Service levels Required

Set a target for each indicator

Give each indicator a target over a fixed window, such as 99.9% of checkout requests succeed over 28 days. Never aim for 100%.

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 20 October 2026.

How to do it

Start from what users need and what the service achieves today. Write the target, the window and the owner in one short document. Review it every quarter. A target of 100% leaves no room for releases or repairs, and users cannot tell the difference.

Example

- service: checkout
  indicator: availability
  objective: 99.9%
  window: 28d
  owner: payments-team

How to check

A written document lists every objective with its indicator, target, window and owner, and its last review date is within the past three months.

For agents: if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in Based on the Agent Wranglers operations playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/service-levels/service-level-objectives.