SLAs for incident

[BiswaRanjanRout]

What are best-practice SLAs for incident priorities P1–P4?

[Itallo Brandão · Accepted solution]

Hi @BiswaRanjanRout ,

While "Best Practice" varies heavily by industry (e.g., a Bank vs. a Retail store), there is a widely accepted Standard Baseline used in most IT Service Management (ITSM) contracts.

Here is the standard Priority Matrix & SLA Baseline:

Standard Incident SLAs

Priority	Definition	Response Time (Acknowledge)	Resolution Time (Fix)
P1 - Critical	Entire service down. Business halted.	15 Minutes	4 Hours
P2 - High	Service degraded or critical function broken. Workaround available.	30 Minutes	8 Hours
P3 - Moderate	Single user affected or minor impact.	4 Hours	3 Business Days
P4 - Low	Cosmetic issue, question, or low impact.	1 Business Day	5 Business Days

Key Considerations for ServiceNow Implementation:

1. Business Hours (Calendars):

   • P1 & P2: Usually run on a 24x7 Schedule (The clock never stops).

   • P3 & P4: Usually run on 8x5 Weekdays (The clock pauses on weekends/nights).

2. Response vs. Resolution:

   • Response SLA: Triggers when the ticket is assigned to a group. It stops when the "Assigned to" field is filled or status changes to "In Progress".

   • Resolution SLA: Triggers on creation. It pauses on "On Hold" (Awaiting User/Vendor) and stops on "Resolved".

3. Retroactive Start:

   • Always enable "Retroactive Start" on your SLA Definitions. If a P3 is upgraded to a P1 after 1 hour, the P1 SLA should calculate from when the ticket was created, not when the priority changed.
     
     
     

Recommended Community Resources

If you want to dive deeper into the architectural decisions behind these numbers, I highly recommend checking these specific Community Articles:

1. The Complete Practitioner's Guide to ServiceNow SLAs

   • Why read this: A comprehensive guide covering everything from foundation to advanced implementation, including common pitfalls in SLA design.

2. Incident Management - Process Guide (Official)

   • Why read this: This is the official ServiceNow "Gold Standard" process document. It explains the theory behind why P1 is 4 hours and how to align it with ITIL.

3. SLA Best Practices Discussion

   • Why read this: A great thread discussing the difference between "Service SLAs" vs "Team SLAs" and how to handle Response vs Resolution timers.

If this baseline helps you define your SLA policy, please mark it as Accepted Solution.

Best regards,

Brandão.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @BiswaRanjanRout 

Greetings 

Being a BPC this is something I deal on day to day basis. Alot already covered by @Itallo Brandão but when you say best practice that is something different.

When it come to SLA it varies from business to busines s but the foundation is same. 

Make sure the SLA definition has a meaningful name.

Retroactive start and pause must be used based on business case. Generally P1/2 has retroactive start/pause.

Standardize and consolidation of SLA on across departments is good way for implementation.

You can have different SLA based on channel by which record created.

Every sla must have a end to end lifecycle, means start to closed or cancelled.

Rest you can follow SN best practice site to get more on same.

If any specific question, please ask.

[Tejas Adhalrao]

Hi @BiswaRanjanRout ,

refer this article

https://ut.service-now.com/sp?id=kb_article&number=KB0011708

 If you found my solution helpful, please mark it as Helpful or Accepted Solution...!

thanks,

tejas

Email: adhalraotejas1018@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejas1018

[AndersBGS]

Hi @BiswaRanjanRout ,

I don't see that there is a best practice for SLA P1-P4, as SLA (Service Level Agreement), is the agreement between a vendor and a company. Based on this, the business and the contract the business have with a specified vendor, should justify what the SLA should be.