We all know about sla agreements – we sign them with our phone and internet providers, for software subscriptions, and more. These are contracts that lay out the level of service a customer or business can expect from a supplier, and how to resolve issues if those expectations aren’t met. A well drafted SLA can make your services more reliable, reduce friction between departments, and protect you from misinterpretation of legal jargon – but it requires careful thought to create one that will be effective for your team.
The first step in creating an SLA is getting buy-in from management, especially the leaders of your customer organizations. Once you have their support, they will be better able to help you negotiate with your suppliers and customers.
SLAs should include a description of the service to be delivered, metrics by which that service will be measured, responsibilities and duties of each party, escalation procedures, and terms of termination (including the right to terminate for critical failure). It’s best to use a system that automatically captures metric data so that the SLA can be kept current as conditions change.
It’s also a good idea to have a system for measuring the quality of software delivery, and there are many tools available to help you do this. This will provide an independent, objective measure of the effectiveness of your software development process and can be used to set performance standards in SLAs with external customers and partners. sla agreements