Meet DORA’s Research Team

Derek DeBellis

Derek DeBellis is a quantitative researcher at Google. At Google, Derek focuses on survey research, logs analysis, and figuring out ways to measure concepts central to product development. Derek has recently published on Human-AI interaction, the impact of COVID-19’s onset on smoking cessation, designing for NLP errors, and the role of UX in privacy discussions.

Dustin Smith

Dustin Smith is a human factors psychologist and staff research manager at Google, where he has worked on the DORA project since 2019. For over ten years, he has studied how people are affected by the systems and environments around them in a variety of contexts: software engineering, free-to-play gaming, healthcare, and military. His research at Google identifies areas where software developers can feel happier and more productive during development. Dustin received his PhD in Human Factors Psychology from Wichita State University.

Kim Castillo

Kim Castillo is a UXR program manager at Google and drives the cross-functional effort behind the Accelerate State of DevOps Report. Kim likewise supports developer experience UX research in Google Cloud. The DORA program combines Kim’s passion for research, software delivery practice, and coaching. Prior to Google, Kim worked as a delivery lead/technical program manager for several backend service teams, and as an agile development practices coach.

Michelle Irvine

Michelle Irvine is a technical writer at Google. She has been part of the DORA project since 2020, and leads research into the impact and production of technical documentation. Before Google, Michelle worked in educational publishing and as a technical writer for physics simulation software. Michelle has a BSc in Physics, and a MA in Rhetoric and Communication Design from the University of Waterloo.

Meet the DORA Collective

The collective includes current and former leaders, researchers, authors, and subject matter experts who have all made significant contributions to the research program.

• Brenna Washington
• Claire Peters
• Daniella Villalba
• Dave Farley
• Dave Stanke
• Eric Maxwell
• Frank Xu
• Gene Kim
• Jessie Frazelle
• Jez Humble
• John Speed Mayers
• Lolly Chessie
• Nathen Harvey
• Nicole Forsgren
• Todd Kulesza

Prior to 2018, The State of DevOps Report was published in partnership with Puppet.