Hi All,
I'm somewhat surprised that the title of the document, rather than the contents, determines whether one can sign or not. The document specifically states that there are no penalties for not meeting the SLA targets. The only penalty is public embarassment through the "league table". However, it's more than simply definitions - there are targets involved. Managing expectations on both sides is certainly also a key goal of the document.
In ITIL terms, the document could be considered to be an Operational Level Agreement (OLA), since it's an agreement within the IT organization as to how it will operate. Would OLA be acceptable nomenclature?
Is the legal connotation of calling something an SLA a UKI particularity, or do other ROCs also have objections? Would adding a sentence that states that the document is not legally binding be a way around the problem?
If a name change is too difficult to carry out, fair enough - but I know that Ian wanted the thing to become an SLA in EGEE-III. If we are to try and gradually introduce some ITIL methodology, we should also start using correct terminology.
Perhaps we could discuss this briefly during tomorrow's ROC managers' meeting?
Regards,
-John