A service level agreement is a powerful tool for helping two parties, such as an IT organization and its customers, communicate effectively, manage each other's expectations, and build a strong, trusting relationship. But if the SLA document is written in a confusing or ambiguous manner, it will create more problems than it solves. To function effectively, the SLA document must meet content and format criteria.
For more than a decade, the author has provided SLA seminars and consulting services internationally. In evaluating hundreds of SLAs and reading countless others, the author has observed that although some are very well written, many are flawed in ways that reduce the odds that they will meet their intended objectives.
The objective of this guide is to identify and explain evaluation criteria for you to use in assessing and enhancing your SLA documents:
- For SLAs already in operation, this information will help you validate their adequacy and determine if adjustments will strengthen their effectiveness.
- For SLAs currently being developed, this information will help you evaluate and modify your drafts, thereby preventing pitfalls later on.
- For SLAs to be developed at some future time, this information will help you plan ahead so as to avoid the flaws that are prevalent in so many SLAs.
The criteria in this guide will help you evaluate your SLAs in a thorough, systematic way. By adding any other criteria that you consider pertinent, you can ensure that your evaluations will suit your specific needs.
If you'd we prefer, we also offer this book with other essential SLA reading in our Naomi Karten Writing Effective SLAs Bundle. This bundle contains all four guides (including this one) on SLAs by Naomi Karten.
We offer network licences for this products. Please contact us for pricing.
Author: Naomi Karten
Publisher: Naomi Karten Associates
Pages: 22
Format: Electronic Download (Zipped .PDF 0.25MB)
Published Date: 01/10/06
Availability: Immediate Download
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