ITIL/SDP question: How do you recommend handling requests that are lengthy by nature or dependent on another process?

ITIL/SDP question: How do you recommend handling requests that are lengthy by nature or dependent on another process?

Hello,

I am looking for any input on how to handle requests that are lengthy by nature or dependent on another process. My users are asking for an SLA status of "Project" or something similar with no due date. I'm not entirely comfortable with this option. I've added Status values of "Associated to Change" and "Associated to Problem" so that the SLA timer stops on those guys. 

Here's our scenarios:
1.) An issue is identified with our patient management system that requires a software patch from the software manufacturer. The delivery of this patch can take weeks. 

2.) A request is made that requires purchase of equipment but the delivery of this equipment takes longer than our current sla allows.

In scenario 1 my first reaction would be to place the ticket on hold but there can be other actions taken on the ticket while trying to get a software patch and getting the technician to take the request in and out of hold status is not likely to happen. For example, the software vendor may ask for additional troubleshooting data, deliver a patch to the test environment, ask the technician to test and then give change control to move to live. All this is activity that we want to denote in the ticket and show that we are actively working but my technicians get a sour impression when the SLA violation comes up. 

In scenario 2 violating the SLA (if I put on my ITIL hat for a moment) should indicate a problem with our internal processes. Perhaps the SLA violation indicates we need to keep stock of items or improve our workflow in other ways rather than trying to give the request a different priority level. I don't mind creating a priority level without a due date but I would want to restrict which roles can actually assign that Priority level. 

Any input on how this is resolved in your organization is appreciated. 



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