Configuring Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

The setup of your calendars and shifts plays an important part in calculating the target dates for SLA.

Now that you know how to apply it  let's see if the dates are being calculated correctly.

Let's create a calendar first.

1. In the Calendar application, create a calendar.
   
2. In the Calendar field, enter 2013.
   
3. From the Select Action menu, select Define/Apply Shifts.
   
4. In the Define/Apply Shifts window, click New Row.
   
5. Enter the name WORK for the shift name.
   
6. Specify that the shift lasts from Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00. There are 8 hours in the work shift and a one hour lunch break.
   

 

 

Now, create the SLA:

 

1. From the Service Level Agreement application, click New SLA.
2. In the SLA field, specify SLA_SR.
3. In the Applies To field, specify Service Requests.
4. Create commitments for the service level agreement
   1. In the Commitments table window, click New Row.
   2. In the Type field enter  RESPONSE
   3. In the Value field, enter 4. This is the target start time.
   4. In the Unit of Measure field, enter HOURS.
5. Create another commitment.
   1. In the Commitments table window, click New Row.
   2. In the Type field enter  RESOLUTION
   3. In the Value field, enter 32 hours. This is the target finish time.
   4. In the Unit of Measure field, enter HOURS.

 

 

 

Notice that if the SR has an associated asset, we want to use the asset's calendar to calculate the dates and not the SLA default calculation calendar (this options is only enabled by IBM Maximo for Service Providers).

 

Now, let's see how it works on a service request. The details of the service request are as follows:

• Asset: ASSET_TEST (uses DAY calendar, with a 07:00~15:00 shift, 8 work-hours, Mon~Fri)
• Reported Date: 25/Oct/13 12:30 (Friday)

 

In the service request, we select the Apply SLA action, and the following message is shown:

 

We want the SLA to use the asset's calendar to calculate the target dates as first option.

RESPONSE = Reported Date + 4 hours. Using the asset's calendar (shifts end at 15:00), we have only 2:30 hours left for the day. So, we should carry 1:30 to the next working day. The result: Target start date = 28/Oct/13 08:30 (Monday).

RESOLUTION = Reported Date + 32 hours. Again using the asset's calendar (8-hour shift), we have to add 4 working days to the reported day.  The result:  Target finish date = 31/Oct/13 12:30 (Thursday).

 

 

So far, so good.

 

Now let's try a service request, without an asset.

 

SR:

• Reported Date: 25/Oct/13 12:30 (Friday)

 

As the SR doesn't have an asset, the SLA should use the default calculation calendar to calculate the dates (WORK calendar).

 

So we have:

• Target start date = 25/Oct/13 16:30
• Target finish date = 31/Oct/13 08:30

 

 

Note that the target finish date isn't 31/Oct/13 12:30, but 31/Oct/13 08:30.

 

That's because the shift is from 08:00 to 17:00, having a total of 9 hours. Even though the shift is set as 8 working hours, we have no information about this 1 hour break. So the SLA considers just the start/end time of the shift to make the date calculation. Any value added to work hours won't be considered by SLA calculations.

 

For holidays, you should use the Apply non-working days action on the calendar. It won't work if you just use 0 (zero) work hours for that particular day (same for weekends).