Defining Service Level Agreement

(SLA) for e-Government Projects

.. an instrument to ensure quality of Service

J Satyanarayana, IAS
CEO
National Institute for Smart Government
B Block, IIIT Campus, GachiBowli
Hyderabad - 500032 (AP) INDIA
Tel. 91 40 2300 6683-84 40 2300 2983-84
Fax 91 40 2300 6685
Website: www.nisg.org

© NISG
 What is an SLA?
An SLA is an agreement that records
the common understanding between the
Customer and the Service Provider about

Services, Priorities, Responsibilities, Guarantees and

Enforcement mechanism

with the main purpose to agree on

the level of service.

SLAs commonly include segments to address:

• a definition of services;
• performance measurement;
• problem management;
• customer duties;
• warranties;
• disaster recovery;
• termination of agreement.
© NISG
 About SLA
• Justification for SLA
• Govt is buying services not hardware, software & networks

• Specifies quantity & quality of services

• Payments – part or full – are linked to

performance against SLA

• Contains rewards & penalties

• Drives the partners – both public & private – to

better performance
© NISG
 SLA Lifecycle
Service
Levels Service
Level
SLOs Measurement
System

Business SLA
Objectives Services Lifecycle SLA

Service
Level
Mgt
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 Converting Business Objectives to Services

Outsourced Services
Desired
Outcomes Information
Customer
Services Transactions

Business Business
Objectives Services

Efficiency
Internal
Productivity
Business Services
Effectiveness
Drivers
Technical
Insourced Services
Services

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 Example of using SLA Framework
Citizen Perspective
Passports MMP
Ministry Perspective
Quality of Service
-Error-free
• Efficiency
• Convenience • Employee Satisfaction
- choice of • Security, Availability
time,
• Scalability
place &
channel
• Comfort
Service Level • Support System

-layout
-ambience
Objectives
Employee Perspective
-amenities
• Quality of Treatment • Working Conditions
-responsiveness
-layout
• Grievance redressal
• Transparency -ambience
-queue management -amenities
-status tracking) • Availability (of system)
• Response Time (of system)
• Support Services

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 Illustrative SLA Metrics of a G2B project
(1/3)
Baseline Lower performance Higher performance Breach

Service Metrics Parameters Metric Credit Metric Credit Metric Credit Metric

I- Service-related, Citizen-
facing (65)

1.Average wait-period at
Service Centre
Peak dates , Peak hours <15 min 15 15-25 min 10 < 12 min 20 >30 min

2.Average wait-period at
Service Centre
Peak dates, Non-Peak 10 -15
hours < 10 min 12 min 8 < 8 min 16 >20 min

3.Average wait-period at
Service Centre
Non-Peak dates , Peak
hours < 5 min 9 5-10 min 6 No additional credit
>10 min
( No incentive)
4.Average wait-period at
Service Centre
Non-Peak dates , Non- Peak
hours No waiting 7 0 – 3 min 5

5.Average time for service at

B1 Service Counter - © NISG
Peak dates, peak hours
<4 min 9 4-5 min 6 < 2 min 12 >6 min
 Illustrative SLA Metrics of a G2B project
(2/3)
Baseline Lower performance Higher performance Breach

Service Metrics
Parameters Metric Credit Metric Credit Metric Credit Metric

6.Average time for

service at Service
Counter -
Peak dates, Non-peak
hours

<2min 5 2-4 min 3 < 1min 7 >5 min (-) 3

7.Availability of agreed
services over the 99..0 to
Internet 99.0% 5 98.0% 3 <95.0% (-) 3

No credit for higher

performance
© NISG
8.Average Portal page 7 to 10
loading 7 sec 3 sec 1 >15 sec (-) 1
 Illustrative SLA Metrics of a G2B project
(3/3)
Baseline Lower performance Higher performance Breach

Technology Metrics Parameters Metric Credit Metric Credit Metric Credit Metric Debit

II-Technological, performance-
related(15)

Equivalent of
capacity to handle < 6000
9. Capacity of the Application 10000 service transactions
Server transactions per hour 6 per hour (-) 6

Equivalent of
capacity to handle < 6000
10. Capacity of the Database 10000 service No toleration for lower transactions
Server transactions per hour 6 No extra credit for higher per hour (-) 6
performance. No credit
performance. Baseline
will be given for
11. Concurrent connects to performance is
performance below
Application Server >750 3 mandatory. < 500 (-) 3
baseline.

III-Technological, maintenance-
related (20)

12. Uptime of Data Centre > 99% 8 < 96% (-) 8

13. Uptime of Service Centre > 98% 4 < 95% (-) 4

14. Time to restore Data Centre

from failure < 1 hour 5 < 3 hours (-) 5
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15. Time to restore Service
Centre from failure < 2 hours 3 < 5 hours (-) 3