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Lesson 2 of 6

Lesson 2 — Priority, Impact and SLAs

How to decide what to fix first using impact × urgency, and what a Service Level Agreement promises.

🟢 Beginner 70 XP

Learn it

Priority is not 'who shouted loudest'. It is calculated from impact (how many people or how critical the service) and urgency (how soon it must work).

A priority matrix turns those two into P1 (critical) through P4 (low).

An SLA is a written promise: for example P1 responded to in 15 minutes and resolved in 4 hours.

Two clocks run on a ticket: response time (first meaningful reply) and resolution time (service restored).

Key terms

Impact
How many users or how critical the affected service is.
Urgency
How quickly the issue must be fixed to avoid harm.
SLA
Service Level Agreement — agreed response and resolution targets.
Workaround
A temporary fix that restores service.
Breach
Missing an SLA target.

Rate four tickets

Same morning, four tickets arrive. Which is P1?

  1. 1A: Payroll system down on payday for the whole finance team — high impact, high urgency.
  2. 2B: One user's mouse is faulty; a spare is in the drawer — low impact, low urgency.
  3. 3C: Twenty students cannot print coursework due at 15:00 — medium impact, high urgency.
  4. 4D: A manager wants a second monitor next month — service request, low urgency.

A simple priority matrix

text                URGENCY
              High   Med    Low
IMPACT High |  P1     P2     P3
       Med  |  P2     P3     P3
       Low  |  P3     P4     P4

P1  respond 15 min  | resolve 4 h
P2  respond 1 h     | resolve 8 h
P3  respond 4 h     | resolve 3 days
P4  respond 1 day   | resolve 10 days

Read impact down the side and urgency across the top; the cell gives the priority, the table below gives the promise.

Try it

Match each ticket to its priority.

Whole school internet down
One classroom cannot print before a 15:00 deadline
A staff laptop is slow to boot
Request for a new mouse mat

Challenge

Your queue has: (1) exam results portal down for all students, (2) a head of department's email not syncing on their phone, (3) a projector bulb replacement request. Assign a priority to each and justify it in one sentence using impact and urgency.

Pick whichever way suits you — every mode earns the same bonus XP.

Write at least 40 more characters to submit.

Mark your own work

Guided walkthrough — 0/3 clues revealed

  1. Clue 1 locked — reveal it only if you get stuck.
  2. Clue 2 locked — reveal it only if you get stuck.
  3. Clue 3 locked — reveal it only if you get stuck.

Each clue costs 4 XP (never below 18 XP). You'd earn 35 XP right now.

Quiz time

Question 1 of 4Score 0

Priority is calculated from…