Commercial
Service level agreement (SLA)
Measurable commitments about response, resolution or availability.
Definition
A contractual annex defining measurable service commitments, typically response and resolution times by severity, availability targets, and the credits or remedies that apply when they are missed. It is standard for support and operations work and rare for project delivery.
Why it matters
An SLA without measurement and a remedy is a sentiment. Check who classifies severity, what counts as a response, and whether the clock runs outside business hours. Most disputes are about severity classification, because the party paying the penalty is usually the party assigning the level.
Related
Read next
Escalation path
The named route for raising something that is not being resolved.
Read the definition ›On-call rotation
A published schedule of who responds to incidents outside working hours.
Read the definition ›KPI (key performance indicator)
A small number of measures agreed to represent whether things are working.
Read the definition ›Ticket deflection
Preventing support contacts by answering the question before it is asked.
Read the definition ›Next step
Ready to build or scale your team?
Tell us what you need and we will match you with pre-vetted Lebanese professionals ready to integrate with your team.