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KPIs and SLAs

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A short while ago I was asked this question from one of our reader: “I want to set a KPI around how much of the time we meet the SLA. Like 'meeting the SLA x% of the time'. Can someone advise what would be that 'x'? What is the common practice?  Is there an industry standard around this?”  I’m going to have to go with the consultant answer and say it depends.   First, are we talking about a single service to a single customer? Are we talking about multiple services to multiple customers or somewhere in between those two extremes?

Your SLAs should include details of the anticipated performance that your customer expects.  First thing you need to do is discuss with your customer what are the levels of utility and warranty they are expecting? Then document and agree these targets are reachable given the resources that are at your disposal and any constraints that may be discovered. The requirements for functionality (utility) should be defined by your BRM process and documented in the SLR document.

When you say that we want to meet SLA x% of the time, there are many factors that could have an impact on your ability to meet or not meet that target. How well are these services documented in your service portfolio and catalog? How mature is your Service Level Management process, Incident and Problem Management processes?  How often do you have to allow for changes to services, which could possibly impact the availability of your service?   These and other factors can have a distinct impact on meeting SLAs.  So here are a couple of KPIs you might want to explore:
  • KPI: Total number and percentage increase in the number of SLAs in place
  • KPI: Percentage increase in SLAs agreed against operational services being run
  • KPI: Frequency of service review meetings
  • KPI: Reduction in average response time to outages and incidents
  • KPI: Reduction in outstanding (unresolved) problems for services being delivered
  • KPI: Percentage increase on issues being raised at service and SLA review meetings that are being followed up on and resolved
  • KPI: Increase in number of services with timely reports and active service levels
I hope this will be enough to get you started and stay busy for a while.  Good luck! 

For more information on KPIs and SLAs, consider ITSM Academy's ITIL Foundation and check out our Free Resource Center
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