SLA & Standards Confusion…

I have a very basic question related to the Standards and SLAs posted thus far and those that will be forthcoming. According to the KSA report,

• the definition of a Standard is “A set of requirements, operating procedures, or capabilities that specify and control the manner for delivery and/or use of information technology”. 
• Service Level is defined as “The metric by which delivery of information technology is actively measured and monitored against which performance is openly and transparently communicated, and the basis for establishing accountability”.
• Information technology (in lower case) is defined as “The tools, services, systems and resources that support the creation, manipulation, analysis, communication, exchange, storage, and management of data and knowledge”. 
• Enterprise is defined as “Those aspects of information technology that are offered exclusively via a central entity”. 
• Supplemental is defined as “Those aspects of information technology that are offered via a central entity on a non-exclusive basis”. 

Then there are definitions for Center, Component and Distributed. I *think* that we are a Component but I’m honestly not entirely sure.

The CIO’s web site states that the Standards under development are for Enterprise operations at UNM and states that the IT SAC “can provide more information about the development of IT standards.” However, the document called “StandardsAndSLAsProject”, Business Requirements section, states “For Enterprise Services: establish clear boundaries between all IT service providers who touch and manipulate the same data. Define roles for IT groups such as UNM IT, HR-IT, FSM, and EM IT. Ensure *SLAs* for these services” (emphasis mine). The next bullet states “For Supplemental Services: Identify all providers, service descriptions, (justifications/business cases,) and associated costs to deliver the services, in total and per user for executive assessment. Define *Standards* for all supplemental services” (emphasis mine). I am unable to find that document on the President’s web site or elsewhere on the UNM web but was forwarded a copy.

The way I read the above is that Standards are related to Supplemental services and SLAs are related to Enterprise services. Once upon a time at UNM, a Standard was not an “enforceable” document but, rather, was a collaborative effort to garner widespread input from the campus’ IT community and to define how Central IT would provide certain services [which was a process followed most recently for the posted Data Center Standard]. For example, if you read the AD Standard (http://it.unm.edu/download/titles/UNMADStandard.pdf), it speaks specifically to the Enterprise AD…not departmental. IOW, the CIO could create a standard for Acceptable Colors of Kool-Aid but if a department preferred to stick with water and not drink the Kool-Aid, that was OK because the standard only applied to those drinking the CIO standard’s Kool-Aid.

Now it appears that as Andrew Yoder pointed out, the Standard Process is that the CIO’s office charters a Standard, proposes the development team and the Standard is an enforceable document that can be used, for example, in an audit. I don’t see a way to determine who’s been a part of the various development teams but my guess is that the members are not representative of the greater UNM IT community.

So winding around to my original question, can someone please provide a definitive answer to the exact purpose of the Standards and SLAs? I started to read the End-User Device Support Standard and was immediately confused by some of the statements made in the proposed Standard. My apologies if this question was raised and answered elsewhere.