Initial Response SLA

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There are multiple ways to define an Initial Response SLA but if you want to define them with different reset conditions, look no further! Next-Gen SLAs are here!

Before we dive in, we have a few spaces left for our Next-Gen SLAs webinar on Tuesday 23rd February 2021 at 16:30 GMT. Join us for an exclusive live demo of the new features. You’ll also have a chance to get your questions about Next-Gen SLAs answered, as we look towards the future of SLA management within Jira. Register to save your space!

If you’re already a Time to SLA user, then you can start using Next-Gen SLAs right away. Simply log into your Jira account, click on “Time to SLA” in the header menu, and select the new “Next-Gen SLAs (BETA)” option. 

With Next-Gen SLAs, you’re in the driver’s seat and can take full control of your SLAs with:

• Field value conditions - you can now pause an SLA when the assignee field is empty which is a very powerful tool.
• Regenerate entire SLAs anytime - even for issues that were created before the SLA was even configured.
• Multiple start/stop conditions - it’s now possible to combine an unlimited number of status, field, date, and comment options.
• And last, but not least, multiple goals in a single SLA. Gone are the days of creating multiple SLAs with the same start/stop conditions and different durations or priorities. Now, you can simply create a single SLA, configure your start/stop conditions once, and then create different SLA durations with JQL and/or priorities.

Once you have clicked on the “Add New SLA Definition” or “Edit” buttons within the main SLA configurations page, you will be greeted with the below page. Let’s take a look at what each feature does…

1. This is the name of your SLA.
2. When this toggle is disabled, all SLA calculations will be stopped and the SLA will not appear in fields, reports, and other configurations. Enabling it will do the opposite.
3. The SLA Scope allows you to define the projects, issues (JQL), and workflows that an SLA will be applied to. Please note that it’s important to enter a value within at least one of these fields.
4. These are your start, stop, reset and pause conditions.
• At least one start and stop condition is required.

Start, stop and reset conditions are what we call point conditions. They define a point within an issue’s lifetime, such as when the issue was assigned or when the status changed to open for example.

• Reset SLA conditions can be customized for finished SLAs with Next-Gen SLAs. There are 3 use cases to keep in mind here: 1) a finished SLA is a closed contract and a reset cannot change that, 2) a finished contract might be reactivated from zero with a reset, and 3) a finished contract might be completely invalidated with a reset (with a new START event, the SLA can start from ZERO even in FIRST cycle SLAs).

• Pause is an interval condition, it defines an interval within an issue’s lifetime. For example, the assignee is EMPTY and the status is OPEN.
  
  

When there are multiple pause intervals, all of them will be applied to the SLA. Let’s take “assignee is EMPTY” and “team is EMPTY” for example. Here, the SLA will be paused when the assignee is EMPTY, the team is EMPTY or both of them are EMPTY.

5. Here, you can set your goals.

By default, there is always one goal but this can be disabled.

You can add an unlimited number of goals through the “Add new SLA goal” button.

All goals, except for the default goal, have to include a JQL or a priority.

Goal selection is a two-step process. First the goal type and then the goal itself.

Goal types:

• Negotiation date: select a date field and the SLA will use this value as its deadline. Please note, if the selected field is a date picker instead of a date-time picker, then an extra “offset” selection will be opened because a time (hour and minute) needs to be part of the deadline.
  
  
• Dynamic duration: the field type “TTS - Duration Field” is a duration input in the following format “8h30m”. When you create such a field and select it as an SLA goal, then you will be able to select SLA goals individually for each issue by simply filling this field in. Please note, this field can be created within Time to SLA —> SLA fields —> Add custom field —> TTS Duration Field.
• Fixed duration: just type a duration and this will be your SLA’s goal. Simple. The deadline is calculated as Deadline = SLA Start + SLA Goal + Pause Duration. Please note, when “d” (date) is used in the duration, it will be evaluated as a “calendar day” which could be  8 hours for example.

• Each goal has to be connected to a calendar. By default, issues should be answered within 1 day (relative to your working hours) but there’s flexibility within this. For example, you might want to answer critical issues quicker.
• Goals are evaluated from top to bottom, they can be reordered by simply dragging and dropping within this page.

6. This is the Calculation Method for the elapsed duration. Please note, a cycle is each interval between a consecutive SLA start and endpoint within an issue’s lifetime. By default, each cycle starts with the earliest start point and earliest end point.

7. The Critical Zone is a parameter that you can set to signal when an SLA has reached what you would describe as critical. Once an SLA enters this zone, it will change color from blue to orange.

8. The Asynchronous Update allows you to execute SLA calculations asynchronously.

Please let us know what you think and we look forward to you joining us at our webinar on Tuesday!

Cheers,

Gökçe