8.6 Service Level Agreement(s) (SLA)

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SLAs are most often the key to customer satisfaction in any deployment. In their book Foundations of Service Level Management [11], authors Sturm, Morris, and Jander provide an excellent overview of what is necessary in managing reasonable expectations between the user community and the support community. They define the SLA as a process and state that in creation of any SLA, there are four key points to keep in mind:

1. There should be equal representation from the service provider and the client.

2. The leaders of the team should be peers.

3. The members of the team should be stakeholders.

4. The team members need to be subject matter experts.

Strum et. al., point out that equality between sides is important because too many players on one side of the table can create an unfair psychological advantage. Peers are required to negotiate effectively because some people are not going to speak their minds when they feel subordinated to another person's position in the organization. Stakeholders are essential to success! Everyone must have skin in the game to succeed. Each individual representing his or her organizational unit to succeed must have a vested interest.

As this SLA creation process unfolds in an organization, the path should follow a fairly standard course. A team is assembled with representation from those who provide the service and those who expect it. The team will then assemble and a negotiation will occur among the team members. They will be required to document the negotiation and publicize it. Finally, a decision will be required in order to designate an administrator of the SLA. Now, let's take a look at how this works.

Assembling the team is the first step. Remember the key point made previously about equal representation. Generally, it is best if this representation is limited to three or four people from each side. Too few participants and the decisions made will not be respected because you will be perceived as having done the work in a vacuum. Too many participants and you will never get a decision because it will be impossible to gain a consensus on anything.

Before negotiations begin, start doing your homework. Come to the table prepared to discuss costs, metrics, performance standards, and industry-standard expectations for the type of deliverable that is to be supported. Remember that in a negotiation, both sides must leave the table feeling good about the agreement or it is doomed to fail. Do not push unreasonable expectations on the opposite side of the table. Demands are never acceptable because they are almost never met. When something is asked for, it should be substantiated with costs, metrics, data from industry standards, and so on. It is important to show that you are trying to have things established to adhere to a benchmark that all parties can agree is best for the business.

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