OLA for non-tech teams: The key to effective cross-team collaboration

[#1]

When several teams work together — like marketing, design, HR, or communications — it’s easy to miss deadlines, duplicate efforts, or just get out of sync. Not because someone did something wrong, but because no one clearly defined who does what and by when.

That’s where Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) can make a real difference. 

They help internal teams align on expectations, set realistic timeframes, and build smoother collaboration, even without daily check-ins. In this article, we’ll show how non-tech teams can benefit from OLAs in Jira, and how our app, SLA Time and Report, makes it simple to set them up, track them, and actually stick to them.

---

What is an OLA, and why should non-tech teams care?

Let’s start with the basics.

An Operational Level Agreement (OLA) is an internal agreement between teams or departments that defines how they’ll support each other to meet shared goals. Unlike SLAs (which focus on commitments to customers), OLAs help teams align behind the scenes.

Here’s a simple example:

The marketing team needs visuals from the design team to launch a campaign. Without an OLA, the request might get delayed, misunderstood, or deprioritized. With an OLA, both teams agree on expected timelines — for example, “design delivers visuals within 3 working days after the brief is submitted.”

It’s not about creating more bureaucracy — it’s about clarity. OLAs make collaboration faster, smoother, and far less stressful. And they’re just as useful for non-technical teams as they are for IT or support.

In short, if your team relies on others to get things done, an OLA helps you avoid delays, confusion, and endless follow-ups.

---

Why OLAs matter: But it’s not just about deadlines

Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) are more than just timing agreements between teams.

They introduce measurable accountability and transparency into internal processes, especially for teams whose work is not tracked through external SLAs.

Here’s how non-tech teams can use OLAs not only to "promise a deadline," but to actually measure how reliable and responsive they are to each other over time.

---

🔍 Key OLA metrics for non-tech teams

Request completion rate within OLA – e.g., how often the design team delivers assets within the agreed 3-day window.

• Average response time – how long it takes for a team to start work on a cross-team request.
• Workload per team – how many cross-team requests are open at a given time, and how balanced they are.
• Repeat/reopened requests – how often tasks are returned due to misalignment, unclear briefs, or incomplete info.
• Bottleneck areas – where requests are frequently delayed, helping spot broken or overloaded processes.

These metrics don’t just show "who’s late" — they help identify which teams need better processes, more capacity, or clearer inputs.

🧩 Real Collaboration Benefits — Backed by data

When OLAs are tracked and measured, teams stop guessing and start improving. Here’s how different roles benefit:

• HR can show how fast they respond to manager requests — and spot delays in onboarding or role approvals early. This helps build trust and optimize internal service.
• Marketing can evaluate how clear their briefs are, based on how often design requests are delayed or sent back. Fewer reworks = better process.
• Design can use OLA data to justify hiring or reprioritizing work when the volume of cross-team requests grows beyond their capacity.
• Leadership gains visibility into how internal services are delivered — not just whether projects move, but how teams support each other.

OLAs turn internal collaboration into a measurable, improvable process — not just a series of Slack messages and assumptions.

And the best part? You don’t need to track all this manually.

In the next section, we’ll show how SLA Time and Report for Jira helps teams create, monitor, and optimize OLAs using real-time data and flexible reporting.

---

How to know if your team needs OLAs

Before you start setting up OLAs, it’s helpful to recognize the signs that your internal processes could benefit from them. Many non-tech teams don’t realize they need internal agreements until something breaks, or someone burns out.

 Here are clear signals your team might need OLAs:

🚧 Frequent misunderstandings between teams

Does your team often re-do work because the initial request wasn’t clear? Do tasks get stuck waiting for input or feedback? That’s a sign roles and expectations aren’t defined.

🕓 Missed internal deadlines

Campaign launches, onboarding processes, or internal announcements are often delayed — not because no one is working, but because it’s unclear who owns what and by when.

🤯 Team burnout or overload

One team is constantly chasing others, following up, or being the bottleneck. Without OLAs, work often piles up on the most “responsible” people instead of being distributed fairly.

📉 No way to measure internal service

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. If there’s no visibility into how quickly or reliably your team responds to other teams’ needs, that’s where OLAs (and metrics!) come in.

OLAs help internal teams work like service teams — with structure, accountability, and data to improve over time.

---

From agreement to action: How to set up and track OLAs in Jira

Having an OLA on paper (or in a Slack message) is a great start, but it’s not enough. For it to actually work, you need to bring it into your daily workflow. Jira is perfect for this, especially when enhanced with the right tools and structure.

Here’s a practical guide on how to turn an OLA into a living, trackable process using Jira, SLA Time and Report, and a few smart tricks.

✅ Step 1: Define the metrics that matter

Before jumping into timers or configurations, take a step back. What do you want to measure?

For example:

• How long it takes the design team to deliver creative assets after a request
• How quickly HR responds to onboarding requests
• How many internal tasks breach agreed timelines

Don’t overcomplicate it. Start with 1–2 core OLA metrics per workflow — the ones that cause the most frustration when missed.

---

⚙️ Step 2: Set the right conditions

Now that you know what to track, define the start, pause, and stop points of each OLA cycle.

Let’s say marketing submits a design request:

• Start: When the issue is moved to “To Do” (indicating it’s ready to begin)
• Pause (optional): When waiting on feedback from requesters
• Stop: When the task is moved to “Done” or “Delivered”

You can configure this directly in SLA Time and Report with flexible conditions — including by issue type, label, requester group, or custom fields.

---

🕒 Step 3: Use team-specific calendars for realistic timing

Cross-time-zone teams? Part-time HR reps? Don’t use generic 24/7 countdowns.

In SLA Time and Report, create custom calendars to reflect your team’s real working hours — even if they span countries.
Example:

• Marketing: Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm (GMT+2)
• HR: Mon–Thurs, 10am–4pm (GMT+5)
  This ensures your OLA goals are fair and achievable.

---

🎯 Step 4: Set your goals

Now it’s time to define your actual targets:

• “Respond to internal requests within 8 working hours.”
• “Complete onboarding tasks within 24 business hours.”
• “Deliver campaign visuals within 3 working day.s”

Each of these can be configured as a goal in the SLA timer and adjusted based on issue priority, department, or request type.

---

📊 Step 5: Monitor, analyze, improve

Once OLA timers are running, it’s all about visibility.

With SLA Time and Report, teams can:

• See color-coded SLA status directly in Jira issues
• Use Met vs Exceeded and per Criteria charts to track team performance
• Filter by requester team, project, or assignee to detect bottlenecks
• Export reports to share with managers or for retrospectives
  
  

💡 Tip: Use “Met%  by team” to quickly identify which departments consistently meet OLAs — and which need process reviews. 

---

🛠️ Jira + Confluence = A transparent OLA system

Want to make OLAs visible and accessible? Create a Confluence page for each key OLA flow:

• Describe the expectations
• Embed relevant Jira filters (e.g., “All open design requests from marketing”)
• Link to dashboards or charts from SLA Time and Report
• Keep it updated — even quarterly retrospectives can be added there
  
  

💡 Lifehack: Use Confluence’s "Page Properties" macro to list key metrics (e.g., average resolution time, % met) — then roll them up into a team-wide OLA dashboard.

---

📎 Don't forget automation

Add automation rules to:

• Send reminders when an OLA deadline is approaching 
• Notify team leads if an OLA is breached 
• Auto-label overdue tasks for easier reporting
  
  

Small automations = fewer follow-ups and more consistent delivery. You can easily set up automation rules with the SLA Time and Report app or use Jira’s native automation.

---

TL;DR

Setting up OLAs in Jira isn’t just about timers. It’s a system:

1. Built on clear metrics
2. Fueled by realistic expectations
3. Supported by tools like SLA Time and Report
4. Enhanced through visibility in Confluence
5. And improved continuously through reporting and automation

---

Final thoughts

OLAs aren’t just for IT. When used right, they help any team—from marketing to HR — align better, deliver faster, and work with more clarity. By combining Jira’s flexibility with smart tools, you can transform internal collaboration into a measurable and manageable process.

👉 Ready to bring structure to your team’s workflows?

Start small. Define one OLA. Track it. Improve it.

And see how much smoother cross-team work can be.