[zhte415]

I've seen 2 pretty good solutions to this.

1. VP bangs head with equivalent VP in other department, complaining there are too many requests. Can work, depends on individual.

2. Actually have a service level agreement. Requests are limited to X per hour/day/week/whatever the process needs, and billed accordingly. Have a bit of buffer in this, a little creative billing. Requests within SLA are dealt with in agreed turnaround time. Have a dashboard that clearly shows this to customers. Alert customers if they're consistently submitting what's outside of SLA, and they will receive a degradation of service unless they provide further funding.

Everyone knows if you pour too much water unto a cup it will overflow.

[mdpopescu]

Having a budget for each department and a cost for running the queries is a great idea... I'll try to implement it the next time I'm in this situation. (I have also had a ton of VPs - plus the CEO and the owner - come to me with "very urgent now now now!" requests... it would have been great to tell them "the top priority for me is this query worth $1000, can you beat that?)

[zhte415]

Sure. That's how external service providers work - being internal is in the buffer, you can 'do a favour' when needed. If it is the owner making an ASAP!OMG! request perhaps take the chance for a chat and to demonstrate you have a system and that you're not only managing, but taking a stance of leadership (and point out that as it is internally charged, they're not losing any cash).