Service level management is a decades-old concept but it has only been in recent years that IT organizations have been formalizing the process as a way to improve performance and maintain control over all of the underpinning technologies and services which facilitate network operations. But one of the challenges of that is managing all of the components associated with service delivery, and documenting those.Thankfully, applications to help organizations construct and mange those agreements have come a long way. However, IT and business managers still have their work cut out for them. At least half of the challenge is having all of the relevant information documented so that IT managers and their business counterparts can set practical standards.

Another important element is making sure both business and IT is on the same page with respect to objectives. Are those goals practical, and what additional cost is the business willing to incur to achieve those aims?

But of course, the best intentioned SLAs are useless if the objectives they specify don't map to business goals. That is why it is so crucial to involve business managers in the IT management process.