Original post in Brazillian portuguese by Emerson Dorow. He authorized me to post in english language.
http://www.profissionaisti.com.br/2010/01/itil-e-o-gerenciamento-de-niveis-de-servico-sla/
(Some sentences and expressions were adapted for better undertanding)
The Service Level Agreements (SLAs) allow the IT department and the organization to agree on what services should be provided, the required availability and costs. These levels should be measurable for both sides to check whether the levels are being met. Measurement is a fundamental aspect to this process, as are the indicators that will tell you whether the service is delivered within the agreed cost and availability.
Service Level Management is the process that forms the link between the department and organization. To successfully implement this process it is necessary that other ITIL processes have already been implemented, how to ensure the availability of a service if there are no tools and processes for handling incidents, problems and changes?
The main focus of this process is to ensure the quality of IT services that are provided at an acceptable cost to the business.
The activities of the Service Level Management proposed by ITIL follow the cycle below:
- Identification: This section is created the catalog of services and identified the business requirements in relation to IT services.
- Definition: In the definition phase, is made a draft showing how services are delivered.
- Negotiation: it is developted the Service Level Agreement itself, also the operational level agreement, which is in agreement with the internal teams to support the SLA, and also the support contracts that are contracts with third parties.
- Monitoring: The service levels are monitored in order to measure the quality of delivery of services.
- Report: The reports show the service levels achieved and agreed.
- Review: Through the analysis of data from the monitoring it is verified points that can be improved in the delivery of services.
This process is critical for IT to be effectively aligned with the business, because the business is the one that will deliver the main input to start the process. The expectations of stakeholders are known and thus easier to be met. Also, the business will determine which SLA is required. The measurement of service availability will cause IT to be better controlled and managed and their actions become more transparent to the organization, so that the perception of IT to the organization is improved.
Thanks!
