A service level agreement (SLA) is a commitment about how a service will be delivered, usually stated as a time limit or a quality target. External SLAs are part of contracts with customers or vendors. Internal SLAs are promises between teams, for example IT to employees or finance to the rest of the company. Some teams call the internal ones operating level agreements (OLAs).
What to define
- What is measured: response, resolution, approval or delivery.
- When the clock starts and stops, and whether it pauses while waiting for the requester.
- Calendar or business time, and which holidays count.
- What happens when it is missed: a reminder, an escalation, a report.
Example
Finance commits to approve or return supplier invoices within two business days of receipt (illustrative). An invoice that arrives at 4 pm on a Friday is due by 4 pm on Tuesday, because the weekend does not count.
Common pitfalls
- An SLA nobody measures, which is only a wish.
- No consequence when it is missed, so the deadline is soft from day one.
- Counting weekends and holidays in a business-hours promise.
- Measuring only the total time, which hides the one step where requests actually wait.
- Targets so loose they mean nothing, or so tight that the team games them.
In Easyflow, each step can have its own deadline counted in business hours with your holiday calendar, with overdue reminders and escalation.