Overview#
Targeted reliability or performance goal for a service. In security, often paired with response SLAs for alerts and incidents.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Service Level Objective for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Service Level Objective activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Service Level Objective works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Service Level Objective, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Service Level Objective healthy.
- Map Service Level Objective practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Service Level Objective might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Service Level Objective failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Service Level Objective continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Service Level Objective with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Service Level Objective improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.