SLA/OLA on Catalog Tasks

[DFAV]

Hello.

I will be implementing SLAs/OLAs on Catalog Tasks.  We have hundreds of catalog items.  I have had a few suggestions and ideas as to how best to organize SLA level tasks, and I'd appreciate any input you may have.  The ideas for organizing task level requests include:

1.  Create an SLA for every task created for each item.  (Hundreds to configure and maintain.)

2.  Create an SLA for the assignment groups.  For example, all tasks assigned to GroupA have a standard SLA of 2 days.  If there are exceptions to this rule, then create a separate SLA for the exception.

3.  Create a new field on the task form, I'll call it "SLA_Level."  Give each task an SLA_Level identifier.  Then create an SLA to correspond to each SLA Level Identifier.  Have the selection criteria of the SLA read something like "If Selection_Level=Identifier1 then Start."  Example SLA definitions - SLA_1day, SLA_2day, SLA_3day and so on.  

Right now, option 3 sounds like the most efficient and simplest to maintain.

Any thoughts?  Any other suggestions for organizing task level SLAs?

Thanks in Advance for your input!

Diane

[DFAV]

Hi Dipesh.

We started down the path of setting SLAs for each TASK associated to delivering an item.  Initially, we created SLAs based on duration - 1 Day, 2 Day, 3 Day etc., and added specific TASKS to the SLA.  This quickly became an administrative nightmare.  Next attempt was to create SLAs for each item.  Some items may have multiple SLAs if they have multiple TASKS with each TASK having a different SLA.  Again, we quickly realized that for a catalog containing over 100 items, this was too required more administration than it was worth.  The best way would have been to create one SLA per Assignment group, and all TASKS assigned to that group would be assigned the same SLA, however, at our company, that did not work because depending on the TASK, the SLA may be different.

We ultimately gave up on the idea of creating SLAs at the TASK level.  We are now using the TASK schedule to generate a TASK Due date which is used to communicate to the assignment group when a TASK is expected to be complete.  The TASK Schedule is based on an SLA to deliver a TASK provided by the AGM.  This takes a lot of work to setup, but overall, less administration than the SLAs.  It does not give us the automated notifications and reporting SLAS provide, but we are happy with the results for now.  Ideally, ServiceNow would develop as a part of the product a way to easily apply and manage SLAs at the TASK level. 

Good luck with your implementation, and I'd be interested to hear the approach you decide to take.

[Dipesh Kalantri]

Hi DFAV,

Thank you for taking time to respond to question.

and thanks for sharing the insights about not just what worked but also different ways you tried

this will surely will help me to figure out what can work for our situation.

Thanks a lot !

Regards,

Dipesh