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Incident Management Prioritization (ITIL Severity Level)

How to assign the right priority to a ticket


The Priority is the result of Impact + Urgency.

1. Incident Impact (Impact Categories)

This section introduces Incident Impact categories. The definitions must be exactly matched to the organisation, so the following table is an example:

Category

Description

High (H)

Widespread

▪ A large number of employees are affected and / or can’t perform their duties.
▪ A large number of customers are affected and / or are in some way exposed to acute disadvantages.
▪ Damaging the reputation of the company on a large scale is likely.

Medium (M)

Localized

▪ A moderate number of employees are affected and / or can’t perform their tasks as intended.
▪ A moderate number of customers are affected and / or experience limitations in comfort.
▪ Damaging the company's reputation on a moderate scale is likely.

Low (L)

Individualized

▪ A minimal number of employees are affected and / or can perform their tasks, but only with additional effort.
▪ A minimal number of customers is affected and / or experiences limitations in comfort, but only to a limited extent.
▪ A damage to the reputation of the company is only to be expected to a minimal extent.


2. Incident Urgency (Urgency Categories)

This section provides Incident-Urgency categories. The definitions must be exactly matched to the organisation, so the following table is an example:

Category

            Description

High (H)

▪ The damage caused by the incident increases rapidly.
▪ The tasks, which can’t be fulfilled by the employees, are very time-critical.
▪ Rapid action can prevent a Minor Incident from becoming a Major Incident.
▪ Several users with VIP status are affected.

Medium (M)

▪ The damage caused by the Incident increases substantially over time.
▪ The tasks, which can’t be fulfilled by the employees, are only moderately time-critical.
▪ A single user with VIP status is affected.

Low (L)

▪ The damage caused by the Incident increases only slightly in the course of time.
▪ The tasks, which can’t be fulfilled by the employees, are not time-critical.


3. Incident Priority also known as Severity Level

The Priority will be made dependent on Impact + Urgency.
For example a
High Impact + High Urgency will result in a Critical ticket priority or a
High Impact + Medium Urgency will result in a High ticket priority

according to the following data lookup rules:

H – High   M – Medium L – Low

* Result in censhare Ticket:
Priority 1 = Critical = Production Critical
Priority 2 = High = Workaround possible
Priority 3 = Medium = Function Limited
Priority 4 = Low = Uncritical



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