Practical Service Level Management: Delivering High-Quality Web-Based Services

Introduction to Technical Metrics

Technical metrics are a core component of SLAs. They are used to quantify and to assess the key technical attributes of delivered services.

Examples of technical metrics are shown in Table 2-1. They are separated into the two basic groups: high-level metrics, which deal with attributes that are highly relevant to end users and are easily understood by them, and low-level metrics, which deal with attributes of the underlying technologies. Note that you should be very specific when defining these terms in an agreement. Although many of these terms are in common use, their definitions vary.

Table 2-1. Examples of Technical Metrics

Metric	Description
High-Level Technical Metrics
Workload	Applied workload in terms understandable ...