Re: Consultation on a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for RFC Editing and Publication

[Mirja Kuehlewind <[e-mail]>]

Hi Jay,

I was assuming/hoping that the modernized tooling support would enable the RPC to work more efficiently and tackle the backlog (which I guess partly build up because of this investment in tooling). Planning for 7-12 years to address the backlog seems quite long, especially as you don’t know what other challenges will happened in between that might create more backlog. I welcome that the SLA should including planning of activities that goes beyond the editing itself but I was hoping those activities would always or at least most of the time also aim to increase efficiency. Otherwise that’s maybe something to urgently tackle, especially as the rise of AI seems to bring some opportunities here.

Just quickly on the metrics itself. I never found them very useful in itself; it was more to have something at hand that enables us to detect and track changes as a baseline. What we need is maybe a more dynamic system e.g. where thresholds or additional goals are negotiated on a shorter time line and need basis.

On one of your question about quality metrics. Not sure those need to go into the SLA but it would definitely be interesting to have them. I‘m not sure how that would exactly look like but again maybe that is something AI could help with analyzing the kind of changes and improvements the RPC usually does.

Mirja


> Am 10.08.2026 um 06:39 schrieb IETF Executive Director <[e-mail]>:
> 
> The RFC Production Center (RPC) has had a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for document production for many years.  However, the RPC has not met this SLA for some years and an analysis shows that this is primarily due to a significant increase in the work expected of the RPC.  Furthermore, the old SLA excluded some key measures as the measurement in place until recently had significant gaps.  Given this, the current SLA is no longer fit for purpose and needs replacing.
> 
> A consultation document has been published that provides an explanation of the old SLA, data of performance since its inception in 2016, an analysis of the issue and a proposed way forward.  This is then followed by a series of questions for community feedback:
> 
> https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/Consultation_on_a_Service_Level_Agreement_SLA_for_RFC_Editing_and_Publication.pdf
> 
> Please send your feedback to the IETF Executive Director at [e-mail] by 6 September 2026.  If you wish to discuss any of this on a public list then please use the [e-mail] list.
> 
> --
> Jay Daley
> [e-mail]
> www.ietf.org
> 
> 
>