SLA (service-level agreement) is an agreement on the level of provided services, which is agreed between 2 parties, usually the provider and the customer of a service. The ALITEO application also allows this setting in the workspace. It is a standard that is used for help-desk or service-desk applications. In the ALITEO application, the customer is an external user and the provider is an internal user of a company.
Setting up the SLA in the workspace is the first step to then progress to setting it up in the project (link to SLA in project) and so use this functionality in project tasks (link to SLA in project task).
The basic characteristics (indicators) of SLA include:
- Response time - ends with the first comment of the internal user,
- Repair time - ends when the task is closed.
SLA Working hours
For the purpose of timekeeping, we can define the working time that counts towards service. This means that only the time defined in the working hours will be taken into account when calculating the date.
The working hours allow us to set regular recurring time intervals in which the SLA service is valid. We also define exceptions when working hours do not apply. For example, this can be for working days off, company-wide holidays, and so on.
SLA Contracts
In order to proceed to the setting of the individual SLA characteristics, it must be said that each of the characteristics is based on a combination of an attribute (data type - Enum value) and a Priority that is set in the task.
Hence, there must be an attribute with the enum value data type among the attributes of the design task in order to properly define the SLA characteristics.
The SLA contract is therefore defined as follows:
- Contract attribute - add a contract attribute using the button in the header of the dialog box. In the displayed smaller dialog box, we then select the project task attribute (only those with the enum value data type are available) and then select one of the items of the project attribute. Press the Save button. This is how we add individual contract attributes, we can also combine items from different attributes.
- Response time - in this section we see the listed attributes. Click on the attribute tab to define specific values for this characteristic. We can enter units of hours or days, for some of the priorities we can check the " Outside working hours" option. The " Outside working hours" option means that the time defined in working hours is not taken into account when calculating the attribute. This characteristic is terminated in the task by adding the first comment by an internal member of the project. Within this characteristic it is possible to additionally set the behaviour of the calculation when an attribute or priority is changed:
- Reset the solution - when the change is made, the response time is calculated anew (as if the task had been created at this point),
- Continue the solution - the response time term is only recalculated when the change is made (the start of the elapsed time is valid from the original creation of the task).
- Repair time - similar to response time, we see the attributes listed. Click on the attribute tab to define specific values for that attribute. We can enter units of hours or days, for some of the priorities we can check the " Outside working hours" option. The " Outside working hours" option means that the time defined in working hours is not taken into account when calculating the attribute. In addition, we define the phases or states of the task for which the repair time characteristic is not to be taken into account. Similarly to response time, for repair time it is also possible to additionally set the behaviour of the calculation when an attribute or priority changes:
- Reset the solution - when a change is made, the repair time is calculated anew (as if the task had been created at this point),
- Continue the solution - when changing, the repair time term is just recalculated to another one (the start of the time period is valid from the original creation of the task).
SLA states
SLA can take on several states, also depending on what metric is involved:
- Response time
- Not used - no SLA parameters are defined for the project to which the project task belongs. It is not displayed in the project task detail,
- Does not meet the condition - SLA parameters are defined for the project to which the project task belongs, but for the current priority and attribute setting of the task, no time is defined for the Response time. It is not displayed in the project task detail,
- In progress - in the project task we are watching the Response time, which is in progress (waiting for our response), the deadline for the Response time has not been exceeded yet (the deadline is displayed in the task details, in the left panel in green), it will be closed with the first comment:
- In the case of a public task - a public comment posted by an internal user (the case owner's comment is always ignored),
- In the case of an internal task - an internal comment posted by an internal user (the case owner's comment is always ignored).
- In progress with exceeded response time - in the project task we are watching the Response time, which is currently in progress (and waiting for our response), the deadline for the Response time has been exceeded (displayed in the task details, in the left panel in red), it will be closed with the first comment:
- In the case of a public task - a public comment posted by an internal user (the case owner's comment is always ignored),
- In the case of an internal task - an internal comment posted by an internal user (the case owner's comment is always ignored).
- Completed - Response time is no longer in progress, it has been completed by publishing the comment within the deadline (displayed as "Completed" in the task details, in the left panel in black),
- Completed with exceeded response time- Response time is no longer in progress, it has been completed by publishing the comment, but the deadline has been exceeded (the text "Completed with exceeded" is displayed in the task details, in the left panel in red).
- Repair time
- Not used - no SLA parameters are defined for the project to which the project task belongs,
- Does not meet the condition - SLA parameters are defined for the project to which the project task belongs, but for the current priority and attribute setting, no time is defined for the Repair time,
- In progress - in the project task we are watching the Repair time, which is in progress (waiting for our response), the set deadline for Repair time has not been exceeded yet (the deadline is shown in the task details, in the left panel in green), it will be completed by closing the task,
- In progress with exceeded repair time - in the project task we are monitoring Repair time, which is in progress (and waiting for our response), the deadline for Repair time has been exceeded (displayed in the task details, in the left panel in red), it will be terminated by closing the task,
- Pending - In a project task, we are tracking the Repair time that is currently in progress (and waiting for a response from the owner of the task). The text "Pending" is displayed in the task details, in the left panel in black.
- Completed - Repair time is no longer in progress, it has been completed by closing the task within the deadline (text "Completed" displayed in the task details, in the left panel in black).
- Completed with exceeded repair time - Repair time is no longer running, it has been completed by closing the task, but the deadline has been exceeded (the text "Completed with exceeded" is displayed in the task detail, in the left panel in red).
