Ticket Priorities

An important part of managing the volume of service desk tickets is to define a priority for each ticket. This topic describes the different priority fields on a ticket record and the prerequisite setup required for assigning ticket priorities.

Ticket priorities, as determined by service desk analysts, drive the order in which the tickets are handled and the allocation of resources for resolving tickets. In the ticket applications (Service Requests, Incidents, and Problems), this priority is referred to as the internal priority, a numerical value which is entered in the Internal Priority field on the ticket record.

The Internal Priority field is a read-only field that is automatically filled under the following conditions:

A priority matrix must exist in the Priority Matrix application. A priority matrix defines internal priorities for given combinations of impact and urgency. If Service Desk was installed with content extensions, a predefined priority matrix is provided with all possible combinations of impact and urgency. You can modify the predefined matrix to specify a different internal priority for any combination.
After you enter values in the Impact and Urgency fields on a ticket record, the Internal Priority field is automatically filled based on the values in the priority matrix.

The automated assignment of internal priority on a ticket record is based on the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) concept that priority is primarily driven by impact and urgency:

Impact refers to the potential impact that an unresolved issue has on the ability of the business to effectively carry on its activities or deliver its services. For example, the failure of a server that supports a large number of customers might be considered to have a critical impact on the business.
Urgency is defined as the speed that is considered appropriate to resolve an issue of a given impact. For example, an unresolved problem that has a high potential to disrupt business activities (high impact) might have a relatively low urgency if a temporary fix or workaround is available.

There are two additional priority values on a ticket record that can provide you guidance in assigning impact and urgency:

Reported Priority: The reported priority is the priority as determined by the person making the request, typically through the Create Service Request application accessed via the Go To > Self Service > Service Requests > Create Service Request menu.
Indicated Priority: The indicated priority is the priority associated with the classification selected for the ticket.
The Indicated Priority field is a read-only field. A value is automatically entered in this field if an indicated priority is associated with the selected classification. Use the Classifications application to associate indicated priorities with classifications.

Each of the different priorities (internal priority, reported priority, and indicated priority) can be assigned any of the following numerical and descriptive values: 1-Urgent, 2-High, 3-Medium, and 4-Low. In addition to these, the internal priority can be assigned a value of 5-Planning.

Ticket Priorities

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