SLA timeline

Release version: Yokohama

Updated January 30, 2025

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Summary of SLA timeline

The SLA timeline is a feature within the Service Level Management application in ServiceNow, available from the SLA Engine 2011 version. It provides detailed visibility into the progress and lifecycle of SLAs (Service Level Agreements), OLAs (Operational Level Agreements), and underpinning contracts associated with tasks. This timeline allows ServiceNow customers to track task updates that trigger stage changes, understand SLA behavior, and troubleshoot or verify SLA definitions effectively.

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Key Features

Progress Visualization: View the current status, last known stage, completion, or cancellation of task SLAs visually, including symbols representing different SLA states.
Business Time Preferences: Users can choose to view either business elapsed time or business time left on the timeline, with the preference saved for future sessions.
Filtering Options: Filter SLAs by breach status, SLA stage, or specific SLA definitions for focused analysis.
Detailed Task Information: Click icons to access detailed task SLA information, including stage changes, update reasons, and schedule adherence.
Zoom Levels: Various timeline zoom resolutions are available, with limitations based on SLA duration and browser performance considerations.
Legend and Visual Indicators: The timeline uses color-coded bars and symbols to indicate SLA stages, breaches, pauses, retroactive time, and out-of-schedule periods, facilitating quick comprehension.
Toggle Visibility: Option to show or hide task updates that did not cause SLA stage changes, useful for debugging.
Refresh Functionality: Refresh the timeline data to ensure up-to-date SLA progress is displayed.
Detailed Stage and Update Information: Clicking on timeline elements reveals start/end times, elapsed and remaining times, pause duration, breach details, and update conditions affecting SLA stage changes.

Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

Accurate SLA Monitoring: Gain precise insights into SLA progression and identify exactly when and why SLA stages change, enabling proactive management.
Efficient Troubleshooting: Detect why an SLA did not trigger as expected through detailed update and schedule data, reducing resolution time.
Validation of New SLA Definitions: Use the timeline to simulate and validate how new SLA definitions will behave against existing task records before deployment.
Business Schedule Analysis: Understand the impact of business schedules on SLA timing, including business vs. actual elapsed time distinctions.
Enhanced SLA Transparency: Visual symbols and color codes make it easier to interpret SLA status at a glance, supporting better decision-making.

Role and Availability

This feature requires itil, slaadmin, or slamanager roles to access and is specifically available in the SLA Engine 2011 version onwards.

The SLA timeline is a feature of the Service Level Management application. The SLA timeline detail helps you understand the progress of an SLA. The timeline provides detailed insight to the task updates which triggered stage changes during the life cycle of a task SLA.

The SLA timeline detail helps you to:

View the progress of SLAs, OLAs, and underpinning contracts.
View related task updates.
Identify the reason a task update triggered a specific stage in the task SLA.
Debug and verify a task SLA and the SLA definition.

Note:

This feature is available only on the SLA Engine 2011 version.

Role required: itil, sla_admin, sla_manager

Table 1. SLA Timeline field description
Levels	Field	Description
1	Name	Specifies the SLA definition name and lists the task SLAs that result from the SLA definition. This field also displays, in the form of symbols, the last known stage, and the completion or the cancellation status, if any, of the task SLA.
2	Preference to see Business elapsed time or Business time left on timeline row	Business elapsed time: Specifies the business time that has accumulated from the beginning of the SLA to its end. Business time left: Specifies the business time that is remaining by which the SLA task must be completed. Note: The selected option from the choice list is saved as a user preference and is selected by default when you navigate to the SLA timeline in the future. Whether you set the system property Always populate business fields on a Task SLA to true or false, the SLA timeline always populates the Business fields for representation.
3		Enables filtering of the data displayed by the SLA timeline . You can filter data by selecting the following options: Show only breached: When selected, displays the task SLAs that are breached. This check box appears only when the SLA engine property Enable compatibility with 2010 ‘breached’ stage for SLAs is set to false. SLA Stage: Select to view the task SLA records that match the final stage of a specific task SLA. Note: If the SLA engine property Enable compatibility with 2010 ‘breached’ stage for SLAs is set to true, the Completed stage appears as Achieved and the Breached check box appears under the SLA stage. SLA Definitions: Select to view the task SLA records for a specific SLA definition.
4		Lets you view detailed information about the task when you click the information icon.
5		Provides several zoom in/out levels to control SLA timeline zoom resolution. Note: If the duration of any task SLA is more than 1 year, then the 5-minutes view is disabled because of performance issues and browser limitations. The condition is applicable for all the browsers. For IE and EDGE: The 5-minutes view is not available for any task SLA that has a duration of more than 35 days. The 8-hours view is not available for any task SLA that has a duration of more than 10 months, and the default view is set to 16 hours. The 16-hours view is not available for any task SLA that has a duration of more than 21 months, and the default view is set to 24 hours.
6		The legend provides the following categories. Shapes Completed: Symbolizes a task update which completed the task SLA. Canceled: Symbolizes a task update which canceled the task SLA. Task update: Symbolizes an update of the task. Task update with stage change: Symbolizes an update of the task which also led to the change in SLA stage. Breach time (Estimated): Symbolizes estimated Breach time of an in-progress task SLA that is not yet breached or paused. Expected start: Symbolizes estimated Start time of a task SLA. This scenario is encountered for a retroactive task SLA starting in the future. Bar color (SLA Duration) Below 50%: Green represents a task SLA stage below 50% of the defined SLA duration. In-between 50% and 75%: Yellow represents a task SLA stage between 50% and 75% of the defined SLA duration. In-between 75% and 100%: Orange represents a task SLA stage between 75% and 100% of the defined SLA duration. Above 100%: Red represents a task SLA stage after the SLA is breached. Paused: Gray represents a task SLA stage when it is paused. Modifiers Retroactive (in lighter shade): Represents the stages, updates, and out-of-schedules that are in the retroactive time. Out of schedule (with center stripe): Represents the time period that the task SLA was outside of the schedule time defined in the SLA definition.
7		Provides a toggle to show and hide task updates that did not cause an SLA stage. Task updates that are not responsible for an SLA stage change can help debug SLA definition conditions.
8		Refreshes the information on the SLA timeline.
9	Task SLA Details	Displays the details of a task SLA, depending on where you click the timeline. Stage details: When you click the update on the task SLA timeline, the stage details section appears with the following information: Summary of the changes or useful information relevant to the selected stage. Information on stage start and stage end such as the start and the end time, actual elapsed time and percentage, actual time left, pause duration. The stage information also displays any breach of the SLA. Note: If no schedule is attached to the SLA definition, then business values are hidden and actual values are displayed. If any schedule is attached to the SLA definition, both the business and the actual values are displayed. Task update details: When you click the task update, the Task update details section appears with the following information: SLA definition conditions: Displays the respective conditions of the task SLA and the values for the related columns at that point for the task. A blue check mark appears for the conditions that affect the SLA stage change. Time: Displays the date and the time when an update takes place in the task SLA. It also displays the delta changes that occurred in the task for that update. Out of schedule details: When you click the out of business schedule on the task SLA timeline, the outside business period details section appears with the following information: Start date: Displays the start date of the selected task SLA. End date: Displays the end date of the selected task SLA. Duration: Displays the duration of the current out of schedule selection. Total out of schedule duration: Displays the total out-ofschedule hours until the end of the current selection. Note: Click and to navigate to the left and right task update in the details section.

Note:

The SLA timeline receives information about the task from the audit history and refers to the current SLA definition to pull data for the SLA timeline. The SLA timeline displays task SLA information as though the SLA repair is already executed, irrespective of whether it is executed or not.