Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and Error Budgets
A Service Level Objective, or SLO, is a clear, measurable target for how reliable a service should be — for example, that it is available 99.9% of the time. An error budget is the small amount of unreliability that target allows.
Together they turn reliability from a vague aspiration into something we can measure and manage sensibly.
How SLOs and Error Budgets Work
If your SLO is 99.9% uptime, the remaining 0.1% is your error budget — the allowance for the inevitable blips. As long as we stay within budget, we can keep releasing new features confidently.
Why This Helps You
- Reliability becomes a clear number, not a guess.
- It balances new features against stability sensibly.
- It guides decisions when something starts to slip.
- It keeps everyone honest about what is realistic.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if we use up the error budget?
We pause risky changes and focus on stability until reliability recovers, then resume feature work — a healthy, automatic balance.
If you need a hand with any of this, your Progressive Robot delivery team is ready to help. Raise a ticket from the Support area of your client portal or speak to your account manager and we will guide you through the next steps.