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OLA/SLA Process for Existing Services

The OLA/SLA process for existing services is meant as a guide for the Service Manager and Service Team to aid in the creation of the OLA and SLA by utilizing the service definition checklist, the public service page and internal service catalog. Parties involved in this process include the

  • Service Manager or Project Manager as author of the OLA/SLA and leader of the team
  • A subset of the service team as service providers of the service
  • Service Sponsor as the responsible ITS staff member (most likely a member of SMT) of the service
  • Senior Managers as reviewers and acceptors of the OLA and SLA of the service given identified gaps
  • Divisional Liaisons as reviewers and acceptors of the OLA and SLA of the service given identified gaps
  • Knowledgeable/friendly end users to complete the OLA/SLA review for expected boundaries and customer/client facing information

1) Create the team.

  1. Identify the Service Manager for the service if one does not exist
  2. Create a small working team, which ideally is a subset of the Service Team.

2) Analyze the state of the service using the service definition checklist, which is a document that dissects the 5 questions to be answered about a service. The service catalog page (for the service’s current service definition) may also be referenced during this analysis. It is expected that the service catalog page will need modification as this process proceeds.
Note: this is part of the larger Service Delivery Model

The analysis will identify some larger or broad-spectrum gaps in the service. If the gaps identified are due to:

  • Conflicting or uncoordinated service delivery model
  • Conflicting service features and functions

Get clarity and/or direction from the Service Sponsor. Do not proceed with the OLA/SLA process until clarity or direction is attained.

If the identified service gaps are due to:

  • Unknown customer requirements
    Document in the service definition checklist that the OLA and SLA represent an “as-is” state. Proceed with the OLA/SLA process knowing this OLA and SLA are a baseline for a service that will need more attention once service definition and delivery are better understood.
  • Significant (hardware, software, application) deficits exist or improvements are desired
    Capture potential service changes. This represents work that the service team will work on at a different time. Proceed with the OLA/SLA process.

3) Are all showstoppers resolved? If so, proceed. If not, cycle back through Service Sponsor and Senior Managers, if necessary until each showstopper has been adequately addressed.

4) Continue with service definition by filling out the OLA/SLA for the service.For an existing service, typically, completing the OLA is the best place to start. The OLA includes documenting the

  • Technical description
  • Service dependencies
  • Service providers of the service
  • The assumptions of the client/user of the service
  • Roles and responsibilities of the service providers
  • Incident types and ticket handling process
  • Service requests and ticket handling process
  • Change management process
  • Service delivery exceptions

When completing each section of the OLA, it is also good to ensure that procedures exist to support the service definition and roles and responsibilities. Document gaps in procedures in the service definition checklist. In most cases, procedures for handing off work and/or how situations with a service are escalated must exist before the OLA can be considered complete.

The SLA is then filled out noting differences or deviations from the ITS and Campus SLA. Although the team should review all sections of the SLA, the service scope section will require the most attention and thought as this is where the service levels and metrics are located. As a variety of metrics are researched only some will be chosen. The entire list of metrics are documented and added to the internal service catalog. Those metrics chosen are fleshed out through the metrics worksheet. Some of these may not be chosen for a variety of reasons. Those metrics worksheets will be stored in the internal service catalog. Once a set of metrics is decided upon and are documented in the SLA, a quarterly report will need to be generated or at a minimum, the format determined. The quarterly report is an additional output of this process.

During the process of filling out the OLA and SLA, the service definition checklist, public service catalog page, and internal service catalog are also being updated with clarifications and updated, new, or newly surfaced documentation. This is an iterative process until the service manager and service team agree that all the sources of information are in alignment with one another.

With respect to the OLA, SLA, public service page and internal service catalog, a goal is to reduce as much redundancy as possible. First and foremost, the public service page will be the most complete externally facing service definition. When describing the service scope in the SLA, refer to the service page where possible for details regarding the service.

5) Review the completeness of the OLA and SLA. This is akin to a mini- service review meeting.

  • For the SLA, this would include several knowledgeable end users of the service to provide feedback about the content of the SLA and service page. The purpose of the SLA and service catalog review is to ensure that the documents are client facing and needs to address service level requirements are present in the documentation.
  • For the OLA, this review would include directors and managers involved in the service to review the OLA and other supporting documents in the internal service catalog to ensure all involved in the service are aligned to the service definition.

Alter the documents as appropriate based on feedback from these meetings. Decide if you want to proceed or do another review meeting.

6) Complete the approval process.

  • For the SLA, Divisional Liaisons (DLs)
  • For the OLA, Senior Managers involved

7) Each review may require tweaks to any of the sources of information.Once the review cycle concludes

  • The updated service page should replace the existing service, if appropriate
  • The OLA added to the OLA folder in the collab tool
  • The OLA is linked to the internal service catalog
  • The SLA is added to the SLA folder in the service catalog/sla folder
  • A link is added to the service page to the SLA
  • The quarterly report is added to the service catalog/metrics folder
  • The metrics web page is updated with the metric(s) from this service
  • The quarterly report is linked to the metrics web page.


Additional Information:

For questions, additional information, or feedback please contact Client Services and Security using the ITS Feedback form.