Service Level Agreement (SLA) : Explained with a Real World Example

April 18, 2025•5 min read

Let's say a client approaches us to build a website for their bakery that sells products across the entire country. This isn't just any small website. It's a large-scale platform that will handle lots of traffic and transactions. For projects like this, it's important to clearly define expectations between the client and the development team. That's where a Service Level Agreement (SLA) comes in.

Here's what we typically include in an SLA at Tech Lumina:

📶 1. Availability

We need to ensure the website is accessible to customers most of the time. If the site goes down, it could mean losing potential sales. While it's impossible to guarantee 100% uptime (due to maintenance or uncontrollable infrastructure issues), the SLA will include:

  • Guaranteed uptime percentage (e.g., 99.9%)
  • Acceptable reasons for downtime (Scheduled maintenance or third-party infrastructure failures)

⚡ 2. Performance

Speed matters. If a customer tries to order bread or cake and the site takes forever to load, it's a bad experience. So we define:

  • Response times (e.g., time to load product listings)
  • Throughput (e.g., number of orders the system can handle per second)

🔒 3. Security

Security is non-negotiable, especially when dealing with customer data and online payments. We include details on:

  • Encryption standards (e.g., SSL)
  • Firewall protection (e.g., Web Application Firewall - WAF)
  • Authentication & Authorization (e.g., Single Sign-On - SSO)

🔧 4. Maintenance

Even after launching, the site needs care. Maintenance helps keep it running smoothly and up to date. The SLA covers:

  • Scheduled maintenance windows (e.g., 1:00 AM – 3:00 AM)
  • Maintenance procedures (e.g., who needs to give approval before major updates)

💾 5. Data Recovery

Unexpected failures can happen. That's why we plan ahead to protect critical customer and order data. We include:

  • Backup strategies
  • Recovery time objectives (how quickly we'll restore the system after failure)

📞 6. Support & Issue Resolution

If something goes wrong, our team steps in to fix it. The SLA defines:

  • Support availability (e.g., 24/7 support)
  • Issue classification (e.g., Criticality and Priority)
  • It's crucial to have clear expectations about system availability.

🔄 7. Feature Updates

Sometimes, clients want new features like a product recommendation system. The SLA also covers:

  • How and when new features can be requested
  • Timeframes and cost estimations for adding them

Other Key Elements

In addition to the points above, every SLA also includes:

  • Agreement period
  • Payment terms
  • Signatures from both parties to make the agreement official

At Tech Lumina

We provide a Service Level Agreement for all software projects that exceed $300. This ensures transparency, accountability, and peace of mind for both us and our clients.