SLA Management in Linear: How to Set Up SLA Policies

Hipporello turns incoming requests into Linear issues, and the free SLA Management add-on helps your team keep its promises on every one of them. Set expected response and resolution times, let Hipporello track the countdown on each ticket, and get notified automatically before an issue slips past its deadline.

SLA Basics

An SLA policy in Hipporello can include two targets:

• Time to first response: the window your team has to send the first reply.

• Time to resolution: the window your team has to resolve the request completely.

You define a Warning and a Breach limit for each target. Tickets start out On Track, switch to At Risk when the warning limit is reached, and turn Breached when the breach limit passes without action.

Configuring SLA Management for Linear

1. Enable SLA Management

1. Head to admin.hipporello.com and choose Add-ons from the left-hand menu.

2. Open SLA Management and click Get Started. The add-on is free.

3. SLA Management now has its own entry in the sidebar.

2. Set Up the Policy Basics

1. Go to SLA Management and select Create SLA Policy (or Add New when other policies already exist).

2. Name the policy after the kind of work it covers, like Urgent Bug Report.

3. Choose its position under Place this policy. The first matching policy from the top of the list is the one that applies, so put specific policies first.

3. Target the Right Issues

If you skip this step, the policy applies to every ticket. Conditions let you limit it based on your Linear issue fields:

1. Select + Condition, then pick a field under Select Property — for example, Priority.

2. Choose how to compare it: equals, in, is empty or is not empty.

3. Select the value, such as High, so only high-priority issues are measured by this policy.

4. Every condition you add must be met. For more complex logic, organize conditions with + Group.

4. Add Response and Resolution Targets

Toggle on the targets you need and enter a warning and breach limit for each one, using minutes, hours, days or weeks.

One common setup for urgent issues: a 30-minute warning and 1-hour breach for the first response, plus a 24-hour warning and 48-hour breach for resolution.

5. Fine-Tune the Automation Rules

Hipporello adds four rules to each new policy, shown under your connected Linear team:

• Rule #1 — first response time is at risk

• Rule #2 — resolution time is at risk

• Rule #3 — first response time is breached

• Rule #4 — resolution time is breached

Each rule connects a When trigger to a Then action. Out of the box, Rule #1 triggers on Request SLA is at risk for Time to first response and runs Send Message to Team Members. To tailor the rules:

• Set the Notification Recipients — All Team Members, for example.

• Personalize the email using variables such as {Request ID}, {Issue Title}, {SLA Name} and the SLA status.

• Turn rules on or off with their toggle, or build extra ones via + New Rule.

Heads up: SLA automations are part of your free trial. Upgrade to Premium to keep them active once the trial is over.

6. Create and Publish

1. Select Create to save the policy as a Draft. Use the Conditions, Targets and Automations tabs to review your settings.

2. Select Publish to put it into effect. The policy will show a Published label in your SLA Policies list.

Following SLAs in Real Time

After publishing, Hipporello automatically applies the policy to new requests that meet its conditions.

• Open All Tickets to see SLA badges in the Time to First Response and Time to Resolution columns: On Track, At Risk or Breached.

• Hover over a badge to check the matched policy and its targets.

• As soon as a ticket becomes at risk or breached, the badge changes and your team receives an email with the ticket’s details.

The Dashboard gives you a summary of average first response and resolution times across your team.

Test Your Setup

1. From your user portal, submit a request whose values meet your policy’s conditions.

2. In All Tickets, make sure the request is matched to the policy and shows On Track.

3. Don’t respond, and confirm that the badge moves to At Risk and then Breached, with a notification email at each step.