In IT Service Management (ITSM), not all SLAs are created equal. The two most commonly tracked—and most frequently confused—metrics are Response Time SLA and Resolution Time SLA.
What is Response Time SLA?
The Response Time SLA dictates how quickly the support team must acknowledge a user's request. It is the time elapsed between the ticket being created and the first human response being sent to the user. A response time SLA calculator evaluates the speed of initial engagement, regardless of whether the issue is actually fixed.
What is Resolution Time SLA?
The Resolution Time SLA dictates the total allowable time to completely solve the user's problem and close the ticket. A ticket resolution SLA calculator tracks the entire lifecycle of the incident. This is heavily dependent on the severity of the issue.
Why You Need Both
Tracking only response times creates a false sense of security; agents might reply instantly with "we are looking into it" and then take weeks to fix the bug. Conversely, tracking only resolution times frustrates users who are left in the dark wondering if their ticket was even received.
Effective service desks use incident response SLA calculators to track both metrics simultaneously to ensure both fast communication and swift problem solving.
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