In the context of technology development and management, the business drivers give rise to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that are negotiated between the business and technology stakeholders. An SLA is an agreement between two organizations that formalizes an agreement for service and support and identifies the roles of all participants. The SLAs are then compiled into a service catalog that includes cost differentials for various levels of service. It is common for service delivery to be organized in the three distinct levels for each of the standard requirements that arise from the business drivers. The three levels go by different names, but refer to low, medium, and high levels of service and support. Increasing levels of support obviously give rise to increased operating costs.
Although there is a near-infinite number of individual services that may be used to define the standard requirements between the business and the technology stakeholders, the following are a few examples:
Availability. What is the maximum amount of time a particular technology or service can be unavailable to the business or the customer? This is usually applied on an application-by-application basis or a service-by-service basis. Is a 24-hour worst-case outage acceptable, or does the system require instantaneous fail-over in the case of failure?
Response time. If a business stakeholder or customer navigates to a Web screen, how long should it take to load? How long should it take a search to execute? How long should it take a data to entry screen to return with confirmation that the information has been posted into an application or database?
Security. How secure does the information need to be? Is casual due diligence enough, or is there some mil-spec security standard to which the solution must adhere?
Disaster recovery. If a technology or service is interrupted by a large-scale disaster, what is the maximum length of time it should take to re-establish service?
Stability. How consistent does the technology or service need to be? Is it acceptable if it is slow one day and fast the next?
Accuracy. How accurate does the information need to be?
Retention. How long does information created or used by the technology or service need to be retained?
Refresh. How often does the technology or service need to be uplifted, replaced, or improved? Some organizations may need to keep their members equipped with the latest technologies. In other organizations, it may be possible to lengthen the time between technology refresh cycles and save time and money.
Support response time. How much time may be allowed between a service request and its fulfillment?
Extensibility. How often and how quickly will new requirements be added to the service or technology?
User experience. Is the end-user able to find, access, and use the information and services provided with a minimum of training and Help Desk support? Is there a high degree of frustration with the service or technology, or are the users comfortable with its operation? Is the technology or service able to incorporate multiple sources and genres of information in order to enhance the user’s experience and the practical effectiveness of the service or technology?
Table 4-4 contains a sample service catalog. You can use this catalog to help you define the overall service levels that your technology solutions must meet.
Table 4-4. Sample Service Catalog
Service | Silver Service | Gold Service | Platinum Service |
|---|---|---|---|
Availability | 24 hours maximum outage. / Cost = $$ | 4 hours maximum outage. / Cost = $$$$ | Less than 1 minute maximum outage. / Cost = $$$$$$$$ |
ResponseTime | 2 seconds max per user input. / Cost = $$ | 1 second max per user input. / Cost = $$$ | Less than 0.5 second max per user input. / Cost = $$$$$$ |
Security | No more than 1 unauthorized data penetration per 1,000 session hours. / Cost = $ | No more than 1 unauthorized data penetration per 10,000 session hours. / Cost = $$$ | Absolutely no unauthorized data penetration. / Cost = $ |
Disaster Recovery | Recovery time no more than 100 hours. / Cost = $ | Recovery time no more than 24 hours. / Cost = $ | Recovery time no more than 1 hour. / Cost = $ |
Stability | Variance in performance no more than x% over any 2 consecutive hours. / Cost = $ | Variance in performance no more than x% over any 20 consecutive hours. / Cost = $ | Variance in performance no more than x% over any 100 consecutive hours. / Cost = $ |
Accuracy | Data accurate to .000. / Cost = $ | Data accurate to .000. / Cost = $ | Data accurate to .000. / Cost = $ |
Data Retention | Data retained 1 year online and 6 years off-line, with automated record destruction after the 7th year of retention. / Cost = $ | Data retained 3 years online and 4 years off-line, with automated record destruction after the 7th year of retention. / Cost = $ | Data retained 6 years online and 1 year off-line, with automated record destruction after the 7th year of retention. / Cost = $ |
Refresh | Workstations replaced and uplifted to current base configuration every 3 years. / Cost = $ | Workstations replaced and uplifted to current base configuration every 2 years. / Cost = $ | Workstations replaced and uplifted to current base configuration every year. / Cost = $ |
Support Response Time | 8 hours by telephone or e-mail after initial request, with 70% closure on first contact. 72 hours on-site if issue is not resolved using telephone/e-mail escalation. / Cost = $ | 1 hour by telephone or e-mail after initial request, with 70% closure on first contact. 24 hours on-site if issue is not resolved using telephone/e-mail escalation. / Cost = $ | Immediate response by telephone or e-mail after initial request, with 70% closure on first contact. 4 hours on-site if issue is not resolved using telephone/e-mail escalation. / Cost = $ |
Extensibility | Extension of service and capacity requires IT design and development participation. | Ability to meet 50% of requirements for extension through administration use of configuration parameters. | Ability of end-user to meet 80% of requirements for extension without IT involvement. |
User Experience | User is able to successfully learn and use the technology with 40 hours training and no more than 1 Help Desk call per month. | User is able to successfully learn and use the technology with fewer than 8 hours of training and the use of peer support. | User is able to extend the technology to novel and unique situations without IT involvement after 40 hours of training. |