ITIL 4 SLM flashcards
ITIL 4 SLM · Build recall with a focused review session.
33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Service level management
- The ITIL 4 practice of setting clear business-based targets for service levels and ensuring services are delivered against those targets through agreement, monitoring, and review.
- Service level
- One or more metrics that define the expected or achieved quality of a service from the perspective of the consumer, such as availability during agreed hours.
- Service level target
- A committed value for a service level metric that the provider has agreed to meet, forming the basis for measuring SLA compliance.
- Service level agreement
- A documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that identifies both services required and the expected level of service.
- Utility and warranty
- The two components of service value: utility is fitness for purpose (what the service does) and warranty is fitness for use (how reliably it performs).
- Customer versus user
- Customers agree SLAs and fund services, while users consume the service day to day; SLM must satisfy both groups because experience can differ from contract.
- Service value system
- The ITIL 4 framework comprising guiding principles, governance, the service value chain, practices, and continual improvement, which together enable value co-creation.
- Four dimensions
- Organisations and people, information and technology, partners and suppliers, and value streams and processes; all four must be considered when defining service levels.
- Service value chain activities
- Plan, improve, engage, design and transition, obtain/build, and deliver and support; SLM is most active in engage and deliver and support.
- Focus on value principle
- A guiding principle requiring service level targets to reflect customer outcomes and business value rather than internal operational convenience.
- Governance and SLM
- The governing body evaluates, directs, and monitors the organisation; SLM supplies performance evidence that governance uses to assess service delivery.
- Supplier alignment
- SLM must ensure underpinning supplier and partner agreements are at least as strong as the customer-facing SLA, so promises are not made that suppliers cannot support.
- Related practices
- SLM works with service catalogue management, service desk, capacity and availability management, supplier management, and continual improvement to deliver agreed service levels.
- SLM workflow
- Engage stakeholders, agree requirements, define and document service levels, monitor and measure, report, review, and improve; each cycle informs the next.
- Service level requirements
- The customer's stated needs before negotiation; they are translated into SLAs after feasibility assessment against capability, capacity, and cost.
- Underpinning contract
- An agreement with an external supplier that supports the delivery of services to customers and must be consistent with customer-facing SLA commitments.
- Operational level agreement
- An internal agreement between teams within the same organisation that defines how they will support delivery of agreed customer service levels.
- Service review
- A structured meeting with customers to review performance against SLA, discuss issues, and agree improvement actions, distinct from day-to-day incident handling.
- Service catalogue link
- SLAs should reference service catalogue entries so that targets are traceable to defined, approved services rather than informal descriptions.
- Target negotiation
- Presenting measured baseline performance and the cost of higher targets, then proposing target tiers instead of accepting arbitrary figures from customers.
- SLA exclusions
- Clauses defining when the SLA does not apply, such as planned maintenance windows, force majeure, or failures caused by the customer.
- Customer-based SLA
- An agreement with a single customer covering all services that customer uses, tailored to that customer's specific business requirements.
- Service-based SLA
- An agreement covering one service for all customers who use it, with the same service levels applying to every consumer of that service.
- Multi-level SLA
- A nested structure with corporate-level commitments, customer-level agreements, and service-level agreements, all of which must remain consistent with each other.
- SLO and SLI
- An SLO is a target value or range for a service level metric; an SLI is the actual measurement used to evaluate whether the SLO is met.
- SLA content
- Scope, service hours, responsibilities of both parties, service levels and targets, exclusions, reporting frequency, review cycle, and remedies for breach.
- Service hours
- The agreed period during which the SLA applies, such as business days 08:00 to 18:00; availability is calculated against these hours, not 24x7.
- Availability calculation
- Availability percentage equals agreed service time minus downtime, divided by agreed service time, multiplied by 100, excluding agreed exclusions.
- SLA review cycle
- The agreed interval at which an SLA is re-examined and updated when services or business needs change, with version control and change records.
- Measurement hierarchy
- SLIs are raw measurements, SLOs are target thresholds, and SLA compliance is the aggregate judgment of whether SLOs were met over the reporting period.
- Error budget
- The permitted amount of unreliability implied by an SLO, such as allowed downtime under 99.9 percent availability; rapid consumption signals a need for investment.
- Audience-appropriate reporting
- Executives need outcome and trend summaries, service owners need metric detail, and operational teams need real-time dashboards showing current status.
- Continual improvement model
- Seven steps: what is the vision, where are we now, where do we want to be, how do we get there, take action, did we get there, keep momentum.