天光雲影

Critical Successful Factors  

◎Fail SLAs are based on what is easily measured, rather than on what should be measured.

◎SLAs that lack buy-in from end users : 1. Involvement. 2. Relevance

◎The ultimate measure of performance is customer’s perception and satisfaction.

◎The traditional operational quality metrics (availability & response time) are still the most important quality characteristics to measured.

◎Change & increasingly complex technology interfaces pose challenges to define metrics, and these must be recognized and addressed early in the definition process.

Best Practices  

◎ Use service-level definitions that :

-ARE Business needed

-Can be defined, measured, examined, corrected, and continuously guided to maintain gains achieved

-At both meaningful to end users and relevant to their needs

◎Ensure that provide-side definitions and metrics－ which both define the roles and responsibilities of the various parties and aid in managing overall service delivery －support end to end service levelmeasurement

◎Completely and unambiguously all the ways in which service-level metrics will be calculated and penalties or incentives will be applied. Include the data sources and calculation formulas to be used, and precise definitions of terms. (note that even a “commonly understood “ term like “business day” may vary in its meaning from one location to another.) 

◎Keep metrics to minimum needed to accurately monitor and manage each unique IT service

◎Align pricing with service-level priority differentials, and with the service provider’s achievement of service-level targets 

◎Use exception reporting on a daily basis to trigger problem resolution practices, and use summary (I.e., Dashboard) on a monthly basis to report overall performance. Supporting details should be made available on an as–needed basis

 ◎Service-level problem reports should include

-A description of the problem as reported

-Steps taken in response to initial problem report

-Identification of the underlying problem, if known, and the steps to be taken to resolve it