Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
manage the expectations of both of you. You will have a clear sense of what
you can expect for support, and he will have agreed to some level of priority
for your technical needs.
We once supported a researcher in developing an online survey. Although
online survey services were available to her, she decided it was better to
develop her own tool on local systems. She had concerns about security and
alsohadamorecomplicatedsurveyinstrumentthantheaverageonlineservice
could provide … at least, that was the case at that time. We had little trouble
developing the instruments, because there were ample techies at our disposal
willing to do the development work for her interesting and challenging
research instrument. Over a short period of time, various surveys became
active, data collection commenced, and she was very happy with her research
project.Oneevening,duringpartofaroutinesystemback-up,everythingcame
crashing down. All of the instruments went off-line and required manual
restarts. All were in locked server rooms, on servers with administrator pass-
words that were unknown to her or any of the survey developers. When she
wasfinallyabletotrackdownthesystemadministrator,shewasremindedthat
everything in the organization had gone down and her surveys weren't top
priority. While she has continued to use the survey services and has worked
with the same support personnel for other projects, from that point forward
she has negotiated an SLA for every project.
When conducting an online study, part of the process of preparation should
includecreatinganSLA.Inmostcases,theresearcherwillnotbehostinghisor
her own research instrument or research environment. In some cases, such as
with an online chat tool, services may be web based and widely available. In
other cases, such as in the development of a survey instrument, if not using an
online service then hosting will likely be on a locally managed server. If the
server is not owned, operated and actively managed by the research team, an
SLA is warranted.
Essentially, an SLA is an arrangement between two parties with regard to
a provided service. In the technical world, an SLA is a contract between a
customer and a service provider. Although this may sound a bit formal for
agreements within an organization, which it is, it's still an optimal way to
ensure proper support. Given that technical staff are rarely, if ever, dedicated
toaparticularproject,theirobligationsandcommitmentsaredividedbetween
a number of customers. Therefore, which priority should the research project
be? Should it be first, because the researcher thinks his/her work takes prece-
dent? Should it be second, because research isn't the top priority of the rest of
the institution? The point is that an SLA enables everyone to develop shared
understandings and be clear on expectation, something that's prudent and
beneficial in any relationship.
