Operational Level Framework for Management Decision Support

IT service management is a challenge most companies must deal with today. New technologies and fast-changing environments make the management of IT more complex. To guarantee the delivery of the needed service with a certain quality, a many companies work with contracts, which formalize an agreement between the IT department and its customer. Such agreements (Service Level Agreements, Operational Level Agreements) define all necessary characteristics of the service delivered. While SLAs define the service delivery between business and IT, the OLAs define service delivery within IT. Both kinds of agreements define metrics (service/operational levels) which ensure the fulfilment and measurability of the quality of the service delivered. While SLAs and their content are popular topics in the research community, OLAs have not yet been extensively studied. The reasons for this gap can be found in the internal character of the OLA document and in the assumption that papers cover topics, which are not only relevant for SLA but also for OLA, even if it is not mentioned directly. This paper uses a case-study to address the topic of OLAs. The IT department of the Mobiliar insurance company wants to improve the measurability and transparency of their OLAs. OLAs should be formulated so that they allow operational decision making for management. Based on this case-study a new OLA framework is developed. The framework provides a structure which allows the allocation of operational levels to management instruments. It brings together several theoretical approaches such as architectural layer models, balanced scorecard and ITIL components. Based on those theoretical foundations the OLA framework developed in this paper offers a new perspective on service level management and its components. It aligns agreements with management instruments as well as technical components. Furthermore the framework is also applicable for other IT departments working with OLAs/SLAs.