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Service Level Agreement

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a document that identifies services provided by IT, either campus-wide or to an individual KU organization or department. The SLA describes the service provided, identifies customer expectations, and defines the boundaries of the service, stating agreed-upon service level goals, operating practices, and reporting policies. It is very important that the SLA be easily understood by the campus unit as well as by IT staff.

SLAs can be either "service based" or "customer based".

  • Service based - covers all customers of a service. These services are usually provided to all campus users. Examples include: email, courseware (Blackboard), Kyou portal, etc.
  • Customer based - an agreement with a particular department or campus unit to provide a service, usually involving a charge for the service. Examples include: maintenance for a departmentally owned computer lab, desktop support, server support, etc.

1. Why do I need an SLA?
2. What is the purpose of a Service Level Agreement?
3. What should the SLA include?
4. Who prepares the SLA?
5. How do I write an SLA?
6. What is the objective of the SLA ?
7. Who should sign the SLA?
8. When does the SLA need to be done?
9. Does the SLA need to be reviewed periodically?
10. Where can I get more information about creating an SLA?

1. Why do I need an SLA ?

You will need an SLA when clarification of responsibilities is needed between IT and a campus group or unit. SLAs need to be in place for any fee-based service, but can also be created if the service provided is out-of-the ordinary, requires a commitment of staff to a specific service, etc. An SLA is needed when identifiable services (such as commitment of staff or other resources) provided by a unit in IT are requested by a customer (or another unit within Information Services), and an agreement of what services will be rendered is necessary/recommended.

2. What is the purpose of a Service Level Agreement?

The purpose of any Service Level Agreement is to describe and define the following:

  • What service(s) are being available and who can use those services.
  • What levels of service or quality of service campus users should expect.
  • What period of time the SLA covers.
  • What is the cost (if any) are to provide those levels of service.
  • How the service will be delivered.
  • How the service provider will monitor or track and report on performance. (For example, if using surveys to gauge performance, tie surveys to the elements in the SLAs.)
  • When the SLA will be reviewed and how to make changes to the SLA .

3. What should the SLA include?

A template will be created to help you with this process. An outline of the basic SLA is included. The following items will be included in the template:

  1. Definition of service provided, parties involved, and effective dates of agreement.
  2. Specifications of hours and days that service will be offered, including testing, maintenance and upgrades.
  3. Specification of the number and locations of users and/or hardware/software for which the service will be offered.
  4. Explanation of problem-reporting procedures, including conditions of escalation to next higher level of support.
  5. Explanation of procedure for both parties to request minor changes to the way the service is provided (e.g., software upgrade to a server), which may include expected times for completing routine change requests.
  6. Specification of charges and billing and payment procedures associated with the service, which may be flat rate or tied to different levels of service.
  7. Specification of target levels of service quality and how associated metrics are calculated and how frequently they are reported, to include availability and response time.
  8. Specification of customer responsibilities under the SLA , which may include:
    • training
    • maintaining proper desktop configuration.
    • customer and IT responsibilities in disaster recovery
    • defined point of contact
    • proper use of resources provided
    • provision of licenses
    • maintenance agreements on hardware
  9. Description of procedures for resolving service-related disagreements.
  10. Process for amending SLA 's. Be sure to include expected growth, change, and demand for the service or system.
  11. Specifications of how to address off-hours support, unscheduled outages, or emergency back-up systems, and how emergencies will be handled.

4. Who prepares the SLA?

Usually the SLA will be written by the service manager responsible for providing the service in collaboration with the customer. The Service Level Manager in the Program & Service Management Office is available to assist with this process.

5. How do I write an SLA?

First, remember that SLAs are a negotiable agreement between central IT and the campus group or unit. Any SLA that is drafted needs to be agreed to by both parties. Your SLA will only be effective if a collaborative approach to writing the agreement is taken.

Only attempt an SLA where service needs can be defined and are reasonably stable. Before an SLA can be written, you need to have a thorough understanding of what the service level objectives are and how operational realities affect them. Operational realities include available staffing, hardware, storage space, warranty agreements (is the warranty 8:00 to 5:00 or 24x7), etc.

6. What is the objective of the SLA?

Understand that SLAs can't cover every possible situation that may arise. Well written SLA agreements are an effective way to ensure commitments are kept. Responsibilities and the consequences for failure to adhere to them should be defined in the SLA .

Resources needed to support an SLA should be defined and measured against available resources to ensure that they're truly available to service the SLA .

    • How mission critical is the service being provided to the operations of the University?
    • Will the staffing provided have the resources and training necessary to fulfill the agreements made?
    • How will the SLA influence employee behavior?
    • Is this influence on behavior in keeping with other operational level objectives?
    • Conversely, how do the operational level objectives influence service level objectives, how will they affect IT costs and how can these costs best be explained to the customer?

7. Who should sign the SLA?

All parties should have an opportunity to review and provide input into the negotiated SLA . The final SLA should contain signatures of appropriate representatives from the participating areas. The IS representatives typically will be a service manager and a director or Associate Vice Provost. The representatives from each area should then distribute the SLA to the campus unit and the appropriate staff in their areas and/or the SLA should be made available electronically.

8. When does the SLA need to be done?

Implementing SLAs for IT services offered at KU will be a long and gradual process. The Service Level Manager in the Program & Service Management Office will work with each service owner to determine which services need an SLA , and how long it will take to create that SLA . The first priority will be to create SLAs for customer-based services that are provided for a fee.  

9. Does the SLA need to be reviewed periodically?

Yes, every SLA should be reviewed at least once a year. During this time appropriate updates should be made to items listed in the SLA .

10. Where can I get more information about creating an SLA?

Contact the Program and Services Management Office at sppim@ku.edu.