How SLOs are chosen

SLOs are not “picked percentages”. They are chosen using a reliability strategy that balances developer reality, customer experience, business cost, and SLA commitments.

What decides an SLO?

• Developers / Engineering: what is measurable and sustainable; historical performance; on-call capacity.
• User experience: what customers feel (downtime, latency, errors).
• Business & SLA: what is promised to customers, customer tier, penalties, compliance windows.

Golden rule: SLO vs SLA

SLO must be stricter than SLA. SLA is a contractual minimum. SLO is your internal reliability goal that gives you a safety margin.

How the platform helps

• Guided SLO wizard: asks the right questions and recommends targets.
• Decision table: records reasoning, options, and trade-offs (editable & reviewable).
• Review workflow: engineer proposes, owner/admin approves.