SLA & ITIL

[Danf]

Hi,

I am new to ITIL. I would like to have some information about the ITIL Service Delivery book mentioned in one of the responds in the forum.
Also, i the main issue i am interesting right now is: what is the real/main benefit/roll of SLAs within the ITIL business.

Thanks,

Dan

[randarbie]

The Service Delivery book is Red in color and the ISBN is 0-11-330017-4.

The first paragraph of the book says: "This book is one of a series as a part of the updated IT Infrastructure Library that documents industry best practice for the support and delivery of IT services,.....Service Management is a generic concept and the guidance in the new IT Infrastructure Library books is applicable generically....The guidance is scaleable.....It applies to distributed and centralised systems, whether in-house or supplied by third parties...."

Hope that helps.

Keep in mind while reading the following...I am new to ITIL, also.

SLA's are supposed to clearly define the targets and responsibilities of both parties (IT Service Provider and IT Customer). This would benefit the business because it will know what the customer expects out of each service, thus allowing the business to have a clear target.....ie. efficiently spent dollars/pounds.

[RandyASteinberg]

The key objective of SLAs to to communicate a two-way understanding of what is needed to support business objectives to IT and what IT is capable of delivering.

An IT organization running without these is like going to McDonald's and only being able to eat what the restaraunt employees tell you is good for you. In other words, IT is taking on all the risks and burdens that they are correctly prioritizing work and delivering service in a manner that they hope the business will be happy with.

...Which could be why the average tenure of a CIO is less than 18 months....