Impact, urgency, and priority criteria
Impact is a measure of the effect of an incident, problem, or change on business processes. Impact is often based on how service levels will be affected.
Urgency is a measure of how long it will be until an incident, problem, or change has a significant business impact. For example, a high impact incident may have low urgency if the impact will not affect the business until the end of the financial year.
Priority is a category that identifies the relative importance of an incident, problem, or change. Priority is based on impact and urgency, and it identifies required times for actions to be taken. Impact and urgency are used to assign priority.
Impact criteria
The following table lists the criteria for determining the impact of a change and the approval actions needed to address the impact:
Impact | Description |
|---|---|
Extensive | There is significant business service impact because multiple customers are affected by the change. Considerable human and technical resources are needed. Management is involved in the decision process. The RFC must be discussed in the Change Advisory Board (CAB) meeting and approved by the Change Manager. The Change Manager seeks advice on change authorization and planning. |
Significant | There is clear service impact because at least one customer is affected by the change. The RFC must be discussed in the CAB meeting and approved by the Change Manager. The Change Manager seeks advice on authorization and planning. |
Moderate | There is little impact on current services because no customers are affected as a result of the change. The Change Manager can authorize this RFC. |
Minor | The change can be executed without prior approval from the Change Manager because no customers are affected by the change. |
Impact is further categorized by the following factors:
- Scope — Widespread, large, limited, or local
- Number of customers affected — More than one, one, or none
Urgency criteria
The following table lists the criteria for determining the urgency of a change:
Urgency | Action needed |
|---|---|
Critical | The change is immediately necessary to prevent severe business impact. Change approval is needed by the CAB or Emergency Committee (CAB/E-CAB). |
High | The change is needed as soon as possible because of potentially damaging service impact. |
Medium | The change will solve irritating problems or repair missing functionality. This change can be scheduled. |
Low | The change will lead to improvements, changes in workflow, or configuration. This change can be scheduled. |
Priority criteria
Priority identifies the RFC importance by correlating impact and urgency, as shown in the following table:
Urgency | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Impact | Critical | High | Medium | Low |
Extensive | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Significant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Moderate | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Minor | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
For example, if the impact is Extensive, and the urgency is Critical, the priority is 1.
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