Many organizations take time to set and realign on department and company-wide goals at the beginning of every quarter.
As engineering leaders, we’re often handed company objectives (as in Objectives and Key Results, aka OKRs) that demand the on-time delivery of product features without impacting availability or performance. The best way to achieve these ambitious goals is by making sure everyone understands how their work connects back to the overall company vision.
When engineering work and constraints aren’t aligned with business objectives, it leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding during the goal-setting process, which often results in meaningless goals.
So how can we create alignment when it seems engineering and business folks aren’t all speaking the same language?
Service-level objectives (SLOs) have been gaining popularity because they provide a common language between business stakeholders and engineers to ensure they’re aligned on setting and achieving goals.
