosis, patch development, testing, or deployment, leading to variations in the exact definition.

The metric is typically derived from system logs, ticketing records, monitoring alerts, and deployment data. It can be reported as a single value for an incident, or summarized as a distribution (mean, median, or percentiles) across incidents over a period. Timetofix provides insight into responsiveness and the efficiency of the remediation process, and is often used to identify bottlenecks, allocate resources, and track improvements in incident handling and release practices.

Timetofix is related to, but not identical to, other reliability and service metrics such as mean time to acknowledge (MTTA), mean time to repair (MTTR), and overall mean time to resolve. Limitations include dependence on detection latency, potential variability in what constitutes a “fix,” and the fact that a short timetofix does not necessarily reflect the impact or severity of the incident.

Related concepts include MTTR, MTBF, and defect aging.