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Service Requirements
Defining service-level requirements including availability, performance, and support needs.
Service Requirements
Service requirements define the operational characteristics and service levels that a solution must meet in live operation.
What are Service Requirements?
Service requirements specify:
- How available the service must be
- How it should perform
- How it will be supported
- How it will be maintained
- How it will be secured
Key Service Requirement Areas
| Area | Description | Example Measures |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | When the service must be operational | 99.9% uptime, 24/7/365 |
| Performance | Speed and responsiveness | <2 second response time |
| Capacity | Volume handling | 1000 concurrent users |
| Recoverability | Recovery from failure | RPO: 1 hour, RTO: 4 hours |
| Security | Protection requirements | Data encryption, access controls |
| Support | Help and maintenance | L1/L2/L3 support structure |
Key Metrics
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| SLA | Service Level Agreement - contractual commitments |
| RTO | Recovery Time Objective - max downtime allowed |
| RPO | Recovery Point Objective - max data loss allowed |
| MTTR | Mean Time To Repair - average recovery time |
| MTBF | Mean Time Between Failures - reliability measure |
Gathering Service Requirements
Consider:
- Business criticality of the service
- Cost of downtime
- User expectations
- Regulatory requirements
- Existing SLAs for similar services
- Budget constraints
Documentation
Service requirements should specify:
- Service hours and availability targets
- Performance benchmarks
- Capacity requirements
- Backup and recovery requirements
- Security and compliance needs
- Support arrangements
- Maintenance windows
Related Resources
- Support Model - Support structure design
- Business Requirements - Business needs
- Quality Planning - Quality standards
Last updated: 13 January 2026
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