First post - Asked to formulate SLAs/KPIs for network technicians

[blue_n_white]

Hi

 

I have been asked to formulate a SLA/KPI document for out IT support team in a school of approximately 900 students.

 

I do want to work with the technicians in formulating these however they have not been too keen to engage in the discussion (when I asked what would be a reasonable time to deploy tablets the network manager asked me how long would it take me to change an exhaust pipe on a car).

 

Rather than implementing SLAs decided on by teachers and SLT I was hoping someone here could give me a pointer.

 

Thanks in advance.

[PotNoodleTech]

The problem with SLAs is that they don't work in schools as (well, here in Wales anyway) you need to be really flexible in a school, and SLA's are by their definition inflexible.

 

If my SLA is to fix an ipad within 60 minutes of it being reported but one minute in to the repair I get called to the heads office to spend 59 minutes talking about the website, what happens then, do I refuse the head's invitation, or do I fail the SLA?

 

Do you want to run a flexible department that thinks, prioritises, reacts in real time to your daily teaching and learning issues, or do you want a bunch of staff that just reads off / complies with an SLA sheet?

 

I am not saying SLA can't be used in schools but it can be a sledgehammer to crack a peanut if you are not careful.

 

Just my 2p!

[Sibrows]

What are you hoping to achieve by implementing the SLAs and KPIs?

 

By the sounds of it the IT staff are employed by the school, at which point what is the motivation from their point-of-view to 'perform'. In a support role within a for profit firm it would be a bonus or career progression. Most schools have limited scope for career progression so its of limited value and more likely to put the backs up of the current incumbent (unless that is the intention).

 

You also need to consider how you are going to track these things can the current Helpdesk solution provide you with these metrics?

 

That having been said I would look at SLAs based around number of people affected.

KPI look at specialisation of the roles within the team and knowledge sharing.

[southhamster]

I've been looking at this for what we do. If you're signed up to theschoolbus they had a good template for things to think about. I think it's better to be a bit general. As you say, in schools our workstream often can't be done because of interruptions and priorities.

 

 

https://www.theschoolbus.net/article/it-technician-key-performance-indicators-kpis/4710

[blue_n_white]

The problem with SLAs is that they don't work in schools as (well, here in Wales anyway) you need to be really flexible in a school, and SLA's are by their definition inflexible.

 

If my SLA is to fix an ipad within 60 minutes of it being reported but one minute in to the repair I get called to the heads office to spend 59 minutes talking about the website, what happens then, do I refuse the head's invitation, or do I fail the SLA?

 

Do you want to run a flexible department that thinks, prioritises, reacts in real time to your daily teaching and learning issues, or do you want a bunch of staff that just reads off / complies with an SLA sheet?

 

I am not saying SLA can't be used in schools but it can be a sledgehammer to crack a peanut if you are not careful.

 

Just my 2p!

 

Thanks for the reply, you make a valid point about the need for flexibility and how SLA's can lead to a trade off between flexibility and adherence to strict limits. However, I do feel that a network team with three people (NM + IT technician + apprentice) should be able to cope with the situation you have outlined. The precise reason I wanted input from the network team towards the SLA was to have agreed limits, they are reluctant to cooperate (I am already anticipating a barrage of criticism of me/SLT for their reluctance to cooperate), hence the reason for my request on the forum. At this moment in time there is no transparency about how long things will take and I'm hoping the SLA will allow the network team to prioritise and increase transparency, a time limit on a response times and giving clear information about when a task is completed shouldn't be too hard a thing to accomplish (even if the response is I am working on a solution)

[blue_n_white]

What are you hoping to achieve by implementing the SLAs and KPIs?

 

By the sounds of it the IT staff are employed by the school, at which point what is the motivation from their point-of-view to 'perform'. In a support role within a for profit firm it would be a bonus or career progression. Most schools have limited scope for career progression so its of limited value and more likely to put the backs up of the current incumbent (unless that is the intention).

 

You also need to consider how you are going to track these things can the current Helpdesk solution provide you with these metrics?

 

That having been said I would look at SLAs based around number of people affected.

KPI look at specialisation of the roles within the team and knowledge sharing.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I was looking at using a measure of how many people are affected.

 

I feel that the IT support team is providing a service to internal customers, currently the customer service is viewed as unsatisfactory (based on feedback from support staff, teachers, SLT, office staff), lacks transparency for people generating tickets and for me as the person supporting them.

 

If someone feels the lack of progression within a school environment is a reason to become unmotivated, I would hope that they would have enough pride in their job and skillset to actually perform their job in a professional and timely manner and if we do not define what constitutes adequate performance (through an agreed SLA) then accountability will be enforced through soft targets rather than measurable targets. I think this will in the long term lead to stress for the IT team.

[blue_n_white]

Thanks for the suggestion

[blue_n_white]

I've been looking at this for what we do. If you're signed up to theschoolbus they had a good template for things to think about. I think it's better to be a bit general. As you say, in schools our workstream often can't be done because of interruptions and priorities.

 

 

https://www.theschoolbus.net/article/it-technician-key-performance-indicators-kpis/4710

Brilliant, thanks for that, it is a good starting point to generate the KPIs.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yes what you say makes sense, we all need to be accountable, and underperformance needs to be addressed.

 

Do you have a quality IT Helpdesk in place? I would say that should be your first port of call before perhaps an SLA. The helpdesk should be able to report on volume of calls as well as time to fix and the like, assuming it is being used correctly. An SLA would compliment a fully working helpdesk as you then have visibility of all your call stats, as well as an underlying agreement of performance to back it up.

[blue_n_white]

Yes what you say makes sense, we all need to be accountable, and underperformance needs to be addressed.

 

Do you have a quality IT Helpdesk in place? I would say that should be your first port of call before perhaps an SLA. The helpdesk should be able to report on volume of calls as well as time to fix and the like, assuming it is being used correctly. An SLA would compliment a fully working helpdesk as you then have visibility of all your call stats, as well as an underlying agreement of performance to back it up.

 

For the IT Helpdesk, after much cajoling, the IT support team have moved away from the email system that made it impossible to track tickets and issues quickly and efficiently to using Freshdesk (on the free plan), I am looking at the features within Freshdesk that would help us to measure agreed targets.

[strawberry]

Why not do this the other way round? Find out what the measureables are from the staff then sit with the IT staff to find out what is involved in the process and how it can be supported before coming up with a basic SLA. For instance if the staff demand that toner should be changed within an hour then you need to ensure that toner is in stock, alerts are in place and that there are staff available to change the toner at all times.

[mb2k01]

At the risk of coming across as unhelpful, what is your role or stake in this?

It sounds like you aren't from a technical background, so are you a member of the teaching staff / SLT? If so, what was the motivation behind allocating this task to you? (E.G. is the NM not performing etc?)

As I said, I don't want to come across negatively, but what you've described sound largely like something the NM should be doing in a smaller school, or a more senior IT Manager / Director in a larger school/Trust - all of whom should be capable of reviewing their service and refining elements of service/operation to raise standards or increase performance.

[blue_n_white]

Why not do this the other way round? Find out what the measureables are from the staff then sit with the IT staff to find out what is involved in the process and how it can be supported before coming up with a basic SLA. For instance if the staff demand that toner should be changed within an hour then you need to ensure that toner is in stock, alerts are in place and that there are staff available to change the toner at all times.

I have tried that, since I have been at the school it seems there has been a complete breakdown in trust between staff and the IT team, due to valid complaints on each side. The staff just want an improvement in the basic IT services available at school and quicker responses to problems that affect teaching and learning, which are rarely acknowledged when reported and in some cases left until the end of the day (especially frustrating when a teacher can't log on at the start of a lesson). As I mentioned earlier the IT team are reluctant to set time limits and have not engaged in the process, this is me trying to start the process and avoid SLAs that are imposed without any input from an IT professional working in a school.

[blue_n_white]

At the risk of coming across as unhelpful, what is your role or stake in this?

It sounds like you aren't from a technical background, so are you a member of the teaching staff / SLT? If so, what was the motivation behind allocating this task to you? (E.G. is the NM not performing etc?)

As I said, I don't want to come across negatively, but what you've described sound largely like something the NM should be doing in a smaller school, or a more senior IT Manager / Director in a larger school/Trust - all of whom should be capable of reviewing their service and refining elements of service/operation to raise standards or increase performance.

 

I'm the direct line manager of the IT team, and my role is Director of IT and I have been appointed to sort out the issues that have affected the running of the school for a number of years.

 

In short the NM is not doing this....The NM has worked in the school a number of years, does not have a clear chain of support (he does not use EduGeek as its "full of white noise"), is never able to give a clear timescale of when a problem will be solved. This is intended to help improve the performance of the IT team and the NM, rather than a punitive measure.

[mb2k01]

I'm the direct line manager of the IT team, and my role is Director of IT and I have been appointed to sort out the issues that have affected the running of the school for a number of years...

 

That bit sounds very familiar. Been there and have that t-shirt!

My message was really as I feared the school had either gone down the 'a teacher will be able to fix this' route, with that kind of colleague simply reciting words / acronyms they have read offer value to a service! It sounds like they have been fairly sensible in their approach by appointing you though, which is good.

I think I'd echo what others have said in terms of KPI's being a bit too rigid for IT in education. If you really want to go down that line then it might be worth looking in to rolling out ITIL and getting them trained up etc. I've not been a fan of fully to-the-letter rollouts of that myself though - I think there needs to be more flexibility in the whole service provision bearing in mind IT teams in education are comparatively small and required to be multiskilled.

 

Something I've done historically to track performance / give assurance going forward is to drawer up a responsibility matrix that can make it clear areas of specialism / remit within a team. If the NM simply isn't performing, and isn't going to engage either, then it should be fairly quickly identified within that process and then can go towards performance management / capability etc, if needs be?

[PotNoodleTech]

Can I also ask one question, it is very difficult to improve facilities or reliability long term without good constant funding year on year and preferably a 3 year plan to stick to. Please look into that to as no mater how good your NM and their team are, if he/she is trying to firefight old and unreliable equipment as a result of a decade of lack of investment with zero planning or direction, that will ALWAYS make the IT support dept look bad.

 

Personally I think lack of funding can be really demotivating to an IT professional as it is the one thing that can often be difficult for us to control. I have felt really demotivated sometimes due to funding issues.

[GrumbleDook]

Also, instead of just looking at the SLA/KPIs, look at particular functions within them ... if communication has been a problem then getting an acknowledgement and regular updates on progress is possibly one of the best targets for bridge building with staff. The SLA should have a first response time and then subsequent update times until fixed. I'm half tempted to say don't worry about the fix times at this point.

 

Likewise, making sure that problem management is in place, not just incident management.

 

Are you also workign with them to explain and expand on IT Service Management? The FITS Foundation is still about, but most of the earlier iteration of FITS is available on OGL via the National Archives dump of the Becta site.

 

Just a few thoughts.

[mikeprice]

When I have worked with external support companies (normally in industry) there were very specific SLAs

e.g. time from initial support to first contact from support

time from initial contact to first attempted fix/workround

In case of failing hardware - time from first contact to a fix

 

However, you need to be careful. If you set these then IT are entitled to stick to them. So If an external person comes in expecting a computer, projector etc etc to be available - as they have been told will be available - is time to fix of 1 day OK??

 

and if you insist that all failed machines are fixed within 1 day - be prepared to spend money on spare computers, switches, projectors etc etc - because that is how external companies do it. They can do that because they support many schools - so 5 extra machine sitting waiting to go was very small - but in a single school the spares would be a waste in many cases

 

I came across one support person who had been asked by a company to ensure 90% up time on all computers

after much argument he did just that

the server developed a fault and needed replacing - but the support company refused

the reason was that the fault caused 30 minutes of downtime a day - the company worked for about 10 hours a day

which comes comes to 95% uptime

no problem

 

personally I would talk to the IT team and find out what their problems are. Based on my experience and this site - teachers etc expect a 'thing' to be fixed quickly - but are less good at reporting it.

Hence they will complain that the computer is broken and has been broken for dayss - but forget that they only reported it an hour ago

Is this the case here??

 

Or are the iT team receiving the report but have no way of fixing the problem due to lack of spares

so - if there is a memory problem on a PC - how long - and how easy is it - to get new memory

 

and what about the network and server - find out how old they are and what speed they run at

and how fast is the internte connection - and what is the usage

 

then post this back here and maybe we can help

 

or maybe the NM isn't running the department very well - if so why is this?? Do they need help, training support, more staff or what

 

It is unusual for IT techs to sit around doing nothing - but I suppose it can happen

[Ditto]

Having caught up with this thread late in the day, a lot of good advice has been given. My take, based on experience, is implementing the SLA's/KPIs is unlikely to have the desired effect and could alienate those performing well. To me, it sounds as though, first and foremost, you need to address the performance of the NM. Whether that's by mentoring/training/supporting, or by legitimately performance managing the NM out, you'll need to decide. The hard truth is your performance itself will be measured by improving what clearly is a dis-connect between the IT support team (presumably primarily lead by the NM) and the rest of the school. Hope that doesn't sound too harsh, but I do hope you find a way to turn things around.

[DrBeaker]

The problem with SLAs is that they don't work in schools as (well, here in Wales anyway) you need to be really flexible in a school, and SLA's are by their definition inflexible.

 

If my SLA is to fix an ipad within 60 minutes of it being reported but one minute in to the repair I get called to the heads office to spend 59 minutes talking about the website, what happens then, do I refuse the head's invitation, or do I fail the SLA?

 

Do you want to run a flexible department that thinks, prioritises, reacts in real time to your daily teaching and learning issues, or do you want a bunch of staff that just reads off / complies with an SLA sheet?

 

I am not saying SLA can't be used in schools but it can be a sledgehammer to crack a peanut if you are not careful.

 

Just my 2p!

 

Brilliant summary! Yes, Yes and Yes!

 

SLA's also require the resources to be available to meet the SLA. E.g. In one place we had to share a laptop between 3x techs. So if the other tech is using it and I get a ticket that I need the laptop for - how does that work? In another place (not a school) we simply didn't have staff to be able to answer the phones (management resources problem IMHO) so how could the SLA ever be met and how could people be judged on it?

 

Exactly as @AButters has said - one minute you could be doing something for a teacher but the next you might be called and asked to go help out with a visitor for guest wifi access etc.

 

I have tried that, since I have been at the school it seems there has been a complete breakdown in trust between staff and the IT team, due to valid complaints on each side. The staff just want an improvement in the basic IT services available at school and quicker responses to problems that affect teaching and learning, which are rarely acknowledged when reported and in some cases left until the end of the day (especially frustrating when a teacher can't log on at the start of a lesson). As I mentioned earlier the IT team are reluctant to set time limits and have not engaged in the process, this is me trying to start the process and avoid SLAs that are imposed without any input from an IT professional working in a school.

 

I'm in a similar situation now. Short version - The previous "Network Manager" left with no handover to me. Consensus seems there was no trust in his skills or his customer service. All I can do is try to improve things from now on and staff have already told me "I'm far better than the previous tech"

 

Can I also ask one question, it is very difficult to improve facilities or reliability long term without good constant funding year on year and preferably a 3 year plan to stick to. Please look into that to as no mater how good your NM and their team are, if he/she is trying to firefight old and unreliable equipment as a result of a decade of lack of investment with zero planning or direction, that will ALWAYS make the IT support dept look bad.Personally I think lack of funding can be really demotivating to an IT professional as it is the one thing that can often be difficult for us to control. I have felt really demotivated sometimes due to funding issues.

 

BINGO! I've got 10x year old PCs with 5/6x year old DELL's being the newest kit. Login times in excess of 15-20x mins are a daily occurrence currently. I recommended to the SLT last year basically EVERYTHING needs to be replaced ASAP to get things moving again. I got stonewalled. Staff were moaning, complaining to me etc. What can I do? The budget is out of my hands.

 

 

... personally I would talk to the IT team and find out what their problems are. Based on my experience and this site - teachers etc expect a 'thing' to be fixed quickly - but are less good at reporting it.Hence they will complain that the computer is broken and has been broken for dayss - but forget that they only reported it an hour agoIs this the case here??Or are the iT team receiving the report but have no way of fixing the problem due to lack of sparesso - if there is a memory problem on a PC - how long - and how easy is it - to get new memoryand what about the network and server - find out how old they are and what speed they run atand how fast is the internte connection - and what is the usagethen post this back here and maybe we can helpor maybe the NM isn't running the department very well - if so why is this?? Do they need help, training support, more staff or whatIt is unusual for IT techs to sit around doing nothing - but I suppose it can happen

 

Agree on all points. I have myself have inherited what is quite frankly a big mess and years of neglect and lack of investment. No spares, no budget. It's not going to magically change overnight.

 

Spares - how old is the equipment?

Teachers reporting things - They need to report things so I can prove I need funding, extra resources etc. That's what's got me my new computers I'm deploying this week.

Edited February 20, 2019 by DrBeaker

[strawberry]

which are rarely acknowledged when reported .

 

Kpi's aren't the tool needed here. Ways of working are needed. If the IT staff aren't meeting expectation then all parties need to sit down and work this out. Kpi's will been seen as a quanititive stick used by people who don't really understand the process but want something quantifiable to hold over the staff. This is why your IT staff aren't engaging, they probably feel they are bing victimimised and micromanaged by people being paid more than them to do a job they don't really understand ( Only in education do you find line managers who manage folk who's job they've never done or manage a business based on once being a decent entry level shop floor worker)

 

Bluntly, you need to work together to sort out this dispute. The IT staff need to know what the curriculum staff want and the curriculum staff need to know what to expect. If as you say IT staff are leaving logon issues a day without feeding back then your school is failing, not just the IT staff.

[mikeprice]

Yup - before you set up an SLA then you NEED to know why there is a problem in the first place

 

Or alternatively - have an SMT that is prepared for IT to fail everything but listen to WHY in an listening manner and work out a way to improve - even if that means spending money and totally support IT and communicate this is an effective manner to the teaching staff

OK - now stop laughing you lot - it would work

but I have NEVER seen a school where this would happen because SMT are totally focussed on teaching - as they are nearly always teachers

 

so setting up an SLA needs knowledge of WHY there is a perceived problem - from both sides

 

otherwise you are just setting up the IT people so that you can document their failure

 

you may just as well put them on a stage in assembly every morning and have the whole school chant 'Losers' at them

or that is how they will see it

 

OK - that is extreme - but feelings matter - and if you get this wrong the above is how they will FEEL - and they are probaly feeling pretty rubbish at the moment - especially as you are tasked with setting up this systam

 

 

so - you are apparently a manger - so you have to do the 'people stuff' - how ever difficult

I would suggest that you need to possibly sit with the IT techs for a while and see what they do (and maybe help) - see what they want and need

may work - good luck - you'll need it

but if you succeed - the SLAs may be unnecessary

[blue_n_white]

That bit sounds very familiar. Been there and have that t-shirt!

My message was really as I feared the school had either gone down the 'a teacher will be able to fix this' route, with that kind of colleague simply reciting words / acronyms they have read offer value to a service! It sounds like they have been fairly sensible in their approach by appointing you though, which is good.

I think I'd echo what others have said in terms of KPI's being a bit too rigid for IT in education. If you really want to go down that line then it might be worth looking in to rolling out ITIL and getting them trained up etc. I've not been a fan of fully to-the-letter rollouts of that myself though - I think there needs to be more flexibility in the whole service provision bearing in mind IT teams in education are comparatively small and required to be multiskilled.

 

Something I've done historically to track performance / give assurance going forward is to drawer up a responsibility matrix that can make it clear areas of specialism / remit within a team. If the NM simply isn't performing, and isn't going to engage either, then it should be fairly quickly identified within that process and then can go towards performance management / capability etc, if needs be?

 

Thanks for the advice, I agree that some KPIs are too rigid for a school environment and there needs to be a degree of flexibility due to the nature of the school environment.

 

I will be developing a responsibility matrix, this sounds like a really good way forward.

[blue_n_white]

Can I also ask one question, it is very difficult to improve facilities or reliability long term without good constant funding year on year and preferably a 3 year plan to stick to. Please look into that to as no mater how good your NM and their team are, if he/she is trying to firefight old and unreliable equipment as a result of a decade of lack of investment with zero planning or direction, that will ALWAYS make the IT support dept look bad.

 

Personally I think lack of funding can be really demotivating to an IT professional as it is the one thing that can often be difficult for us to control. I have felt really demotivated sometimes due to funding issues.

 

The annual budget given to the NM is well over £40k per annum, I am investigating how this compares to other schools. This is for full IT provision, refresh of IT suites (4 year cycle), teacher laptops/desktops, license renewals, servers etc.

[mikeprice]

The annual budget given to the NM is well over £40k per annum,

 

OK - who do I have to sleep with to get that?????