Lessons · IT support · priority from impact and urgency
Priority is impact times urgency, not who is shouting
Impact is how many people or how much of the business is affected. Urgency is how soon the harm arrives. Put the two on a small matrix and read off the priority: impact plus urgency minus one, with one the highest, on a desk that scores both from one (high) to three (low).
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
A director wants his second screen and a warehouse of thirty pickers cannot scan. Without a matrix the loudest voice wins and the warehouse waits. With one, you can say why the warehouse is P1 and the screen is P4, out loud, to the director, and be right.
How to think about it
Ask two questions before you set anything. How many, and how much of the work stops: that is impact, 1 for the whole site or a service everyone uses, 2 for a team, 3 for one person. How soon does it hurt: that is urgency, 1 if work has stopped now, 2 if there is a workaround for today, 3 if it can wait for a scheduled visit. Then priority = impact + urgency − 1, and write both numbers in the ticket so the priority can be defended later.
Worked example
Warehouse scanners down, 30 people, no workaroundImpact 1 (a whole team's work stopped). Urgency 1 (right now).
Priority = 1 + 1 − 1 = 1P1. Everything else waits.
Director's second monitor dark, he has the laptop screenImpact 3 (one person). Urgency 2 (he can work today).
Priority = 3 + 2 − 1 = 4P4. It gets done, in its turn, and the matrix is the reason it is not first.
Your turn
One team's shared drive is unreachable (impact 2) and they cannot work at all (urgency 1). Write the priority.
Priority = 2 + 1 − 1 =
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Scoring urgency by how upset the caller is. Urgency is about the work: a calm person whose till has stopped is urgency 1; a furious person whose screensaver is the wrong picture is urgency 3.