What is Service-Level Agreement (SLA) in Jira?

What is SLA?

Service-Level Agreement (SLA) in Jira is a set of agreements between a service provider and a customer. SLA defines the level of service expected from the service provider, including response time, resolution time and availability of the service. It is important because it ensures that the customer’s expectations are met and that the service provider is held accountable for meeting those expectations.

Why is SLA important and required?

SLA is essential and required in Jira because it is a popular tool used by teams to manage their projects, tasks, and issues. Without SLA, teams may not be aware of how quickly they need to respond to and resolve customer issues. This can lead to delays and dissatisfaction among customers.

What SLA metrics should be monitored?

The types of SLA metrics required will depend on the services being provided, and usually include:

1. Service availability – The duration in which the service is accessible to users. For example, this is indicated in the tariff plans of providers, hosting companies, mobile operators, etc.
2. Defect rates – The number or percentage of errors in the main results. Production failures such as incomplete backups and restores, coding/rework errors, and missed deadlines can be included in this category.
3. Technical quality – In outsourced application development, this metric is measured by commercial analysis tools examining factors such as application size and coding defects.
4. Security Level – Measuring controlled security measures, such as antivirus updates and patches, is key in proving that all reasonable precautions have been taken in the event of an incident.
5. Business Results – IT customers increasingly want to include business process metrics in their SLAs. Using existing KPIs is usually the best approach if the supplier’s contribution to those KPIs can be calculated.

What penalties for failing to meet Service-Level Agreements?

SLAs include established Service Credits – penalties that can be imposed when vendors fall below minimum performance requirements. 

Examples of penalties:

• For the host – if the server goes down, he is obliged to return the subscription fee or, in the worst case, to pay the client’s losses.
• The provider will not receive payment because it will be transferred to the following days if there is no channel at that time.
• Mobile operator – if the client does not have a mobile connection, such days will be unpaid.

How to control SLA in Jira Cloud?

Teams can use add-ons like SLA Time and Report for Jira to control SLA in Jira Cloud. This add-on allows teams to set SLA goals and track their progress in real-time. It also provides detailed reports on SLA performance, making it easy for teams to identify and address any issues. You can look at how to configure your SLAs in Jira in “A short guide to get started easily”. 

For instance, the support department must provide an answer or solution to the user in a certain number of hours, depending on the priority of the request. Using the SLA Time and Report for Jira add-on, you can configure SLA automation to change the priority of tickets and send notifications to assignees according to the specified response and resolution time before deadlines.

You can send your Jira SLA notifications directly in the add-on without additional effort. Just set it up according to your needs as follows:

• Messages in the issues’ comments;
• Messages via Slack channel.

All you need is to choose the way you want to send notifications and enjoy the results. You can discover more details about the SLA reporting Jira add-onby SaaSJet and its notifications in the Configuring Jira SLA Notifications: Automation rules, filter subscribe and SLA Time and Report add-on article. 

In addition to time tracking and monitoring, you may require further information, such as reports. The SLA reporting dashboard also allows you to evaluate your compliance with SLA policies by measuring key metrics such as Time to First Response, Time to Resolution and Created vs Resolved using Atlassian gadgets on the Jira Dashboard.

SLA Time and Report provides additional insights with SLA Analytics in Graph Table and Pie Chart format, making it a useful tool for project and support managers. Reports can be exported in various formats (CSV, JPEG, PDF, SVG) for easy presentation at team meetings.

We encourage you to try our add-on with the 30-day trial and configure your SLAs to take advantage of the benefits of SLA in Jira.

In case you are interested in discovering the Jira issue changelog (who and when has made some updates to each issue), we propose you try the Issue History add-on. All details about the changes you can see in a single grid and then export to CSV or XLSX files for further analysis.