SLA Extension - how it works (and more)

RT Users
1

Hi,

We’ve started using RT in our production environment at the start of this
week and are really happy with the breath of fresh air :slight_smile: (our previous
ticketing system really was a drag…)

As such, with al new implememtations allot of questions arrize about things
that we couldn’t forsee during the testing.

One of these questions is about the SLA plugin, it works but I’ve now gotten
some questions about “how does it work exactly” and “does it stall the Due
date when a ticket is parked” or “on reopening, does it stall the Due date”.

From what I understand, the SLA plugin does the following things:

  • When a ticket is first created the SLA plugin makes sure that the
    Starts date is set to the first possible “Business” date (e.g. the next day
    on 8:30 in the morning).
  • It then “if configured” sets the SLA to the default value of a queue.
    • In our case, we have a scrip that sets the SLA value based on the
      combination of ticket type (Incident, Problem, Change) and
      ticket priority
      (1 to 4).
    • When the SLA is set for a ticket it then sets the Due date based on
      the Starts date & takes the working hours/holidays into account.
  • In addition, on SLA change it sets the Due date accordingly (again
    based on the Starts date).

Hopefully I’ve got the basics right up to this poing? (correct me if I’m
wrong)

Assuming the above is correct it also means that I can only answer the first
question, the other two seem to be impossible (for as far as I know).
So for this mailing list I have the following questions, and hopefully
someone can shed some light upon them:

  • Is there a way to “pause” (on hold) the SLA time, where the Due date
    during the “paused state” is increased during that status? (e.g. during
    Parked tickets)
  • And, basically the same question. Is there a way to stall the Due date
    when tickets are closed and then reopened, where the Due date is increased
    in a similar way as the above?

Hopefully there is a way :slight_smile: Thanks in advance!

– Bart

2

Hi,

We’ve started using RT in our production environment at the start of this
week and are really happy with the breath of fresh air :slight_smile: (our previous
ticketing system really was a drag…)

As such, with al new implememtations allot of questions arrize about things
that we couldn’t forsee during the testing.

One of these questions is about the SLA plugin, it works but I’ve now gotten
some questions about “how does it work exactly” and “does it stall the Due
date when a ticket is parked” or “on reopening, does it stall the Due date”.

From what I understand, the SLA plugin does the following things:

When a ticket is first created the SLA plugin makes sure that the Starts
date is set to the first possible “Business” date (e.g. the next day on 8:30
in the morning).
It then “if configured” sets the SLA to the default value of a queue.

In our case, we have a scrip that sets the SLA value based on the
combination of ticket type (Incident, Problem, Change) and ticket priority
(1 to 4).

When the SLA is set for a ticket it then sets the Due date based on the
Starts date & takes the working hours/holidays into account.
In addition, on SLA change it sets the Due date accordingly (again based on
the Starts date).

Hopefully I’ve got the basics right up to this poing? (correct me if I’m
wrong)

Quite close. Pretty much everything that happens with this extension
is described in
RT::Extension::SLA - Service Level Agreements for RT - metacpan.org.
Doc may need some love to make it more clear.

Assuming the above is correct it also means that I can only answer the first
question, the other two seem to be impossible (for as far as I know).
So for this mailing list I have the following questions, and hopefully
someone can shed some light upon them:

Is there a way to “pause” (on hold) the SLA time, where the Due date during
the “paused state” is increased during that status? (e.g. during Parked
tickets)

Parking tickets is not implemented.

And, basically the same question. Is there a way to stall the Due date when
tickets are closed and then reopened, where the Due date is increased in a
similar way as the above?

When ticket is re-opened than old values are returned. So resolve
deadline returned to old value. I think it’s correct. This depends on
what happens and what you expect from that. For example if customers
often reply to old tickets with new problems then you should use new
tickets for that, in this case forking into new ticket may help. If
customer replies to a closed ticket then problem has not been resolved
and you’re overdue.

SLA extension cover basic situations and there are a lot of space for
new options to cover more complex scenarios, but every new option
requires a lot thinking and increases complexity.

Hopefully there is a way :slight_smile: Thanks in advance!

– Bart

Best regards, Ruslan.