Service Level Mgmt

Service Level Management

- Premanand Lotlikar 21st August, 2007

Agenda • • • • • • • • • •

Introduction Objective of Service Level Mgmt Basic Concepts Benefits Relationship with other processes Activities in SLM Process Control Key Performance Indicators Cost Possible Problems

Introduction • SLM is the process of – Defining, negotiating, measuring, managing & improving the quality of IT services – At an acceptable cost

• Includes – Service Level Agreements (SLA) – Operational Level Agreement (OLA) – Underpinning Contracts (UC)

Objectives • To align and manage IT services through: – a process of definition – agreement – operation measurement – review • Create an effective relationship b/w IT organization and its customer

Basic Concepts • Customer: representative of an organization who is authorized to make agreements on behalf of that organization about obtaining IT services – Not same as end user

• Provider: representative of an organization who is authorized to make agreements on behalf of that organization about provision of IT services

Basic Concepts • Service Level Requirement (SLR): – Cover the detailed level of customer needs – Serve as a blueprint for design of a service and associated SLA – Also used for design assessment

• Service Specification Sheet (Spec Sheet): – Describe the relation b/w functionality and technology – Translate SLR into technical definitions

Basic Concepts • Service Level Agreement (SLA): – Agreement b/w IT organization and customer, detailing the services to be provided – Describes the services in non-technical terms – In-line with customer perception – Serves as a standard for measuring and adjusting the IT services

• Service Improvement Plan (SIP): – Defines the activities, phases and milestones associated with improving an IT service

Basic Concepts • Service Quality Plan (SQP): – Contains all the management info needed to manage the IT organizations – SLA is about ‘what’ and SQP is about ‘how’ – Includes targets for each process • Incident Mgmt: resolution times for various impact levels • Change Mgmt: cycle times and cost of std changes

– Performance Indicators derived from SLR and documented in spec sheets

Benefits • IT services designed to meet the expectations • Service performance can be measured • Balance b/w cost and quality of service can be drawn • Both IT organization and the customer are aware of its roles and responsibilities • Improved customer relationship and customer satisfaction

Relationship with other processes • Availability Mgmt: – SLM provides Availability Mgmt with inputs on the required availability of the IT services – Availability Mgmt provides the information of the actual availability to SLM

Relationship with other processes • Capacity Mgmt: – Capacity Mgmt supports SLM by providing the information about the impact of a new service or the extension of an existing service on the overall capacity – It also indicates whether the use made up of a particular service is within the agreed limits – SLM provides CM with the information about the expected current and the future use

Relationship with other processes • Incident and Problem Mgmt are good indicators of effective implementation of SLA • SLM uses the information provided by these processes when reporting to the customer

Relationship with other processes • SLA can define the changes that can be requested by the customer • Also the agreements to respond to these changes – Whom to address the changes to – Cycle time – Costs

• A change may also affect the service level

Relationship with other processes • The creation or modification of a service or SLA affects the CMDB • CMDB is used to report the quality of CIs to enable SLM to report the quality of service

Activities • • • • • •

Identifying Defining Contract Monitoring Reporting Reviewing

Identification • Perceived quality of the IT service depends on – – – –

Expectations of the customer Ongoing management of customer perception Stability of the service Acceptability of the cost

• Customers are not clear about their expectations – Assumed aspects of IT services cause much confusion

• Requirements of the customers must be expressed in measurable values

Definition • Defining the scope and depth of customer’s requirement is considered as a design process in SLM • Has three sub-processes – Defining external standards – Translation to internal standards – Service Quality Plan

Defining external standards • Defining or redefining the customers expectation about the IT service • Expectations are formalized in SLR • Involves the whole customer organization • Generally the most difficult part

Defining external standards • Following info is required to define SLR: – Description of the functions to be provided by the service – Times and days on which the service must be available – Service continuity requirements – Reference to current operational methods – Reference to SLA to be modified or replace, wherever relevant

Translation to internal standards • SLRs are developed in details: – Unambiguous and detailed description of the IT services and the required components – Specification of the way in which the service will be implemented and provided – Specification of the required quality control procedure

Translation to internal standards

Service Quality Plan • Includes all KPIs and specifications for internal and external providers

Contract • After the specification phase, the business needs have been translated into resources and configurations • This is used to draw the following documents: – SLA – UC – OLA – Service Catalogue

SLA • Structure of SLA depends on a number of variables: – Physical aspect of organization • Scale • Complexity • Geographical distribution

– Cultural aspects • • • • •

Language of the document Relationship b/w IT organization and customer Charging policy Uniformity of business activities Profit or Non-profit organization

– Nature of business • General terms and condition • Business hours (whether 24X7)

Service Catalogue • Following tips are useful when writing the service catalogue – User customers language, avoid technical jargon – Look from customers perspective – Provide an attractive layout, as this doc is used to present before the customer – Ensure that this doc is available to the largest number of potential stakeholder

Monitoring • SLM can only be monitored if the service levels are clearly defined • Availability and Capacity Mgmt generally provide info about the technical implementation • Parameters such as response time, escalation and support time must also be measured

Reports • Reports include: – – – – – –

Availability and downtime Avg response time during peak hours Transaction rates during peak hours Number of functional errors in the system Avg number of users during peak hours No of successful/unsuccessful attempts to circumvent security – No of completed and open changes – Cost of service provided

Review • Following must be considered in a review: – SLA since the previous review – Problems related to the service – Identification of the service trend – Estimates of cost of additional resources – Consequences of failure of provision of the agreed service level

Review • Actions to be taken if IT service fail to meet the agreed service level: – Developing a Service Improvement Program – Allocating additional resources – Modifying the service levels – Modifying the OLA and UC – Modifying the operational procedures

Critical Success Factors • Capable Service Level Manger with both IT and business expertise • Clear process mission and objectives • Clearly defined tasks, authorities and responsibilities • Awareness

Key Performance Indicators • • • •

No of times SLA was not fulfilled Cost of measuring and monitoring SLA Customer satisfaction Statistics about incidents, problems and changes • Progress of improvement action

Cost

Possible Problems • Difficult to express customers needs in terms of measurable standards and associated cost • Overhead cost of measuring and monitoring service level is underestimated • SLM documents could start becoming ends in themselves • Difficult to extract the exact needs of the customer

Thank you!