Consultations on IETF Tools SLA and IETF Tools User Experience

IETF Executive Director <exec-director@ietf.org> Thu, 17 September 2026 00:30 UTC

From: IETF Executive Director <exec-director@ietf.org>
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Subject: Consultations on IETF Tools SLA and IETF Tools User Experience
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Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:30:06 +1200
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This is a request for community feedback on two aspects of the IETF Tools service provided by the IETF Administration LLC:


# Consultation on a Service Level Agreement for IETF Tools

The IETF Tools are a critical resource for the Internet standards process but SLA coverage is poor.  Some small aspects have had a performance SLA, but most parts of this service have, since inception, been provided on a “best efforts” basis with formal agreements only covering capacity and incident response times, not availability and system performance as normally found in an SLA.  

This consultation closes that gap by proposing an SLA framework and some initial targets, on which community feedback is sought.

For clarity, this SLA is solely targeted at system performance and availability, not the performance of the Tools Team or their scheduling/planning of work, though it is understood that those are subjects that also require in-depth discussion with the community.

Please read the full consultation document here:
    https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/Consultation_on_a_Service_Level_Agreement_for_IETF_Tools.pdf


# Consultation on the User Experience of IETF Tools

User Experience (UX) in this document covers the many aspects of IETF participant interaction with IETF Tools including user interfaces, access controls, client software requirements and usage modes (e.g. offline usage).  
IETF Tools have developed organically over many years for most of that time the user experience was designed by the developer responsible for each system.  

While developers can design functional UIs, there is a difference between that and those designed by User Experience (UX) specialists.  Specialists have recently been used for the first time to design the UX for the new rfc-editor.org website. 

The other aspects of the user experience have had explicit decisions and others have developed organically. While there have been some community discussions on some aspects, until now there has not been a formal process to elicit and incorporate community views into Tools development plans.

This consultation documents the current approach to the User Experience of IETF Tools, with the exception of systems performance as that is the subject of a parallel consultation, and seeks feedback on what needs to change.

Please read the full consultation document here: 
    https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/Consultation_on_the_User_Experience_of_IETF_Tools.pdf


Please respond to these consultations by 12 October 2026 either privately to the IETF LLC Board and the Executive Director at llc-feedback@ietf.org or to the public tools discussion list tools-discuss@ietf.org.


As a reminder, there are two other IETF LLC consultations underway:

- Second consultation on Remote Rooms for IETF Meetings - feedback due by 27 September 2026.  
  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/2w_2uGpZ7TBDmAaLzkBqQSQOJew/

- Extended consultation on a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for RFC Editing and Publication - feedback due by 27 September 2026
  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/5dr6ToTS33sbETaecSGX2W52E_Q/


-- 
Jay Daley
exec-director@ietf.org
www.ietf.org

Consultations on IETF Tools SLA and IETF Tools Us… IETF Executive Director