The Approver Persona represents designated stakeholders responsible for reviewing, validating, and authorizing service commitments before they become active in the system. These personas ensure that agreements at the customer, internal, and vendor levels are realistic, aligned, and governed properly.
Approver roles exist across:
Service Level Agreement (SLA) – Customer-facing commitment
Operational Level Agreement (OLA) – Internal team commitment
Underpinning Contract Agreement (UC) – Vendor commitment
Together, they form a multi-layer governance framework that protects service performance.
Service Level Agreement
The SLA Approver represents the customer and service governance layer responsible for validating and authorizing Service Level Agreements before they are activated. Typically, this includes the Service Level Manager, Business or Customer Representative, and the IT Service Owner. These approvers review and validate defined response and resolution targets, confirm the service scope and coverage, ensure SLA metrics align with agreed business expectations, and formally approve the agreement prior to publication. Their role ensures that customer commitments are realistic, aligned, and governed before the SLA becomes active and enforceable within the system.
Once approved:
SLA attaches to tickets automatically
Timers begin based on defined rules
Monitoring and breach tracking activate
Operational Level Agreement
The OLA Approver represents the internal operational governance layer responsible for validating and authorizing Operational Level Agreements before activation. This typically includes the Operations Manager, Workgroup or Resolver Group Head, and the Service Owner. These approvers ensure that internal response and resolution timelines are realistic, confirm team capacity and operational feasibility, and verify that handoffs between support groups are efficient and clearly defined. Their approval ensures that internal performance commitments are achievable and properly aligned to support SLA delivery before the OLA becomes active within the system.
Once active:
OLA attaches when workgroup is assigned
Internal timers start
Escalations triggered if thresholds near breach
Underpinning Contract Agreement
The Underpinning Contract (UC) Approver represents the vendor governance layer responsible for validating and authorizing Underpinning Contract Agreements before they become active. This typically includes the Vendor Manager, Procurement or Contract Authority, and the Service Delivery Manager. These approvers review and validate vendor response and resolution commitments, confirm the defined escalation matrix, assess contractual compliance clauses, and ensure that performance obligations align with internal OLA and customer SLA requirements. Their approval formalizes vendor accountability and ensures that third-party commitments are contractually sound and operationally aligned before activation.
Once active:
UC links to relevant services
Vendor timers start when ticket assigned
Performance tracked against contract terms
For more information, refer to the following: