Operational Level
Agreement (OLA)
Between
[Add your department and acronym ()] Technology Systems Division (TSD)
Information Technology Unit (ITU)
and
XYZ
For XYZ Service
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014
Document Version History
Version #
Date
Revised By
Reason for Change
Associate Service Level Agreement (SLA)
Version #
Date
Revised By
Reason for Change
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
08/30/13
pg. 2
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014
Table of Contents
1
General Overview .............................................................................................4
2
Responsible Parties..........................................................................................4
2.1
Stakeholders ...............................................................................................................................................4
*NOTE: Availability is defined in Section 4, Hours of Coverage, Response Time
and Escalations. .......................................................................................................4
3
Service Description ..............................................................................................4
3.1
Scope of Service .........................................................................................................................................5
3.2
Customer Requirements ........................................................................................................................5
3.2.1 General ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
3.2.2 Standard Hours of System Operation (if applicable) ................................................................. 5
3.2.3 Minimum System Stability Objectives (if applicable) ................................................................. 5
3.2.4 Charges (if applicable).............................................................................................................................. 5
3.3
Assumptions ...............................................................................................................................................5
4
4.1
5
Service Provider Requirements (Roles and Responsibilities) .................................5
Service Provider Responsibilities ......................................................................................................6
Incident and Service Request Management .........................................................7
5.1
Service Requests .......................................................................................................................................7
5.1.1 Work Requests (if applicable)/Standard Service Requests ..................................................... 8
5.1.2 Non-standard Service Requests/Ad-hoc Work Requests .......................................................... 8
5.1.3 Service Change Request............................................................................................................................ 8
5.1.4 Service Maintenance/Change Management................................................................................... 8
5.1.5 Non-standard Service Windows ........................................................................................................... 8
6
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
7
Incident Management .........................................................................................9
Normal Incident Processing .................................................................................................................9
Major Incident Management ................................................................................................................9
Escalation Procedures ............................................................................................................................9
Urgency Incident Criteria ......................................................................................................................9
Urgent Outage Management.................................................................................................................9
Service Exceptions................................................................................................................................. 10
Problem Management .......................................................................................................................... 10
Reviewing and Reporting ................................................................................... 10
Older OLAs:
(Include link to previous year’s OLA if available)
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
08/30/13
pg. 3
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014
1 General Overview
(Include/revise Purpose, Goal and/or Objectives relative to the specific goals and/or
services of the organization.
Tip: Complete other parts of this template and come back to this section for specific
goals and objectives.)
This document is an Operational Level Agreement (OLA) between (IT service
providers) to document the working relationships for supporting (Name the service
supported. If this OLA is associated with and SLA, state the name of the service as listed
in the SLA.). This OLA shall remain valid until revised or terminated.
The goal of this Agreement is to obtain mutual agreement for service provision
between ITS units.
The objectives of this Agreement are to:
 Provide clear reference to service ownership, accountability, roles and/or
responsibilities.
 Present a clear, concise and measurable description of service provision to
the customer.
 Match perceptions of expected service provision with actual service support
& delivery.
2 Responsible Parties
2.1 Stakeholders
(List all relevant contact persons, for example:)
The following Service Provider(s) will be used as the basis of the Agreement and represent the
primary Stakeholders associated with this OLA:
Service Provider
Title/Role
Contact Information*
[Service Provider 1 by
Function]
[Title/Role]
[Contact Information]
[Service Provider 2 by
Function]
[Title/Role]
[Contact Information]
[Service Provide 3 by
Function]
[Title/Role]
[Contact Information]
*NOTE: Availability is defined in Section 4, Hours of Coverage,
Response Time and Escalations.
3 Service Description
(Find existing descriptions of existing services in the ITU Service Catalog.)
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
08/30/13
pg. 4
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014
3.1 Scope of Service
(Technical description of the servers goes here.)
(Service Name) features include:

(List notable features)
3.2 Customer Requirements
The Customer responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this
Agreement include

(List user requirements)
3.2.1 General
 (List non-measured levels.)
 Adherence to any related policies, processes and procedures
outlined in (identify specific related material)
 Advanced scheduling of all service related requests and other
special services with the Service Provider.
 Reasonable availability of customer representative(s) when
resolving a service related incident or request.
3.2.2 Standard Hours of System Operation (if applicable)
3.2.3 Minimum System Stability Objectives (if applicable)
3.2.4 Charges (if applicable)
3.3 Assumptions
(Add assumptions specific to the service.)




That (Service name) service is clearly documented in the service
catalog.
This document represents the current configuration to support the
(Service name) service. Changes to the (service name) service are
addressed as separate service projects outside the scope of this
document.
Major upgrades are treated as a project outside the scope of this
Agreement.
Funding for major upgrades/updates are negotiated on a serviceby-service basis.
4 Service Provider Requirements (Roles and
Responsibilities)
(List Service Provider responsibilities; these can be categorized by department,
application or specific toservice parameters.)
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
08/30/13
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
pg. 5
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014
4.1 Service Provider Responsibilities
Service Provider 1 responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this
Agreement include:
Service Provider 1 agrees to:
 Meet response times associated with the priority assigned to
incidents and service requests.
 Generate quarterly reports on service levels for Customer.
 Train designated staff on appropriate service support tools, as
required.
 Log all Provider resource hours associated with services provided
for review by the
Customer, if applicable.
 Notify the Customer about all scheduled maintenance via the
Maintenance Calendar, ITU Service Catalog web page, or
appropriate communications method.
 Facilitate of all service support activities involving incident,
problem, change, release and configuration management.
 Meet response times associated with the priority assigned to
incidents and service requests.
 Use the outage notification process to notify Customers for all
scheduled maintenance via the ITU Event Calendar, Service
Catalog web page and/or a communication to campus via agreed
upon methods.
 Participate in all service support activities including incident,
problem, change, release and configuration management.
 Meet OLA metrics as stated in the (service name) OLA located (OLA
link)
 (List any other appropriate items.
Service Provider 2 responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this
Agreement include:
Service Provider 2 agrees to:
 Meet response times associated with the priority assigned to
incidents and service requests.
 Generate quarterly reports on service levels for Customer.
 Train designated staff on appropriate service support tools, as
required.
 Log all Provider resource hours associated with services provided
for review by the
Customer, if applicable.
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
08/30/13
pg. 6
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014







Notify the Customer about all scheduled maintenance via the
Maintenance Calendar, ITU Service Catalog web page, or
appropriate communications method.
Facilitate of all service support activities involving incident,
problem, change, release and configuration management.
Meet response times associated with the priority assigned to
incidents and service requests.
Use the outage notification process to notify Customers for all
scheduled maintenance via the ITU Event Calendar, Service
Catalog web page and/or a communication to campus via agreed
upon methods.
Participate in all service support activities including incident,
problem, change, release and configuration management.
Meet OLA metrics as stated in the (service name) OLA located (OLA
link)
(List any other appropriate items.
(Add additional service providers, as needed.)
5 Incident and Service Request Management
(This section validates the supported processes to manage service delivery.
Document Exceptions.)
5.1 Service Requests
(Provide clear and unambiguous definitions of how long it will take the parties to
respond. For example, if the OLA is between the Service Desk and the mainframe
group, this section might include the definition of initial response to inquiry; time
to review and evaluate; time to perform diagnostics; etc. These times must align
with the escalation times as well.)
Example: In support of service outlined in this Agreement, the Service Provider
will respond to service related incidents and/or requests submitted by the
Customer within the following timeframes:
(Outline how to request the service and expected response and deliver times.
Outline working durations and customer/client interactions. This is not the service
level but are key performance indicators (KPIs) that are monitored and reported
on.
Service Providers may or may not be translated internal metric into the metrics
used for the SLA. The SLA will state the outer bounds of the service delivery
timeframe and service related
metrics.)
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
08/30/13
pg. 7
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014
5.1.1 Work Requests (if applicable)/Standard Service Requests
(Describe service requests related to this service. Examples of this could
be application upgrades, OS patches, architecture changes, consultation
about use of the service, setting up mail lists, etc.)
5.1.2 Non-standard Service Requests/Ad-hoc Work Requests
(Describe one-time or limited-time work.)
(Describe how each non-standard service request or ad-hoc work request
is to be processed so that it gets evaluated by the most appropriate
service team.)
5.1.3 Service Change Request
Service Providers send Change Requests are sent to the Change
Management Review Board for evaluation. (Link to Change
Management section Requests for Change Process.) Service Providers
schedule maintenance and service during regular maintenance
windows, as appropriate. The Service Providers at their discretion
will schedule Service changes that Service Providers cannot schedule
during regular maintenance windows, unless defined in this OLA.
(List changes that the customer has preapproved and can be
performed by the service provider without additional customer
approval.)
Service Maintenance/Change Management
5.1.4 Service Maintenance/Change Management
All services and/or related components require regularly scheduled
maintenance (“Maintenance Window”) in order to meet established service levels.
5.1.5 Non-standard Service Windows
(If a regular non-standard service window is required, please list
below.)
(Fill in times.)
Time
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Begin
End
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
08/30/13
pg. 8
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014
6 Incident Management
6.1 Normal Incident Processing
(Service Providers supporting this service will prioritize incoming service
incidents as scheduled, standard or emergency priority unless the service
incident fits one or more of the criteria listed below.)
6.2 Major Incident Management
(Service Providers supporting this service will prioritize incoming
incident requests as an urgent incident if it meets agreed upon criteria.
For example:)
 Significant number of people affected.
 Organizational structure is a multiplier for number of people affected.
 Percentage of total tasks that can no longer be performed by
individuals.
 Academic and Administrative Calendar deadlines.
 Significant impact on the delivery of instruction.
 Significant or lasting impact on student academic performance.
 Significant risk to law, rule, or policy compliance.

6.3 Escalation Procedures
(Define the conditions that would necessitate an escalation and the procedures
to be followed.)
6.4 Urgency Incident Criteria
(Describe Urgency Criteria, if different from publish Urgency Levels.) (link to
Urgency Levels.)
6.5 Urgent Outage Management
(Evaluate if your service has any Urgency Incident situations. If so, complete
this section. Otherwise state as such and delete the text below.)
Under these circumstances, begin Urgency Outage Management:
 Circumstance 1
 Circumstance 2
Major Incident Handling
Team
Contact Information
Tech Lead
Add name and phone
Major Incident Coordinator – 85
Major Incident Coordinator –
After Hours
SC Subject Matter Expert
Add name and phone
Add name and phone
Add name and phone
Back up
Contact
Information
Add name and
phone
Add name and
phone
Add name and
phone
Add name and
phone
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
08/30/13
pg. 9
(Service Name) Operational Level Agreement 03/2014
Communications Support
Add name and phone
Add name and
phone
(Additional information regarding the roles, responsibilities, and process
flows of the Urgency Incident Management process is located here.)
6.6 Service Exceptions
Any deviations from current policies, processes and standards are noted
by the following Service Exceptions:
(Insert special exceptions related to coverage times and dates; typically
the first item is the only item in the list)
Exception
Parameters
Coverage
University Holidays
N/A
No coverage
Fiscal Year Close
Last business day in
June
Additional coverage, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. U.S.
Eastern time
6.7 Problem Management
(This section is a placeholder for the problem management process. If your
service has a way of analyzing and resolving problems - root cause analysis - ,
note it here. Otherwise enter N/A)
7 Reviewing and Reporting
This Agreement is valid from (date). At a minimum, the Stakeholders will review
this Agreement once per fiscal year; however; in lieu of a review during any period
specified, the current Agreement will remain in effect until next review.
The service provider(s) will be responsible for facilitating regular reviews of this
document. The primary Stakeholders may amend parts of this Agreement, but must
communicate any changes to all affected parties in a timely manner. The service
provider(s) will incorporate all subsequent revisions and obtain mutual
Agreements/approvals as required.
The service providers will hold this Agreement in a repository and make it available
to all Stakeholders upon request.
.
ITU Service-Specific OLA Template (Delete this info. when comepleted. )
This is a draft document and is under review and revision David Robinson, [email protected]; 3-9477
08/30/13
pg. 10