Aug 17, 2025
Executive Summary
"Non-functional work is like plumbing—nobody notices until it's broken."
“Non-functional requirements (NFRs) are like oxygen: invisible when present, fatal when missing.”
Why Non-Functional Work Matters
Non-functional requirements (NFRs) such as performance, scalability, security, compliance, observability, resiliency, and reliability underpin every successful software product. Neglecting NFRs may initially boost feature velocity, butit inevitably leads to technical debt, outages, security breaches, and lost customer trust.
Impact of ignoring NFRs:
Increased downtime and outages
Security vulnerabilities
Performance degradation\
Compliance violations\
Higher maintenance costs
"When you realize 'we'll fix it later' has become 'we'll fix it never.'"
Why NFRs Often Get Ignored
"We’ll fix it later" is the costliest lie in tech. Despite being critical for long-term product success, non-functional aspects like:
Performance
Security
Observability
Scalability
Resiliency
Compliance
...are often postponed, treated as invisible debt, or crammed in last-minute to meet enterprise checklists.
Challenges of Prioritizing Non-Functional Work
Teams often struggle with prioritizing NFRs due to:
Pressure for rapid feature delivery
Difficulty demonstrating immediate ROI
Ambiguity in scope and effort
Lack of clear ownership
What Happens If You Don’t Prioritize NFRs?
Symptom | Root Cause |
Outages under load | Poor capacity planning / scalability ignored |
Escalations after launch | Lack of observability and alerting |
Security incidents | No early threat modeling or secure defaults |
Failed enterprise deals | Missing compliance, SSO, SLAs |
Slowed future delivery | Tech debt from skipped resilience or testing |
Shift Left - Make NFRs Part of the Definition of Done
Every story = functional + non-functional acceptance criteria.
Examples:
“Feature must scale to 1000 concurrent users.”
“Audit logging must be enabled for all user actions.”
“Add 3 SLO dashboards for the new endpoint.”
Use the R.I.C.E. Framework for NFRs Too
Apply Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort to NFRs too — not just features.
NFR | Reach | Impact | Confidence | Effort | Score |
Implement rate-limiting | High (all users) | High | High | Medium | Prioritize |
Auto-scaling infra | High (all users) | High | Medium | High | Evaluate |
Replace logs with traces | Low | Medium | High | Medium | Later |
Apply Risk-Based Prioritization
Identify potential risks and impacts of neglecting each NFR:
Risk | Potential Impact | Priority |
Securty vulnerability | Data breach, regulatory fines | High |
Performance issues | User churn, brand damage | Medium-High |
Poor observability | Increased downtime, harder debugging | Medium |
Bundle Non-Functional Work Into Features
Don’t sell security as a separate ticket—bake it into features.
Instead o saying:
Feature: User uploads
NFR: Add virus scanning (separate ticket)
Do:
Feature: Secure user uploads (includes virus scanning + rate limits)
Adopt NFR Engineering OKRs
Set org-level OKRs for NFR maturity.
Sample OKRs:
“Achieve 99.99% availability on all public APIs.”
“<2% of incidents should be caused by missing observability.”
“Zero critical security findings per quarter.”
Executive Lens - Talking to the CEO and CRO
“Security and scale aren't blockers—they’re enablers for deals.”
Reframe NFRs in business terms:
CTO Concern | Business Reframe |
SSO takes time | Enables 7-figure enterprise contracts |
Infrastructure upgrade | Enables 10x growth without outages |
ISO 27001 audit prep | Opens doors to regulated industries |
Security audit | Enables enterprise contracts |
Load testing | Prevents customer churns |
Obervability setup | Minimize downtime, improves user satisfaction |
Example - Startup That Got Burned
Startup A launched an AI product quickly. They hit 100K users. But:
No rate limiting → Abuse and outages
No access logs → Couldn’t trace issues
No SSO → Blocked 3 enterprise pilots
No SLA commitment → Lost key customer
They paused all feature work for 6 weeks to backfill NFRs.
Want to Level Up Non-Functional Maturity?
Consider building an internal NFR scorecard across:
Observability coverage
Security maturity
Resiliency posture
Scalability readiness
Compliance checklists
Real-World Example - How Netflix Handles NFRs
Netflix prioritizes non-functional excellence through chaos engineering practices like Chaos Monkey and Simian Army, proactively addressing resiliency issues, and avoiding costly downtime.
Practical Checklist for Prioritizing NFRs
Clearly define NFRs in your team's Definition of Done
Establish measurable acceptance criteria for each feature
Regularly assess and document risks related to neglecting NFRs
Integrate automated tooling to monitor and validate NFRs
Bundle NFR tasks within functional development activities
Set and track specific non-functional OKRs
Regularly communicate NFR impacts and achievements to stakeholders
Continuously revisit and refine NFR priorities as part of agile ceremonies
Closing Thought
"The cost of neglecting non-functional work today is the technical debt you'll pay tomorrow."
Invest proactively—build a robust foundation for sustainable growth without compromising velocity.
