Methods and apparatus for interactive specification of context-sensitive service level agreements; for provisioning of resources required during service delivery events regulated by service level agreements; and for monitoring compliance with service level agreements during service delivery events

A method, comprising:

• detecting a service delivery event between a service provider and a service customer;
• retrieving data associated with a plurality of service level agreements potentially regulating the service delivery event, each service level agreement corresponding to a different category of service, wherein the data concerns both a plurality of categories of service variables, the service variables describing circumstances surrounding a service delivery, wherein one of the categories of the service variables comprises a role of the customer, and wherein retrieving data further comprises retrieving data indicating that a first one of the service levels is a base level for the selected role of the customer and that a certain combination of values of the service variables will modify the base level to a second level of the service levels based on the role of the customer, and a target value specified for each of at least one service level attributes corresponding to a service level associated with a service delivery, wherein each service level agreement corresponds to one or more of the at least one service level attributes;
• determining an actual combination of values assumed by the plurality of categories of service variables during the service delivery event;
• selecting one of the plurality of service level agreements based on the actual combination of values assumed by the categories of service variables;
• selecting a particular target value for each of the at least one service level attributes on the basis of the selected service level agreement;
• determining a realized value for each of the at least one service level attributes, wherein each realized value corresponds to a value actually achieved for a service level attribute during the service delivery event;
• comparing the particular target value for each of the at least one service level attributes with the realized value for each of the at least one service level attributes to gauge compliance of the service delivery event with the selected service level agreement, wherein the comparing takes into account the role of the customer and whether the certain combination of values of the service variables modified the base level to the second level of the service levels based on the role of the customer, and wherein modification of the base level to the second level correspondingly modifies one or more target values for service level attributes corresponding to the service levels;
• and
• reporting an outcome of the comparing.

A computer-readable storage device with an executable program stored thereon, wherein the program instructs at least one processor to perform at least the following:

• detecting a service delivery event between a service provider and a service customer;
• retrieving data associated with a plurality of service level agreements potentially regulating the service delivery event, each service level agreement corresponding to a different category of service, wherein the data concerns both a plurality of categories of service variables, the service variables describing circumstances surrounding a service delivery, wherein one of the categories of the service variables comprises a role of the customer, and wherein retrieving data further comprises retrieving data indicating that a first one of the service levels is a base level for the selected role of the customer and that a certain combination of values of the service variables will modify the base level to a second level of the service levels based on the role of the customer, and a target value specified for each of at least one service level attributes corresponding to a service level associated with a service delivery, wherein each service level agreement corresponds to one or more of the at least one service level attributes;
• determining an actual combination of values assumed by the plurality of categories of service variables during the service delivery event;
• selecting one of the plurality of service level agreements based on the actual combination of values assumed by the categories of service variables;
• selecting a particular target value for each of the at least one service level attributes on the basis of the selected service level agreement;
• determining a realized value for each of the at least one service level attributes, wherein each realized value corresponds to a value actually achieved for a service level attribute during the service delivery event;
• comparing the particular target value for each of the at least one service level attributes with the realized value for each of the at least one service level attributes to gauge compliance of the service delivery event with the selected service level agreement, wherein the comparing takes into account the role of the customer and whether the certain combination of values of the service variables modified the base level to the second level of the service levels based on the role of the customer, and wherein modification of the base level to the second level correspondingly modifies one or more target values for service level attributes corresponding to the service levels;
• and
• reporting an outcome of the comparing.