Set Reliability Targets Your Business Actually Needs

A service level objective, or SLO, describes a target for service reliability from the user’s perspective. Google’s SRE guidance explains why aiming for absolute reliability creates unrealistic trade-offs. A useful target supports decisions about maintenance, delivery, and investment rather than becoming a decorative dashboard number.

What matters

• Choose an indicator that reflects a real user outcome, such as successful requests.
• Agree the target and measurement window with stakeholders.
• Define what the team changes when reliability falls short of the objective.

Practical example: A reporting service prioritises successful report generation during working hours rather than using server uptime as its only measure.

One action today: Define one user-focused reliability indicator and discuss an acceptable target with its owner.