SCiMMA Baseline Service Level Agreement
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.
Service Target Response 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 businesd ays (abbreviated b.day below). The exception is for security incidents.
| Severity | Description | Response Time | Resolution Time | Escalation Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | The issue prevents any use of the service | 1 b.day | 2 b.day | 3b.day |
| Elevated | The issue prevents some acceptable use | 2 b.day | 5 b.day | 3 b.day |
| Normal | The issue causes degraded performance (e.g. there is a workaround) | 3 b.day | 30 b.day | 30 b.day |
Escalation Procedure
If a service can not be restored within the SLA Resolution Time specified, it escalates as defined in the escalation rate in the response table above. Any issue starts at escalation level one. Ongoing issues will be discussed at the weekly Dev/Ops meetings. “High” and possibly “Elevated” level issues will require more frequent meetings of the appropriate set of people to resolve the issue in a timely manner.
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 the following monthly availability target percentages:
| Production Service Name | Monthly Availability Target |
|---|---|
| Hopskotch | 99% |
| SCiMMA Admin | 95% |
| Archiver | 99% |
| All Others | 95% |
Measurement of service availability is the responsibility of the Dev/Ops team and will be reported at the end of each calendar month no later than 10 business days after month ends. If service availability falls below monthly targets on two consecutive months, a root cause analysis and service plan will be submitted to the SCiMMA Director. This plan will specify actions to restore the service to the level of availability as specified in this SLA.
Off-Hours Support Procedures
SCiMMA is not presently structured to provide support outside of business hours as defined above in Service Target Response Priorities and Response Times. Accordingly, any off-hours support that may be provided is based on exceptional efforts from staff members and there can be no expectations that such support will be maintained or repeated.
Planned Service Changes
The Dev/Ops team reserves the right to change SCiMMA services based on its needs. No change will occur without notifying Stakeholders at least 5 business days in advance. Notice is given via a mail to SCiMMA Hopscotch users. This includes both planned downtimes, 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 an inital request via htts://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 assigned to a member of the SCiMMA Dev/Ops team within 1 business week.
Problem Reporting
Service problems should be reported immediately at https://support.scimma.org/
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 to Group Administrators 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.