SCiMMA Baseline Service Level Agreement
Rev March 2024
Executive Summary
This service level agreement (SLA) is between SCiMMA and its Stakeholders, and applies to all centrally provided SCiMMA production services, including Hopskotch and SCiMMA Admin. Specific SLAs may augment or supplant this agreement for particular services and/or for particular stakeholders. Specific stakeholder SLAs, when applicable, will be referenced in Memoranda of Understanding between that stakeholder and SCiMMA.
Owners
This SLA is owned by SCiMMA and will be reviewed an approved upon by the director of SCiMMA. The ultimate responsibility for abiding by the SLA lies with the SCiMMA Director.
Unplanned Outages – Priorities and Response Times
This section deals with unplanned outages. Please see Planned Service Changes for information on planned maintenance outages. The determination of the severity level of unplanned outages is the responsibility of the SCiMMA Dev/Ops team.
Services generally operate all the time, but support will be within business hours – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. US Central time on business days (abbreviated b.day below). The exception is for security incidents judged to be urgent.
| Severity | Description | Response Time | Target Resolution Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | The issue prevents any use of the service | 1 b.day | 2 b.day |
| Elevated | The issue prevents some acceptable use | 2 b.day | 5 b.day |
| Normal | The issue causes degraded performance (e.g. there is a workaround) | 3 b.day | 30 b.day |
Exposure or Loss of Data
While the project works diligently to implement authorized access to data, there is no guarantee that data will not be exposed to unauthorized parties. While protection of proprietary data is a core SCiMMA goal, unless explicit agreements dictate otherwise, SCiMMA cannot guarantee data protection. Likewise, SCiMMA cannot guarantee that all data will reach its target audience. Use of resources and services through SCiMMA is at your own risk. There are no guarantees that resources and services will be available, that they will suit every purpose, or that data will never be lost or corrupted. Users are responsible for backing up critical data.
Service Availability and Outages
The Dev/Ops team will strive for less than one hours of downtime each month.
Support Procedures
SCiMMA is not presently structured to provide support outside of business hours. Any off-hours support that may be provided is based on exceptional efforts from staff members, Off hours response cannot be relied on.
Planned Service Changes and Planned Downtimes.
SCiMMA services incurr planned outages from time to time. No outage will occur without notifying Stakeholders at least 5 business days in advance. Notice is given via
- e-mail to SCiMMA Hopscotch users
- via the scimma.org website
- to major facilities via liasions
Notice will be given for planned outages, as well as changes in functionality that do not substantially change the nature of the service. More substantial changes require more planning and longer lead times.
Requests for Service Enhancements
Stakeholders may request service enhancements via https://support.scimma.org/. It is up to the Dev/Ops team to assess the impact of the requested changes and assign appropriate planning and review. Enhancement requests will be intially evaluted by occureance of SciMMA planning meetings, which have a nominal 2-week cadence.
Problem Reporting
Service problems should be reported immediately at https://support.scimma.org/
Routine Requests
Routine requests include group creation (ablity to publish), and removal from the scimma system. Routine requests are supported by forms at support.scimma.org. The nominal response time for these requests is three business days or less.
Responsibilities
Stakeholder Responsibilities
Stakeholders agree to:
- Use the service in a manner consistent with the SCiMMA Acceptable Use Policy.
- Alert the SCiMMA Dev/Ops team if they are going to use the service in a non-standard way, including testing or anticipated significant increases in usage.
- Contact the Operations team by means outlined in the Problem Reporting section above if they encounter any service issues.
- Be willing and available to provide information in a timely manner consistent with the promised Service Target Response Priorities and Response Times listed above.
SCiMMA Responsibilities
SCiMMA agrees to:
- Document appropriate use of SCiMMA services.
- Meet response times associated with the priority assigned to Customer issues.
- Maintain appropriately trained staff.
- Log and track all customer requests for service.
- Announce planned changes in accordance with the Planned Service Changes section above and try to minimize adverse effects on stakeholders.
SLA Change Procedure
This SLA remains in effect until such time as a replacement is approved by the SCiMMA director. Substantive changes to this SLA will be circulated to stakeholders for comment at least one week prior to approval. Stakeholders may recommend amendments to this SLA at any time as an enhancement requests.