SLA Breaches in Jira: What they are, why they happen and how to track them using Great Gadgets

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In the world of IT Service Management (ITSM), customer support and agile project delivery, maintaining strong service performance is not just very important, but it is also expected. That’s where Service Level Agreements (SLAs) come in.

For teams handling service requests or technical support, meeting SLAs targets is critical. Every minute beyond the agreed resolution time can lead to lost credibility, financial penalties and unhappy customers.

What is a SLA and a SLA Breach?

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a formal agreement between a service provider and a customer, that defines how quickly certain types of issues must be resolved. SLAs are more than guidelines – they are contractual commitments, and failing to meet them can impact customer satisfaction and service credibility.

A SLA Breach occurs when a service provider fails to meet the time-based commitments outlined in the SLA.

Here is an example to better understand what SLA Breaches are: Let’s say a customer reports a critical issue at 10:00 AM. Your SLA policy says it must be resolved within 4 hours. If the issue is still unresolved at 2:01 PM, that’s an SLA Breach.

Why do SLA Breaches happen?

Even the most well-organized teams experience SLA Breaches. SLA breaches don’t always happen due to negligence. Often, they reveal deeper process gaps or inefficiencies. Here are some common reasons:

• Lack of visibility – Teams don’t know how much time is left until the breach.
• Incorrect prioritization – If tickets aren’t prioritized properly, urgent issues may go unnoticed.
• Lack of automation – Manual handling of SLAs can lead to human error or missed deadlines.
• High ticket volume – An overload support team may miss important tasks and lack capacity to respond in time.

How to monitor SLA Breaches in Jira with Great Gadgets

Jira Service Management offers built-in SLA tracking, but to truly stay ahead of breaches you need clear and actionable visualizations. To take SLA monitoring to the next level we recommend using Great Gadgets for Jira app (plug-in).

Here are a few gadgets from Great Gadgets that are especially useful for SLA tracking and monitoring:

Control Chart Gadget

The Control Chart gadget can calculate metrics like Cycle Time or Lead time for the issues from a specified filter and for a certain time interval, and display them in a scatter plot chart. You can use this gadget to see how quickly your team delivers and to identify the issues that took longer than expected.

Most importantly, this gadget lets you set a custom threshold (which represents your SLA target) and will highlight in red all the issues that exceeded it – these are your SLA Breaches. By monitoring this chart regularly, you can identify all the tickets that breached the SLA. Simply hovering over each issue reveals detailed information about the corresponding issue, helping you better understand the context and uncover potential causes behind each SLA breach.

Histogram Chart Gadget

Similar to the Control Chart, the Histogram Chart gadget can also calculate metrics like Cycle Time or Lead time for the issues from a specified filter and for a certain time interval. The difference is that it displays the results as a histogram showing the distribution of the Cycle Time or Lead Time. You can use this gadget to see how your team delivers, how many issues were resolved in the expected time frame and how many were not.

By setting a custom threshold (which represents your SLA target) you can easily see how many issues breached the SLA. All time intervals that exceed the threshold will be highlighted in red, and by hovering over them you can clearly see the number of breached issues in each interval.

WIP Aging Chart Gadget

The WIP Aging Chart gadget displays the Work In Progress (WIP) issues from a filter or board in a scatter plot chart, by their age (time) in their status, board column or since creation. It helps you monitor how long your In progress issues have been open, giving you real-time insight into potential SLA risks. The longer an issue remains in a specific workflow status or board column, the higher the risk of breaching its SLA.

By setting a custom threshold, you can easily spot work items that are approaching or have exceeded your SLA targets. By monitoring this chart regularly, you can identify tickets approaching the threshold and take corrective action before they actually breach the SLA and avoid unnecessary escalations.

Advanced Issue Filter Formula Gadget

The Advanced Issue Filter Formula gadget displays the results of up to 9 calculations of math formulas applied against the numerical fields or the count of issues from multiple Jira filters.

When it comes to SLA tracking, you can use this gadget to display key indicators such as the total number of issues, the total number of SLA breaches, and the percentage of breached issues - all in a single, compact view. By configuring formulas and applying filters that match your SLA conditions, this gadget gives you high-level visibility into your team’s SLA performance.

Issue Filter Formula Gadget

With the Issue Filter Formula gadget you can calculate and display the result of a simple math formula applied on a numeric field of the issues from a specified filter or JQL.

In the context of SLA breaches, you can configure this gadget as a gauge chart to track progress toward a predefined breach limit - for example, monitoring how many SLA breaches occurred in the current month compared to the maximum number you aim not to exceed. This makes it a practical tool for setting internal performance goals and keeping SLA breaches under control.

Pivot Table & Pivot Chart Gadget

The Pivot Table & Pivot Chart is a very powerful gadget that lets you create multi-dimensional stats and charts using drag & drop functionality.

For tracking SLA breaches, you can use this gadget to build detailed reports - for example, showing the number of SLA breaches per team member per month or breaking them down by issue type, priority, or project. This level of granularity helps you analyze trends, identify areas for improvement, and hold teams accountable, all while gaining a clear picture of SLA performance across different dimensions.

You can also configure the gadget as a chart, so you can see the total monthly SLA Breaches, for example.

Conclusion

SLA breaches are a red flag that your service delivery process needs attention - but they’re also an opportunity to improve. By monitoring SLAs proactively, learning from past breaches, and refining your workflows, you can turn a risk into a driver of continuous improvement.

The key is visibility and control. If you’re looking for ways to better track and visualize SLA compliance, tools like Great Gadgets for Jira can help your team stay on top of what matters most: on-time delivery.

For a more comprehensive approach to tracking your team’s performance, check out this article, where you’ll find practical examples of gadgets that can help you build an effective dashboard and better visualize your team’s workflow in Jira Service Management.