design-slas-and-catalog

name	design-slas-and-catalog
description	Define an SLA backed by the OLAs and underpinning contracts that make it deliverable, and a service catalog of standard requests. Reach for this when designing service targets or a request catalog.

Skill: Design SLAs & the service catalog

A customer-facing SLA is only real if the internal and vendor commitments behind it exist (§2 #4).

Step 1 — Define the service

What the service is, who consumes it, and what "good" means to them. Targets follow the customer's need, not what's easy to measure.

Step 2 — Set the SLA targets

The customer-facing commitments (availability, response/resolution times by priority). Make them specific, measurable, and deliverable.

Step 3 — Back them with OLAs and UCs

For each SLA target, identify the OLAs (commitments between internal IT teams) and underpinning contracts (vendor SLAs) that must hold for the SLA to be met. A gap here is a future breach — surface it now.

Step 4 — Build the service catalog

Define the standard, pre-approved service requests (access, equipment, common asks) with their fulfillment paths. A service request is not an incident; route repetitive ones to standard-change models.

Step 5 — Shift left

Add the knowledge/self-service that lets users self-serve the top request types, and instrument the deflection rate (§2 #7). Use the sla-ola-definition template.