SLA Clock triggers and customization

[Sherry Gere]

Is the SLA clock only triggered by one stage in the workflow or can we customize what changes the work flow? If we cannot change what triggers the SLA clock, can we add more stages prior to the stage that triggers the SLA clock? 

[Andreas Borell]

The way Servicenow SLA definitions are configured and used, you have multiple choices without creating or changing any workflows.

First, a distinction: the actual contractual Service Level Agreement is not necessarily possible (or even necessary) to capture in Servicenow. I'll refer to this as "the promise" below, as many other terms are objects or otherwise used in Service.

You may promise to resolve all incidents with Priority 1 within 4 hours.

That promise may be represented by one SLA definition in the system. But it can also be broken down into multiple SLA definitions that work in parallel. Each incident can, at a given time, have several SLA definitions that are valid and therefore running.

For instance:

SLA definition 1 starts when new incident is created, the SLA condition is paused when incident is resolved and finalized when the incident is closed.

SLA definition 2 start when new incident is created , is paused when incident is resolved or on-hold waiting for client, and finalized when the incident is closed.

Either definition 1 or 2 may be what is you "promise", but you can setup both in your system because both may be valuable to collect data on and drive behavior. If your promise is against definition 1, and you often miss your targets, but definition 2 clearly shows this is because the clients are not available for feedback or answers, this creates healthy discussion points during service reviews (in mature organizations).

Having multiple, well crafted SLA definitions, enhances the use of the Service Operations Workspace - as different definitions may cause a task/incident/request to get closer to breach or already breached, hence triggering attention from the analyst working in the workspace on what is most urgent.

You can collect SLA definitions into service contracts, but it is not necessary as a starting point.

You can get quite far with the OOTB possibilities by crafting smart SLA definitions and break it down like described above, but ofcourse you can also create extensions if you really need to. As always, extensions add legacy and debt that needs to be maintained.

https://docs.servicenow.com/csh?topicname=service-level-management-reference.html&version=latest

https://docs.servicenow.com/csh?topicname=c_ExtendSLAConditionRules.html&version=latest