Implementing Service Level Objectives

Chapter 13. Building an SLO Culture

Harold Treen

This book so far has explained the importance of SLOs, how to implement them, and even how to get various departments on board with them. If you’re an engineering team of one, that might be enough for you to go and start making the world a more reliable place. For the rest of us, there’s more work to be done.

It’s one thing to understand and live by these principles yourself, but it’s another to spread these ideas throughout your organization and get others working alongside you. That means having a team interested in using error budgets and having discussions about implementing feature freezes, and it means being able to rely on the systems managed by external teams. SLOs are most powerful when everyone is following the process and invested in building reliable systems. It will be easier to iterate on your systems and improve their reliability if the systems they depend on are doing the same. If you are working alone, it’s going to be a continual battle of priorities.

This can be one of the most difficult challenges in getting SLOs off the ground. Adding measurements, monitoring, and alerts can sometimes be done in a couple of days, but changing how your organization works takes more than a package install and configuration files. Luckily, you’re not the first to venture out on this journey.

While Chapter 6 discussed how to convince your organization to adopt an SLO-based approach, this chapter aims to guide you through ...