How to Set Up Successful SLAs

''How can you make commitments about service level delivery if you're not monitoring the service or the components, like the routers, and the servers, the applications,'' says Sturm. ''In a typical IT organization, they are going to be ready when they are able to measure availability of the service delivery mechanisms and detect problems when they occur, or even better, before they occur. They also have to have the ability to track and measure any outages and then have the ability to measure performance.''

Sturm says administrators should try to measure end-to-end response time. It's not easy but it's a great metric to have in hand.

For example, a clerk in an order-entry department sits down at his desk and starts taking order information. He fills in the needed information and hits 'enter'. IT needs to be able to measure exactly how long it takes from when the worker hit 'enter' to when he receives an acknowledgement that the order went through successfully.

''Think about the overall objective,'' she says. ''Think about the staff that you have. What kinds of services can you provide and monitor? Really do some thinking.''

''They should be familiar with different business operations that are going on and what are periods of time that are important to this department -- a month-end close or a weekly batch process or maybe Wednesday afternoons when reports are run. Know their cycles... Doing your homework also means you know you can't take an application down on Wednesday afternoon to work on it because that's when they need it to run their weekly reports. What's a good change window for them?

''If you can say, 'Look, I know you're busy Wednesday afternoons so I won't be making changes at that time, that tells them you care about their work and you're looking out for their best interest,'' he adds.

Schneider says he sometimes recommends figuring out what application or business department has been causing the most grief in the company. Find it. Then fix it.

''Find the business pain point and focus on that first,'' he says. ''If the business is feeling pain, they'll make [fixing it] a priority and they'll really work with you.''

Sturm, on the other hand, advices picking off the low-hanging fruit first.

''I recommend starting with a low-key application in a non-critical area, with people who are easy to work with. You don't want people who are inflammatory and always eager to take a shot at IT,'' he says. ''First of all, you want to guarantee success right out of the gate... You want a win right out of the gate. You want something where you can expect it not to be escalated to the boardroom if there are any glitches.

''Let's say you put in additional software and it hiccups and causes a system outage that lasts a few hours,'' Sturm adds. ''You don't want that to be L.L. Bean's order-entry system on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Maybe you start with HR's system for tracking retired employees.''

The head of one department, for instance, may be upset that it takes two weeks between the time he asks for a new PC and when one is set up and running in his department. She may want it in two days. You can realistically buy the machine and have it set up in a week. Tell them you can change that time period but it's going to cost them. Are they willing to pay more out of their budget for the faster delivery of those PCs?

Maybe not, and that will change the whole discussion.

Bramhall advices IT managers to compile a list of everything they do for each department. When the business exec starts arguing that she needs that new PC in two days, remind her that when she gets a new employee, she also needs to have voicemail set up, as well as a company email account. That employee also will need policy and security training.

''Talk to them about all the things that they need,'' says Bramhall. ''Everything can't be a top priority. We need you to say what's really important.'' If you don't know what's important to each different department, you'll never know how to satisfy them, she adds.

''I gotta imagine that with any kind of peace process, it's a similar thing,'' he adds.

''It certainly happens and it happens knowingly,'' says Sturm. ''In some cases, users will bully IT into agreeing to certain things... Sometimes IT just gets tired of it hanging over their heads. It's a recipe for disaster.''

Setting up Service Level Agreements is a big job, but Bramhall says it's worth the time and effort.

''It's worth it for accountability, and it's worth it for the idea that IT can say, 'Here's what we do. Here's the value we bring to the company.','' she says. ''It also shows that you're not afraid to be measured. 'I said I'll deliver this service in this amount of time and I will.' IT tends to get a black eye for saying we'll deliver something and then we don't -- or at least the perception is that we never deliver.''