Launch day is day zero for trust. Document what “incident” means, who is on call, and how severity maps to response times. Ambiguous support promises create heroes in the short term and attrition in the long term.
SLAs that protect both sides
- Severity table with examples clients recognize
- Clear channels for P1 vs feature requests
- Published maintenance windows and dependency calendars
- Quarterly reviews against actual ticket data
Culture beats the PDF
Separate break-fix from change requests. Scope creep disguised as bugs destroys morale and forecasts. Review SLAs quarterly with usage data and adjust where reality differs from the contract’s imagination—clients respect honesty more than theater.
