How to Prevent and Handle SLA Breached Status in Jira?

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Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are critical to ensuring that customer support teams deliver quality and timely support to their customers. However, in the event of an SLA breach, it can lead to a loss of customer trust and damage to the company's reputation.

When is SLA to become Breached?

An SLA breach occurs when a support team fails to meet the agreed-upon service level targets within the agreed-upon time frame.

Any SLA has three status changes: MET, Breached, and Exceeded. 

• MET is the time when you will meet your obligations to the customer.
• Breached is when the support team fails to meet the commitment on time. 
• Exceeded is the time when the SLA goal has already passed.

For example, if your SLA goal is 20 hours, the support team must complete the customer's request by that time. After 20 hours, the SLA is breached, and the team has failed to meet the time promised to the customer.

Preventing an SLA Breach

To prevent the SLA Breached status, we must set the specific Breached time — the extreme limit to which we must close the issue. In our example, it would be 2 hours before the end of the SLA.

The Breached interval can be adjusted so that you have enough time to handle the problematic SLAs.

The faster you set Breached, the more time you will have to close the SLA.

Here's an example of how to set the notifications in JSM configuration for “2 hours before breach”:

Here's how you can prevent an SLA breach by using the SLA Time and Report add-on:

1. 8 hours before the end of the SLA – notify on the Slack channel
2. 6 hours before the end of the SLA – automatically set the Critical status to filter similar tasks later
3. If nothing was done after 5 hours, change the executor to a more experienced one – you also need to inform the customer if you cannot complete the user's task within the required time.
4. If 20 hours have passed and the task is not completed, inform the department head and the entire department.
   If you want to add more information to notifications, use the Message Template Editor.

Setting realistic service level targets that the support team can meet is crucial for preventing an SLA breach. SLAs should be agreed upon by both the customer and the support team, and there should be a mutual understanding of the consequences of an SLA breach.

Handling an SLA breach

In an SLA breach, it is essential to take immediate action to minimize the impact on the customer. Here are some best practices for handling an SLA breach:

• Acknowledge the breach: Acknowledge the SLA breach and apologize to the customer for the inconvenience caused.
• Investigate the cause: Investigate the cause of the breach and identify the root cause of the problem.
• Communicate with the customer: Keep the customer informed of the progress made in resolving the issue.
• Escalate the issue: If necessary, escalate the issue to senior management to ensure appropriate action is taken.

An SLA Time and Report for Jira add-on can help prevent and handle SLA breaches effectively. This add-on provides an easy way to track service level targets and measure the support team's performance. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, breaching an SLA can have serious consequences, so it's essential to set realistic targets and have a plan to prevent and handle breaches. Set specific breached times and adjust them as needed, use automation tools to notify team members and escalate issues when necessary — this is all you need to prevent the SLA breach. In an SLA breach, acknowledge the breach, investigate the cause, and communicate with the customer. 

The SLA Time and Report for Jira add-on can help prevent and handle SLA breaches effectively. Try a 30-day trial, and book a demo call if you require additional information.

[Fabian Lim]

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