SLA to Service relationships

[kas]

Few questions...

Can an SLA cover more than one service or should there be a distinct SLA for each service?

Likewise, can a service be covered by more than one SLA?

If a service can be covered by more than one SLA then could you potentially have different service support hours for the same service between the different SLAs leading to effectively different response times for two calls for the same service depending on which agreement they are covered by...?

[Mark-OLoughlin]

... and that is why it should be kept as simple as possible.

if you are an immature org starting out you may use one SLA to cover say a general response and resolution time. Over time you would develop an SLA per service to cover the specifics of that service.

You should aim to ahve one SLA per service However due to the possible number of services and the time required to upkeep and review then (one or twice a year) you hae to determine if you have the resources to do this and if not what you want to do.

Except in the situation above I don't like services being under 2 or more SLA's - it can get confusing or difficult to understand. Anyway be sure you have a service portfolio set up that can link the service directly to its SLA.
_________________
Mark O'Loughlin
ITSM / ITIL Consultant

[kas]

Thanks for the reply. So you are saying that you could have the same service under potentially multiple SLA's, each with their own agreed service support hours?

Effectively then, for example, if a service failed resulting in 2 or more related incidents then you could have 2 or more potential service support periods (with associated response times etc.) covering these multiple incidents depending on which agreement they come under? I.e. a multiple level tier of service depending on who the call comes from, even though the calls all relate to the same service you could have, for example, 2 hours to respond to call A but 4 hours to respond to call B?

[Mark-OLoughlin]

No,

I am saying the exact opposite. One SLA per service - keep it that simple.

Regarding "if you are an immature org starting out you may use one SLA to cover say a general response and resolution time"

this refers to say settig a global prioity response and resolution time for ALL services to beging with. As you develop the SLA's for the services they get removed from this umbrella SLA alltogether.

As you mention a service under 2 or more SLA's would be difficult to manage
_________________
Mark O'Loughlin
ITSM / ITIL Consultant

[kas]

Okay, thanks for that.

We've effectively got services and sub-services if you like to better manage call allocation so we could have a single SLA covering multiple services/sub-services but each one of those services/sub-services should only ever be covered by a single SLA with it's corresponding service support hours.

Makes things more logical as far as I'm concerned anyway, and easier to develop our escalation routines etc. based on working time spent on calls - potentially different support hours for the same service would cause issues...