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Define · Add-on

Set service levels and quality targets (SLOs and non-functional requirements)

How fast, reliable and secure a technical product must be is part of the requirement. Agree measurable targets before building, not after testing.

About 2-4 daysEvergreenLast reviewed 5 November 2026

Who this applies to

Skills it builds
Technical and AI fluencyDelivery and execution
PM types
TechnicalPlatform
Product types
All
Starting points
All
Ways of working
All
Experience
All
Size of organisation
All

Steps, by experience

Beginner (under 1 year)

  1. Learn the terms: a service level objective (SLO) is a reliability target, such as 99.9% of requests succeed.
  2. Ask users what speed and reliability they need.
  3. Agree two or three targets, such as response time and availability.
  4. Make each target measurable and testable.
  5. Add them to the acceptance criteria of the relevant work.

Intermediate (1 to 4 years)

  1. Set SLOs from user needs, not from what the system does today.
  2. Agree an error budget and what happens when it runs out.
  3. Cover other qualities too, such as security and scalability.

Experienced (5+ years)

  1. Set SLO standards across services and teams.
  2. Use error budgets to balance new features with reliability work.
  3. Weigh the cost of each extra level of reliability.

Who can do this

Owner: Product manager

Can be delegated to

  • DevOps / SRE or Tech Lead: Measure current reliability and set up monitoring
  • Architect or Tech Lead: Advise on what targets are achievable

Reviewed by: Tech Lead

Tool examples

AWS
Use monitoring dashboards to track SLOs.
Google Cloud
Set up SLO monitoring for the service.
Azure
Set alerts on availability and response time.

Definition of done

  • Two or three measurable targets agreed
  • Targets in acceptance criteria
  • Monitoring planned

Common pitfalls

  • Aiming for 100%
  • Targets nobody can measure
  • Leaving quality targets until testing

If you lead the team

What good looks like: Speed, reliability and security targets are agreed, measurable and part of the requirement.

Ask your PM

  • What are our targets for speed and availability, and are we meeting them?
  • Who is told when we miss them?

Warning signs

  • Non-functional requirements are added at the end.
  • Targets exist but no one measures them.

Do these first

Sources