
< session />
Non-Functional Requirements For The Win!
Fri, 25 April
In today’s fast-paced world of distributed applications and cloud-native architectures, ensuring system stability goes beyond just writing good code—it requires a strong focus on Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs). This session explores the role of NFRs in delivering reliable, performant, and scalable systems, with a deep dive into the critical trio of Service Level Indicators (SLIs), Service Level Objectives (SLOs), and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
We will discuss how well-defined SLOs drive operational excellence, enabling teams to proactively manage system performance, latency, and availability. You’ll learn how to set realistic SLOs, measure against SLIs, and balance trade-offs between reliability and agility. Whether you’re responsible for a single application or an enterprise-wide platform, mastering NFRs will set you up for long-term success.
This talk also provides real-world examples of how teams transition from reactive SLAs to proactive SLOs, ensuring their systems meet customer expectations while optimizing infrastructure costs.
Key Takeaways
- Understanding NFRs – The critical role of non-functional requirements in modern software systems.
- SLIs, SLOs, and SLAs Explained – How these service-level metrics ensure reliability, availability, and performance.
- Defining & Measuring SLOs – Strategies for setting realistic goals and tracking key performance indicators.
- Balancing Reliability & Agility – Managing trade-offs between system uptime, latency, and feature velocity.
- Proactive vs. Reactive Approaches – How shifting from SLAs to SLOs can improve resilience and user experience.
Target Audience
- Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) & DevOps Professionals managing service availability and system reliability.
- Software Architects & Engineering Leaders designing cloud-native and distributed systems.
- Platform Engineers & Performance Engineers working with scalability, observability, and system health metrics.
- Product & Business Owners responsible for defining SLAs and ensuring business-critical applications meet customer expectations.
< speaker_info />
About the speaker
Ken Sipe
Cloud Solution Architect
Ken is a distributed application engineer. Ken has worked with Fortune 500 companies to small startups in the roles of developer, designer, application architect and enterprise architect. Ken's current focus is on containers, container orchestration, high scale micro-service design and continuous delivery systems.
Ken is an international speaker on the subject of software engineering speaking at conferences such as JavaOne, JavaZone, Great Indian Developer Summit (GIDS), and The Strange Loop. He is a regular speaker with NFJS where he is best known for his architecture and security hacking talks. In 2009, Ken was honored by being awarded the JavaOne Rockstar Award at JavaOne in SF, California and the JavaZone Rockstar Award at JavaZone in Oslo, Norway as the top ranked speaker.