This activity is responsible for the negotiation of achievable availability targets with the business, based on business needs and priorities balanced with current IT capabilities and capacity. Both business application and IT infrastructure elements should be taken into consideration as targets are set.

In parallel, the activity represents availability measurement needs (through the Availability Plan) so that appropriate measurement and reporting capabilities can be established and ready to support monitoring and reporting of availability achieved against the targets.

Finalizing targets and associated mechanisms in place usually requires a cycle of feasibility interactions rather than being completed in a single pass.