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darrutiParticipant
I get your point on number 1. I’m not the authoritative voice on how the SLAs and Standards will be used from an executive governance perspective, which is why I prefaced my response in the way that I did. Perhaps I put that preface in the wrong place. The definition of SLA and Standard as provided are sound. I think the questions from IT Agents are more geared towards how they will be used and/or enforced? Is that correct? I can’t speak to that – we will need guidance from ITSAC and the President’s office when they are prepared to provide that direction. I’ve shared the question with Kevin Stevenson as Chair of ITSAC and liaison with the President’s office. I will bring the point you raise in number 2 to TJ so she can respond in context of the specific SLA you reference. Thanks for the continued dialogue, Cyndi.
darrutiParticipantGot it! Thanks.
darrutiParticipantHi Cyndi,
Lots of info in there! I will start by trying to answer your question, “So winding around to my original question, can someone please provide a definitive answer to the exact purpose of the Standards and SLAs? ” I would propose that Standards and SLAs go hand in hand. In my opinion, Standards describe what must be done (sometimes at varying levels depending on needs), and SLAs describe what we (UNM IT in this case, but any service provider that puts an SLA together) deliver. I think you sum it up well when you say, “The way I read the above is that Standards are related to Supplemental services and SLAs are related to Enterprise services.” That is our immediate objective given the President’s request. To expand on this, we are focusing our initial efforts on creating SLAs for the Enterprise services so campus understands (and can provide input on) what UNM IT provides for Enterprise (defined as exclusive) services, and we are focusing our initial efforts on creating and getting input on Standards for the Supplemental services (defined as non-exclusive) that multiple groups provide so we can have a baseline understanding and requirement for anyone delivering the same service. Beyond the initial effort and as time permits, UNM IT will continue to prepare SLAs and Standards (where appropriate) for all of our services (Enterprise and Supplemental), and do our best to be inclusive and incorporate feedback. Please let me know if this is helpful or if it creates more confusion. Also, I do think you are correct that IT services provided at the school/college level would be component based on my understanding.
- This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by darruti.
darrutiParticipantHi All,
To clarify – the current revision I mention above, “Upon notification, UNM IT reserves the right to bill, at our standard hourly rate or expedited service rate, for any avoidable situations in which extra time is being required of UNM IT staff”, is a working draft in one version of the SLAs being reviewed. Another version being considered is, “Notify the Department of any situation in which extra time is being required of UNM IT staff due to lack of Department staff knowledge, planning or poor implementation practices. UNM IT reserves the right to bill, at our standard hourly rate or expedited service rate, for this additional support.” We are absolutely trying to make the language as clear as possible and welcome feedback.
Thanks.
darrutiParticipantCyndi,
When you mention appeals, what are your thoughts? Are you talking about If there is a difference of opinion in whether standards are being appropriately met?
darrutiParticipantHi Chad,
Those details still need to be established and vetted. The language currently reads:
“This standard has been developed under and is subject to all UNM policies, some of which are cited in the
References. The UNM Administration, Internal Audit, or UNM IT may determine the compliance of departmental
support approaches with this standard.”No additional conversations have taken place to my knowledge, and we don’t anticipate pursuing those details further until we get additional direction from senior administration.
darrutiParticipantAndrew,
Good find. Yes. The policy is expected to be revised at the direction of senior administration, in support of changes to IT Governance. Content and timeline are to be determined.
darrutiParticipantPatrick,
Thank you for clarifying. I definitely understand that there are many reasons an individual may choose one service provider over another, all things being equal. We do attempt to address concerns regarding “distrust” of a provider through Business Associates Agreements (BAA) and other due diligence, although I understand that we will not always be able to satisfy concerns that stem from a long history. Where specific concerns are identified, we will certainly do our best to mitigate.
The ability for students to create an SMTP (mail) server is an excellent example that is worthy of consideration. I don’t believe that enterprise services are intended to interfere with a project in a classroom. We may need to be more explicit to address this concern.
I appreciate the additional perspective.
darrutiParticipantUnderstood, Patrick. Thank you. By getting feedback on needs outside of the provided service we will definitely make progress towards understanding differences, their magnitude and strategies to address. We are hoping that comments on services will pinpoint these for us.
darrutiParticipantHi Cyndi,
An enterprise agreement would be signed by executive leadership on behalf of the institution.
darrutiParticipantHi Patrick,
I started a separate thread on this topic (which you found). Sorry for not picking up on your comments here before I did that. The thread can be found at http://discuss.unm.edu/document/department-specific-sla/ . Standard language is being incorporated in the SLA template to address requests for exception. The current proposed language is, “To request exceptions to defined service levels based on exceptional business needs, please email
cio@unm.edu. The Office of the CIO/UNM IT will respond to the message within 5 business days and
escalate any mutually agreed upon exceptions to the appropriate Department Executive Vice President and
UNM’s Senior Administration for review, approval, and funding, if necessary. “- This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by darruti.
darrutiParticipantHi Cyndi,
We look forward to continuing to work through details with campus on service needs to improve the enterprise service and determine how incremental services could best be addressed if there is a gap (as mentioned in the original post). We are listening to the feedback on the billing language and are working to revise it to be more clear. The current revision states: “Upon notification, UNM IT reserves the right to bill, at our standard hourly rate or expedited service rate, for any avoidable situations in which extra time is being required of UNM IT staff”. Feedback please.
darrutiParticipantWalter,
The services provided by different departmental IT units would be very helpful to articulate. We’ve set up a thread to continue that conversation (http://discuss.unm.edu/document/departmental-it-support/). If departmental IT units have SLAs on the services they provide, perhaps we could point to those SLAs from the enterprise SLAs – what do you think?
darrutiParticipantDarrell,
Thanks for your comments. Since we met last week, I think we cleared up some of the concerns that you are referencing here, please confirm. The enterprise services that are being articulated are intended to be fairly universal. If we are missing key needs, we definitely want to understand them and consider how to handle. Thanks.
darrutiParticipantHi Patrick,
Potential gaps in service details versus needs are exactly what we are looking for. If you can provide that feedback, it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry I missed your comments in the other thread before I opened this one. I’ll take a look there as well.
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