The term Service Level Agreement has become such common currency in business these days that one would almost think that good effective SLAs are commonplace – and that they are effectively managed to secure predictable business outcomes. Service Level Agreements are notoriously difficult to create – the level of time and effort required to document an SLA is often underestimated by project managers and senior executives.
I would suggest that you clearly identify the process of creating SLAs and managing SLAs as two separate activities. Creating SLAs is usually undertaken by an analyst in consultation with a business owner or operations manager. Use of SLA templates can be extremely useful to provide structure. SLA templates which are specific to a particular sector can also be a valuable to give guidance on the areas that require monitoring and management.
I would urge a hint of caution however on the use of SLA templates - please ensure that
- The metrics you use are actually relevant to your services
- It is possible to get clear perforamnce information on the metrics you are using.
The next step is to ensure that you have an effective process in place to monitor your SLA on an ongoing basis. The approach here will vary depending upon the number of Service Level Agreements you have. Your objective is simple – do you have a report every month outlining the performance of your service provider against their commitments in the Service Level Agreement? Effective Service Management is driven by a clear and consistent process which ensures that service managers have the information they need to analyse performance. If you are spending to too much time producing rather than analysing the reports – then consider a more automated service management approach.
