The Complete Guide to IT Service Level Agreements: Aligning IT Services to Business Needs, Third Edition

Why SLAs Are More Than Paperwork

Andrew Hiles gets straight to a painful truth: too many IT service level agreements are written to satisfy a contract, not to improve the way technology supports a business. This third edition helps readers move beyond formal documents and build working agreements that clarify expectations, define meaningful measures, and create accountability on both sides.

The book is rooted in real IT operations. It looks at availability, speed, accuracy, security, quality, and service culture as connected parts of a larger commitment—not as isolated checkboxes.

What the Third Edition Covers

Hiles walks through the entire SLA process with an emphasis on practical decisions. You’ll find chapters on measuring availability and quality, applying SLAs in application development, designing monitoring systems, and negotiating with customers without overpromising impossible service levels.

• Availability optimization and critical component failure analysis
• Service hours, batch processing, real-time services, and distributed processing
• Internet, intranet, help desk, technical support, and security services
• Outsourcing and facilities management checklists
• Penalty clauses, service credits, and downside risks
• Balanced scorecards and service management toolkits
• Customer satisfaction surveys and service review meetings

One of the book’s strengths is its balance between theory and immediate application. Hiles provides sample agreements, one-page SLA formats, monthly report templates, and detailed checklists that readers can adapt to their own environments.

Tools You Can Put to Work

The appendices are especially useful for busy IT professionals. They include a full SLA checklist, desktop support metrics, a traditional IT-oriented SLA example, a simple development SLA, and an outsourcing checklist. These aren’t generic placeholders—they reflect the realities of managing service performance.

The third edition also discusses alternatives to SLAs, benchmark checks, and business satisfaction analysis, so readers can choose the right approach rather than assuming every situation needs a formal agreement.

Who Will Benefit Most

IT managers, service delivery managers, business relationship managers, and consultants will find this guide directly relevant. It also helps procurement teams and business leaders understand what to ask for when negotiating with internal IT or external providers. The material is detailed enough for experienced practitioners but written clearly enough for professionals new to service management.

Digital Delights offers this third edition as a reference you can keep close, so the next time you draft, review, or renegotiate an SLA, you have a trusted framework at hand.