Priority Matrix application

Edit online

The Priority Matrix application enables you to create a priority matrix. A priority matrix defines, in advance, internal priorities for Service Desk tickets that specify given combinations of impact and urgency. After a Service Desk agent fills 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 internal priority values on ticket records help to determine the order in which tickets are handled.

A priority matrix is based on the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) concept that impact and urgency are the primary determinants of the relative priority in which a series of items, such as Service Desk tickets, must be addressed.

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.

Sample Priority Matrix

The following table is a partial representation of a priority matrix that you can create with the Priority Matrix application. If Service Desk was installed with content extensions, a predefined priority matrix is available, with values similar to the ones shown in this table. Note that the variables in the priority matrix have both a numerical and descriptive value.

Type	Impact	Urgency	Internal Priority
SR	1 - Critical	1 - Critical	1 - Urgent
SR	1 - Critical	2 - High	1 - Urgent
SR	1 - Critical	3- Medium	2 - High
SR	1 - Critical	4 - Low	3 - Medium
SR	1 - Critical	5 - Planning	3 - Medium
SR	2 - High	1 - Critical	1 - Critical
SR	2 - High	2 - High	2 - High
SR	2 - High	3 - Medium	2 - High

After this sample priority matrix is set up, if a Service Desk agent enters one of specified impact and urgency combinations in any service request (SR) record, the internal priority is automatically assigned. For example, if the agent enters 1 and 4 in the Impact and Urgency fields of a service request record, the system enters a 3 in the Internal Priority field (and also fills the associated description fields for all three variables).

This example includes entries for service requests only. In the Priority Matrix application, you can add entries for any ticket type: service requests, incidents, and problems.

Priority types

The internal priority of a ticket is the priority determined by the Service Desk agent, based on impact and urgency. Besides the internal priority, ticket records also include a reported priority and an indicated priority. The reported priority is the priority reported by the person who reported the issue to the Service Desk. The indicated priority is a suggested ticket priority that is automatically entered based on the assigned classification. The values of these other priority types provide guidance to the Service Desk agent in determining which impact and urgency values to assign to a specific ticket.