A DBA is drafting a service level agreement for an internal database service and needs indicators that both parties can measure objectively each month. Which pair of KPIs is most appropriate?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A KPI you can't measure is just a wish. Uptime percentage and response time at a stated percentile are numbers you can pull from monitoring and argue about with facts. Watch out for answers that sound nice but give you nothing to measure.
Full Explanation
Key performance indicators in an SLA must be specific, measurable and tied to a defined period so that compliance can be demonstrated or disputed with data. Availability expressed as a percentage of the month, with the measurement method and exclusions such as approved maintenance windows defined, and response time stated at a percentile for named critical transactions, meet that standard: both can be collected automatically by monitoring and compared with the agreed targets. Striving to keep the service fast and reliable is an aspiration with no threshold, measurement method or period, so it cannot be breached or proven. User satisfaction for most of the month is subjective unless defined as a scored survey with a target, and even then it measures perception rather than service performance. Following industry best practices describes an approach, not an outcome, and gives the customer nothing to measure. Exam caveat: the actual target values, such as which availability percentage, are negotiated per service; there is no universal number to memorize. Operational check: confirm that every KPI in the draft names a metric, a target, a measurement source, a reporting period and what counts as an exclusion, and that the monitoring system can actually produce it.