SLIs and SLOs Demystified

SLIs and SLOs Demystified

Instructor: Packt - Course Instructors

Access provided by EDGE Group

14 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

2 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

14 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

2 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Formulate and implement SLIs and SLOs for system reliability
Manage incidents using observability and monitoring techniques
Align reliability objectives with business and technical goals

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

14 assignments

Taught in English

See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills

Learn more about Coursera for Business

logos of Petrobras, TATA, Danone, Capgemini, P&G and L'Oreal

There are 14 modules in this course

In today's fast-paced digital world, maintaining system reliability is crucial for business continuity and customer satisfaction. This course introduces the core principles of Service Level Indicators (SLIs) and Service Level Objectives (SLOs), equipping you with the knowledge and strategies to measure, manage, and optimize reliability in complex systems.

Through a structured workshop-style approach, you’ll learn how to design and implement SLIs and SLOs that directly align with business goals. By applying industry best practices, you’ll gain the confidence to make informed decisions that balance innovation with performance stability. What makes this course unique is its blend of theoretical clarity and hands-on application. You won’t just learn the definitions—you’ll apply them to real-world scenarios involving observability, incident management, and error budgeting. This course is designed for SREs, DevOps professionals, software engineers, and business leaders looking to improve service reliability. A basic understanding of cloud systems and monitoring tools will help you get the most out of it.

In this section, we link reliability pillars, roles, and observability practices to mapping precise SLIs into achievable SLOs, and weigh operational and business risks arising from misaligned indicators.

What's included

2 videos5 readings1 assignment

2 videos Total 3 minutes

Course Overview Video 1 minute
SLIs and SLOs at the Heart of Reliability - Overview Video 1 minute

5 readings Total 90 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
Challenges and Opportunities of the Reliability Engineering Role 20 minutes
Aligning Reliability Goals and Objectives Across the Hierarchy 10 minutes
Some Best Practices for Setting Up Effective Monitoring Systems and Dashboards 20 minutes
Additional Examples and Case Studies 20 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

System Reliability and Performance Metrics 10 minutes

In this section, we build a dedicated SLI/SLO team, detail SRE, owner and stakeholder roles, and discuss adapting structures to organizational culture to strengthen reliability, availability and business alignment.

What's included

1 video6 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

Establishing an SLI and SLO Team - Overview Video 1 minute

6 readings Total 90 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
A Case Study to Illustrate the Impact of a Dedicated Team 10 minutes
Identifying Key Stakeholders and Subject Matter Experts Within the Organization 10 minutes
Tailoring to Team and Organizational Needs 20 minutes
Ensuring Alignment With Organizational Objectives 20 minutes
Implementing the Best Approach for Your Team 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Building Effective SLI and SLO Teams 10 minutes

In this section, we connect customer-centric SLIs and SLOs to each stage of the user journey, mapping KPIs, setting data-driven performance thresholds, and analyzing trends to prioritize reliability improvements.

What's included

1 video5 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

Things to Consider When Crafting Your SLIs and SLOs - Overview Video 1 minute

5 readings Total 90 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
Amazon's Customer-Centric Approach to Customer Retention 20 minutes
Understanding Key Metrics and Their Role in Customer Satisfaction 10 minutes
Navigating the User Journey 20 minutes
The Role of User Journey Mapping 20 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Crafting Effective SLIs and SLOs 10 minutes

In this section, we establish core observability via metrics, logs, events, and traces, link these insights to SLIs and SLOs, and practice data-driven reliability decisions.

What's included

1 video4 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

Observability and Monitoring Are a Necessity - Overview Video 1 minute

4 readings Total 70 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
Data-Driven Decision-Making for SLI and SLO Optimization 20 minutes
Integrating Observability Thinking Into the SLI and SLO Journey 20 minutes
Techniques for Real-Time Alerting, Visualization, and Reporting 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Observability and Monitoring Fundamentals 10 minutes

In this section, we link SLIs, SLOs and error budgets to real monetary outcomes, quantifying downtime costs, proving SRE ROI, and framing reliability discussions in clear financial language.

What's included

1 video3 readings1 assignment

In this section, we learn to craft service level indicators, set service level objectives, and honor service level agreements by tracing customer journeys and defining precise technical boundaries.

What's included

1 video5 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

Workshop Preparation: Structuring the SLI and SLO Conversation - Overview Video 1 minute

5 readings Total 100 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
Defining and Mapping Personas and Journeys 20 minutes
Mapping the User Journey 20 minutes
Identifying Your System's Boundaries 20 minutes
Focusing SLIs on Customer Journey Metrics 20 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Service Level Management and Customer Relationship Fundamentals 10 minutes

In this section, we map user journeys to precise SLIs, define SLOs for availability, latency, and error budgets, and prioritize indicators through personas, system boundaries, and architectural touchpoints.

What's included

1 video4 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

SLIs and SLOs for Web Applications - Overview Video 1 minute

4 readings Total 80 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
Identifying Personas and the Persona Journey 20 minutes
Establishing Application (System) Boundaries 20 minutes
Implementing SLIs With Accurate Touchpoints Based on the System Specifications 20 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

SLI and SLO Implementation in Web Applications 10 minutes

In this section, we design SLIs and SLOs for distributed multi-tier architectures, compare cloud versus on-premises impacts, map system boundaries, and prioritize reliability metrics using persona journeys.

What's included

1 video5 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

SLIs and SLOs for Distributed Systems - Overview Video 1 minute

5 readings Total 80 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
Establishing Application (System) Boundaries 20 minutes
Specifying SLI Types Based on the Identified System Boundaries 20 minutes
Implementing SLIs With Accurate Touchpoints Based on the System Specifications 10 minutes
Understanding Required Considerations When Prioritizing SLIs and SLOs 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

SLIs and SLOs in Distributed System Management 10 minutes

In this section, we Design database-centric Service Level Indicators and Objectives by linking architecture, persona journeys and boundaries to metrics that support performance, availability, integrity and recovery goals.

What's included

1 video6 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

Optimizing SLIs and SLOs for Database Performance - Overview Video 1 minute

6 readings Total 120 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
Defining the Persona Journey 20 minutes
Setting Journey Expectations 20 minutes
Establishing Application (System) Boundaries 20 minutes
SLI Specification 20 minutes
SLI Implementation 20 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Optimizing Service Level Indicators and Objectives for Database Systems 10 minutes

In this section, we map new feature workflows to SLIs and SLOs-cache hit ratio, redirect latency, error rate-ranked by business impact through persona-driven analysis.

What's included

7 readings1 assignment

In this section, we Configure Service Level Objective alerts, monitor via Service Level Indicators, and interpret error budgets to balance rapid incident detection with sustainable on call cadence.

What's included

1 video6 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

SLO Monitoring and Alerting - Overview Video 1 minute

6 readings Total 100 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
SLO Monitoring Concepts 10 minutes
Scenario 1: Monitoring and Alerting for Web Application SLOs 10 minutes
Scenario 2: Monitoring and Alerting for Distributed Systems SLOs 20 minutes
Establishing SLO Alerting Criteria 20 minutes
SLO Alerting Rules 20 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Service Level Objective Monitoring and Alerting Fundamentals 10 minutes

In this section, we build real-time SLI dashboards and conduct cross-functional iterative SLO reviews, using AI-driven anomaly detection to adjust reliability targets and maintain metrics aligned with changing business needs.

What's included

1 video4 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

Service Level Performance Metrics: Daily Operations - Overview Video 1 minute

4 readings Total 80 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
Adapting to SLI and SLO Changes 20 minutes
SLO-Driven Service Dependency Mapping 20 minutes
Cross-Functional Touchpoints 20 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Service Level Performance and Reliability Management 10 minutes

In this section, we explore incident management that maps Service Level Indicators, including Mean Time to Detection and Time to Acknowledge, to Service Level Objectives and sharper on call workflows.

What's included

1 video5 readings1 assignment

1 video Total 1 minute

SLO Preservation and Incident Management - Overview Video 1 minute

5 readings Total 90 minutes

Introduction 20 minutes
SLIs for Incident Management Metrics 20 minutes
Time to Detection 20 minutes
MTTD SLO 10 minutes
Extending Accountability to Product Engineering Teams 20 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Service Level Objectives and Incident Management Fundamentals 10 minutes

In this section, we package SLIs and SLOs as a service, map a full product lifecycle, and tie reliability metrics to KPIs, OKRs, and SLAs for practical, customer-aligned engineering.