A software service delivered within the context of a business transaction can be subject to a service level agreement codifying the will of the participants, a will to be transmitted through an organization to engineers who build and operate the software. We consider what should happen when that will is not met.
We have come to expect that software under various pressures will not behave as intended. Each surprise informs those who tend the software of the software's "will" which may run counter to the business. Developers, once agents of the business, turn their full attention to the software. They become agents of the software which demands their full attention until harmony is restored.
We expect an organization to train for and act expeditiously when these reversals of attention occur. If an organization commits to 99% availability then business as usual might be suspended when a subsystem drops below 99.9%. The chain of command will have thus been broken. Engineers now work for the machines. Their tools, training and expertise will serve whatever demand the machine makes of them until past commitments can be met reliably.
Management now disconnected from engineering have the unenviable task of managing business relationships in light of mechanical reality. For this too they should prepare.
Any successful software business must negotiate a balance between the will of the business and the will of the machine in the competition for engineering attention.
The establishment of trigger conditions based on measurements, such as the 99.9% criteria, provide for abrupt flow control over new work. We can imagine finer control based on better information and broader knowledge throughout the organization. We should aspire for this and must also accept that normal operations settle into complacency and overconfidence. Another surprise will inevitably follow and wrest attention away from the business and back to the machine.