Incident Management
Classifying the Incident
It is commonplace for multiple incidents to exist in parallel, making it necessary to define levels of priority when resolving them.
The level of priority is essentially based on two parameters:
- Impact: this determines the importance of the incident depending on how it affects business processes and/or the number of users affected.
- Urgency: depends on the maximum delay the customer will accept for the resolution of the incident and/or the level of service agreed in the SLA.
Secondary factors, such as the expected resolution time and the resources necessary, also need to be taken into account: "simple" incidents will be dealt with as soon as possible.
Depending on the priority, the necessary resources will be assigned to resolve the incident.
The incident's priority may change during its lifecycle. For example, a temporary solution may be found which restores acceptable levels of service and allows the closure of the incident to be delayed without serious repercussions.
It is worth establishing a protocol to determine the incident's priority in the first instance. The graphic below shows a possible "priority chart" depending on the urgency and impact of the incident:
