There's no real mystery about it, Roger. Something mission critical (it need not be hyphenated, unless you are using it as a qualifier for say, a "mission-critical component") is of vital importance to the success of a particular "mission" (usually referring to the task at hand with wider implications for the entire project of which it is a part, or referring to the project itself, depending upon the context itself). Without the mission-critical component, the mission cannot successfully continue and the pursuit of any other mission objectives becomes redundant. Although in today's corporate world, "mission critical" is all too often used in a trite way as a piece of jargon to support someone's personal agenda. (For example, to help keep the proclaimer's part of a project to keep going with adequate funding.) Get written confirmation from on high of the supposed "mission critical" nature of anything before using such wording in a document. It is a term probably best left out of any Plain English technical communication piece and set aside for a piece of Public Relations fluff. Business critical, has a broader function, usually relating to items that are essential for the day to day operation of a business, such as cash flow, takeover bids, stock prices, the success or otherwise of important tenders or the loss / gain of a major client account. Another term to be used sparingly, if at all, in any technical communication piece, this is a term for use in major announcements by senior management to a restricted audience, or in Financial Review style newspaper reports. Of course, where and how often you use these terms will be up to your client / boss and, perhaps, to you, but they should be used with caution, to a clearly defined and often restricted audience, as their use can spread fear and uncertainty about a project or a business that could have a detrimental impact on the employee or shareholder confidence in that business. To use them lightly, as IT jargon, can be fraught with problems. Best to keep them out of any instructional material, where possible. Hope that helps. Michael Granat Write Ideas At 18:19 11/10/2003 +1000, you wrote: >Hi techwriters >Can anyone give me a definition of 'business-critical' and >'mission-critical', in the context of describing IT services in a contract? > >And are they interchangeable terms? Or are mission-critical services a >sub-set of business-critical services? > >Roger ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************