Administration · LessonBy Praveen T, ServiceNow Trainer, 9 yrs · Published · ServiceNow · all levels
SLA definitions in practice
Build SLAs that measure the right thing: conditions, schedules, pause behaviour and repair reporting.
Quick answer
Build SLAs that measure the right thing: conditions, schedules, pause behaviour and repair reporting.
Key takeaways
- Task SLA records hold the clock and the reporting data
- Pause behaviour must be agreed before go live
- Schedules make business hours meaningful
- Overlapping conditions attach two SLAs to one task
Anatomy of an SLA
A definition holds start, pause, stop and reset conditions, a duration, and a schedule. The task SLA record created from it holds the running clock, and that is what you report on.
Pause conditions
Most disputes come from pause behaviour. Decide explicitly whether awaiting customer stops the clock, and get that agreed with the business before go live, because retrofitting it makes historical reporting inconsistent.
Reporting and repair
Task SLA records are the reporting source.
- Report on the task_sla table, not on incident fields
- Use the SLA repair job carefully, it recalculates and can rewrite history
- Set retroactive start when the clock should begin at record creation
- Watch for SLAs attaching twice, that is a condition overlap in the definitions
Practice challenge
+0 XPStreak ×0
Question 1 of 2
Which table should SLA reports use?
Frequently asked questions
Why does an SLA show breached immediately?
Retroactive start is on and the record was created earlier than expected, or the schedule excludes the period since creation.
Can we change a definition after go live?
Yes, but existing task SLA records keep their original duration unless you repair them. Decide deliberately whether history should change.