What is the SLA like when working with dedicated development team?

Today's digital and technological reality has led companies to transform, yes or yes. Staying in the past means losing customers, sales, and productivity. That is why many organizations have sought support from technology partners to enhance their projects and inject them with speed and quality. And one of the most effective modalities has been dedicated development teams, where a specialized software development team joins your project and develops it with the greatest focus and expertise.

But of course, like any relationship between a company and a technology service provider, there must be a contract such as Service Level Agreement or SLA, to set all the conditions of this labor collaboration between the company and the software development dedicated team.

How does the SLA or Service Level Agreement works with a software development team?

Let's start with the definition of what an SLA is: it is a contract or document that defines the service that the client needs from the technology provider. It also establishes how the quality of the service or product created will be measured, as well as possible solutions and penalties if something does not go as planned.

It is essential that an SLA be created between the provider and the company because this document will contain all the services that will be contracted, the dedicated development team's responsibilities, and the client's expectations. With the SLA, both parties are clear about what the project needs to work on.

By not having an SLA, for example, there can be confusion or misunderstandings about what needs to be done or what is needed in the project, which can lead to wasted time and money. 

What are the components of an SLA?

The clauses or elements of an SLA must refer to two aspects: services and management, they explain in an article in CIO magazine.

Service Items

Here the service provider will capture in detail all the services that the dedicated development team will provide during the employment relationship, it will also be explicit what is excluded from the service. The responsibilities of each party, the hours for each service, the procedures to be applied at work and the compensation for the service provided must also be explained.

Management Elements

“Management elements should include definitions of measurement standards and methods, reporting processes, content and frequency, a dispute resolution process, an indemnity clause that protects the customer from third-party litigation resulting from service level breaches, and a mechanism to update the agreement as needed,” CIO explained.

How to handle changes to an SLA with software development teams

But of course, throughout software development there may be changes in workflows, so the SLA must be updated to fit the reality of the project. This update can be done perfectly and without complications, you just have to follow some recommendations.

There is a false belief about the SLA: many people interpret this document as a support service, and problem-solving, but the SLA is really focused on determining the type of service that will be provided, what are the priorities of the project and the times in those who have to execute the tasks. And the idea is that the supplier knows what those priorities are and how to manage them so that the project meets the customer's expectations.

The dedicated development team SLA is oriented to how quickly a company can add resources to a contract so that the continuity of the project is not affected.

The Project Manager or Scrum Master is responsible for managing everything related to the needs of the project. If more resources are needed in the project, or some are eliminated, it is the responsibility of this figure to guarantee that the development runs in the best way.

Changes to a typical SLA can last from one to three weeks. First of all, the provider sends the client several profiles in a period of 3 or 4 days, the client evaluates the profiles of the software development team, approves the ones that are necessary and then these profiles can start working in two weeks.

Faced with these times of change, the first thing the PM has to do is plan ahead. In other words, if a sprint has just started and the PM knows that for the next sprint he will have a large workflow, all at once he has to organize the request for new resources for the software development team. So that at the beginning or in the middle of the next sprint there are new resources that are needed.

There is one aspect that must be taken into account and that is that the SLA is different if it is about permanent resources in the project or if they are transitory.

A temporary profile is someone who has an interim role, and who will work on a specific topic in the project, for example, a DevOps, a graphic designer, or a security specialist. It is a person who will be in the project for a couple of weeks or a couple of months and then will leave when the need has been met. With this type of profile you can plan ahead and organize yourself, the SLA will be a little more open since in theory it should not affect the core of the project.

The SLAs with the most complexities are those of the project's permanent resources or those associated with the core, since they are covering a strong need.

In any of the cases, the PM of the project is the one who must be attentive to the needs that arise in the development, so that he can request the necessary resources on time and make the changes in the SLA in a timely manner. Do you need a software development team for your project? Contact us!

We recommend you on video