Introduction:
This is a detailed walk through of setting up the Priority Calculation matrix feature of CA Service Desk Manager/IT Service Management.
A Priority Calculation Matrix automatically specifies the Priority of an Incident or Problem, based off a value chosen for the Urgency and Impact.
This gives consistency to Priority allocation and is in line with ITIL principles.
This guide supplements the detailed documentation provided on the ITSM 14.1 Wiki for Priority Calculation here, which is applicable to all current releases.
It covers:
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The standard 5 x 5 Priority Calculation matrix set-up.
A custom 3 x 3 (or other size) Priority Calculation set-up.
How to restrict Impact and Urgency choices to users.
Some common issues encountered.
This guide does not step through the Priority Calculation information covered on the Wiki.
CAUTION: The Priority Calculation Matrix depends on having default data in the Impact, Urgency and Priority tables - such as the field “enum” – being unchanged and out
of the box. Do not change these tables directly. The Priority Calculation Matrix functionality may break.
It is acceptable to change field value names through the web client interface.
Instructions:
Preparation
Before commencing, you should:
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Familiarise yourself with the documentation surrounding the Priority Calculation matrix here.
Have a working test system available to trial the process.
Have a backup of the working test system prior to changes.
Have no or minimal changes to the default Priority, Urgency and Impact tables.
Have a rough layout of your proposed Priority Calculation matrix.
Understand who the matrix will apply to. (Tenant, Role, Data Partition.)
Have Administrator rights to the SDM/ITSM implementation.
Have Administrator experience with the SDM/ITSM implementation.
Building and Testing a Simple Test Matrix
We will illustrate how the Priority Calculation matrix works with a simple example.
Aim: Edit the Priority Calculation matrix and show how Priority is built from Impact and Urgency for a test Incident.
1) On the test system, log on with Administrator access.
Go to Administration, Service Desk, Requests/Incidents/Problems, Priority Calculation and Edit the “Default” Priority Calculation matrix to make it “Inactive.” Save.
2) Create a new “test” Priority Calculation matrix. Here it is called Global Priority.
3) Edit the values you wish to change. Here we have chosen to edit a single value for Impact “4-Small Group” and Urgency “4-Very Quickly” from “3” to “4.” Save.
4) Create an Incident. Change the values of the Impact and Urgency and note how the Priority changes as you tab out of the fields.
Note how the value changed in (3) now gives a Priority of “4” instead of the prior value which was “3.”
Save the Incident and the new Priority value is preserved.
Designing a more complex Priority Calculation matrix
For simple Priority Calculation matrix changes, it is acceptable to perform the design and implementation directly through the interface.
However, in a complex environment, it is best to plan out a change to the Priority Calculation matrix in the same way as any other change.
You will need to know:
1) Who will use the matrix? The key factors to record are:
 Tenant (If Multi-Tenancy is in use)
 Data Partition (Usually Role determined)
2) The layout of the matrix.
 Your organisation may be providing the desired priority calculation matrix values.
 It is easiest where possible, to being with the existing matrix and modify the values in this.
Building the Priority Calculation Matrix Layout
1) It may help to copy the Priority Calculation matrix from SDM/ITSM into a spreadsheet.
Use your mouse to select the matrix from the screen, Cntrl + C to copy it, and paste it into a spreadsheet.
Resize and colour it to make it easier to use. Here is a basic layout.
Urgency
Impact
5-Immediate
3-Quickly
1-When Possible
<empty>
1-Entire organization
1
1
2
3
3
None
3-Single Group
1
2
3
3
4
None
5-One person
2
3
3
4
4
None
4
4
5
None
<empty>
3
3
TIP: See “Sample Template” at the end for a copy that includes “enums.”
2) Adjust the Priority values until they meet your requirements. Save this as a document for your records, and enter the values into the test system Priority Calculation
Matrix. Test with an Incident to make sure it works.
3) The rest of the steps describe how to build a “3 x 3” Priority Calculation Matrix.
It will also show how to hide values that are not needed from the Analysts who work the tickets.
AIM: The organization wishes for Service Desk Analysts to only see a Priority Calculation Matrix with three values (Equivalent to Low, Medium and High) for both
Impact and Urgency. Other values should not be displayed.
4) Note that “Low, Medium and High” do not exist in our matrix. We are going to look for the closest values in the existing data to represent these values.
(Note – you may change labels through the interface for Priority, Impact and Urgency if needed. We are not doing that here.)
We decide that the mapping will be:
* Impact: 1-Entire organization, 3-Single Group and 5-One person
* Urgency: 1-Where possible, 3-Quickly and 5-Immediate.
The intermediate values will not be used.
Using our spreadsheet and adding colours, it is easier to see what stays and what goes.
Sketching this out looks like the following in the spreadsheet and how it would be implemented in the system.
NOTE: In this example, “None” is used for values that will never be called. However, best practice would be to have these values set to your “lowest Priority” or to a
value close to a valid one. This way, if there is an error with setting up the matrix, at least some Priority will be allocated. We are leaving the value set to “None” at
this point for testing purposes, as it is easier to see a “missing” Priority than an “incorrect allocated” Priority.
Hiding Impact and Urgency Choices from Analysts
The above Priority Calculation Matrix will now correctly allocate Priority according to the Impact and Urgency specified.
However, the Analysts will still see “all choices” and not be restricted to only those values that we wish them to see.
We will restrict their choices with a “View” Data Partition Constraint against both the “Impact” and “Urgency” tables. This will prevent them from seeing these Impacts and
Urgencies anywhere in the system. To do so, we need to know the “enum” values in the tables. (Tip – you may use other fields if you wish. Modify accordingly if it is clearer
for you to use another field.)
1) Work out which “enum” values are needed for Impact and Urgency.
These are available by inspection of the tables directly – see Additional Information.
They have been included in the screenshot below.
As a reminder, our mapping was this:
* Impact: 1-Entire organization, 3-Single Group and 5-One person.
* Urgency: 1-Where possible, 3-Quickly and 5-Immediate.
Which converts to enum values of:
* Impact: 1, 3, 5
* Urgency: 0, 2, 4
2) Build a View Data Partition Constraint against your desired Data Partition, as follows.
View, Impact, enum in (1, 3, 5)
View, Urgency, enum in (0, 2, 4)
3) Do detailed testing.
Test all of the values in the matrix.
Here, we can see that the fields have been correctly restricted during data entry:
The Priority calculation is also correct:
4) Assign a Default Priority to all fields.
This step is optional, but recommended. The above Priority Calculation Matrix has been tested and works. However, in case the Priority Calculation Matrix is
accidentally used by a different group of users who do not have the Data Partition Constraints in place, it is a good practice to assign a ‘default’ value to those fields
that are not expected to be used. Two reasonable options present themselves:
* Assign all the lowest priority of “5.”
* Assign all the closest value to those in the table.
Cautions and Default Data
The most common cause of the Priority Calculation “not working” reported to CA Support are cases where direct table changes have been made. This should not be done.
CAUTION: The Priority Calculation Matrix depends on having default data in the Impact, Urgency and Priority tables - such as the field “enum” – being unchanged and out
of the box. Do not change these tables directly. The Priority Calculation Matrix functionality may break.
It is acceptable to change field value names through the web client interface.
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Do NOT add rows to these tables.
Do NOT remove rows from these tables.
Do NOT change enum, id, del, value in these tables.
You MAY change the values of descr, sym and service_type through the web client interface only.
Here are the default contents from the tables. If you have different values here – apart from those that can be changed through the interface such as the labels – then the
functionality may break. This data is included as reference in case you need to verify your system.
pdm_extract -f "select del, desc, enum, id, sym, value from Impact"
TABLE Impact
del desc enum id sym value
{ "0" ,"Impact is unassigned" ,"0" ,"1605" ,"None" ,"0" }
{ "0" ,"Impacts service used by one person" ,"1" ,"1600" ,"5-One person" ,"5" }
{ "0" ,"Impacts service used by a small group" ,"2" ,"1601","4-Small Group" ,"4" }
{ "0" ,"Impacts service used by a single group" ,"3" ,"1602", "3-Single Group" ,"3" }
{ "0" ,"Impacts service used by multiple groups" ,"4" ,"1603", "2-Multiple Groups" ,"2" }
{ "0" ,"Impacts service used by the entire org" ,"5" ,"1604", "1-Entire organization" ,"1" }
pdm_extract -f "select del, desc, enum, id, sym, value from Urgency"
TABLE Urgency
del desc enum id sym value
{ "0" ,"Requires an available response" ,"0" ,"1100" ,"1-When Possible" ,"1" }
{ "0" ,"Requires a temperate response" ,"1" ,"1101" ,"2-Soon" ,"2" }
{ "0" ,"Requires a timely response" ,"2" ,"1102" ,"3-Quickly" ,"3" }
{ "0" ,"Requires an escalated response" ,"3" ,"1103" ,"4-Very Quickly" ,"4" }
{ "0" ,"Requires an instant response" ,"4" ,"1104" ,"5-Immediate" ,"5" }
{ "0" ,"Empty" ,"5" ,"1105" ,"Empty" ,"6" }
pdm_extract -f "select del, desc, enum, id, service_type, sym, value from Priority"
TABLE Priority
del desc enum id service_type sym
{ "0" ,"Priority unassigned" ,"0" ,"505" ,"" ,"None" }
{ "0" ,"LOW Priority" ,"1" ,"500" ,"" ,"5" }
{ "0" ,"MEDIUM-LOW Priority" ,"2" ,"501" ,"" ,"4" }
{ "0" ,"MEDIUM Priority" ,"3" ,"502" ,"" ,"3" }
{ "0" ,"MEDIUM-HIGH Priority" ,"4" ,"503" ,"" ,"2" }
{ "0" ,"HIGH Priority" ,"5" ,"504" ,"sdsc:5403" ,"1" }
CAUTION: You must be logged in with Administrator access to correctly see the Priority Calculation matrix. If a Data Partition View Constraint is present against Impact and
Urgency you will see incorrect results in the Priority Calculation Detail.
Sample Template
Here is a sample template to paste into a spreadsheet that contains the default data, and the default “enum” values.
Tip: Resize the columns and rows after pasting into the spreadsheet for a better fit.
URGENCY
IMPACT
5Immediate
4-Very
Quickly
3Quickly
2-Soon
1-When
Possible
<empty>
Enum
4
3
2
1
0
5
1-Entire
organization
5
1
1
2
3
3
None
2-Multiple
Groups
4
1
2
3
3
4
None
3-Single
Group
3
2
3
3
4
4
None
4-Small
Group
2
3
3
4
4
5
None
5-One
person
1
3
4
4
5
5
None
None
0
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
<empty>
Additional Information:
ITSM 14.1 Wiki – How to Set Priority Calculation
TEC614948 How to mask out the "None" Impact value