I’m starting to bring ITIL process into being in our organization, however I have this issue with Incident priorities. I currently have 5 priorities “Critical through to Query” but still end up in the same position that I have 50 Incidents all with the priority of “Standard” – this is the correct priority based on Impact x Urgency, but the question is how do you then sub define those 50 to see which Incident gets completed next. We range from arguments of “first come first served” which does not take into account Business Need, all the way through to “the Analyst should use their judgment” which means cherry picking.
One aspect of an Incident that needs to be considered when attacking a large number of Incidents with the same Priority is Expected Effort. Obviously, good judgment needs to be used, but attacking them in order of least effort to most effort will allow for many more Incidents to be resolved.
Keep in mind that following this rule of thumb too far will lead you down a path where you exceed your SLA on all the highest effort Incidents. Something you probably want to avoid.
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