IT Problem Management

Chapter 10. Service Level Agreements

A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and a service receiver. The contract usually describes the services that will be provided, the quality or level of the services, and the responsibilities of both the service requestor and the service provider. SLAs may or may not include service pricing. The agreement will also specify a means of measuring each party's compliance to the agreed upon terms. There are two broad categories of SLAs: internal and external. External SLAs always seem to be more formal and carry more weight than their internal counterparts, because it is unlikely that two parties within the same company will sue each other. Internal SLAs should be treated just ...