Who can use this feature?
- Available in a Work Management Ticketing application
- License Requirement: Enterprise
- Application Access: User must have access to Work Management and the specific Ticketing application to manage service level agreements
- Administrative Access:
- Global Administrators can manage ticketing SLAs in TDAdmin
- Ticketing Application Admin can manage ticketing SLAs from the Ticketing Application Admin interface
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are the terms of the contract between the service provider (internal or external) and the client or end user, and are crucial to providing quality services. In TeamDynamix, they define the level of service – the response time plus what outcomes the customer will receive within that time.
This article provides guidance to help Administrators optimize Service Level Agreements.
In this article, we'll cover:
ITIL prescribes the following as best practices for designing your Service Level Agreements:
- Tie an SLA to a specific Service. SLAs that exist apart from a service can be considered measurements with a context. By tying an SLA to a given Service, the SLA now has a context for more accurate, faithful measurement.
- Define outcomes beyond operational metrics. Operational metrics are of limited scope and do not accurately reflect a fully defined outcome. A good SLA will strike a balance among metrics such as customer satisfaction and key business outcomes.
- An SLA reflects an agreement. A good SLA reflects an agreed-upon understanding between the Service Provider and the Service Consumer. Involving all stakeholders (partners, customers, sponsors, etc.) helps create such an agreement.
- They must be easy for all parties to understand. A well-written SLA can be understood by all stakeholders in the Service (partners, customers, sponsors, etc.)
The watermelon effect describes an SLA that correctly measures an outcome but is not an effective indicator of a customer's experience. An SLA can appear green on the outside (the SLA is being met), but be red on the inside (customer experience is unsatisfactory).
An example of a watermelon-effect SLA is a Network Availability SLA. Network Availability may be at 99% in a given month (green), but the customer experience may be extremely trying during the 1% when it is down (red). A better SLA would focus on customer and stakeholder needs within the 1% rather than on 99% availability.
There are two factors to consider when improving your existing SLAs:
- Engagement, and
- Listening
Engagement addresses the organization's ongoing needs and doesn't presume that the same outcomes five years ago are still relevant today.
Listening is part of engagement and helps pull the Service Provider out of solution mode to determine what is valuable to all stakeholders.
Sources for either can be found in:
- Customer engagement
- Customer feedback
- Surveys
- Key business-related measures
- Service Desk staff
- Operational metrics
- Business metrics