Tickets should be addressed based on priority and status.
Lets define some of these terms:
Priority:
Urgency: This is how quickly the issue needs to be addressed.
For example, the incident will have a “High” urgency if an RDS (ew-rds01 / ADBCOSRDS01) server is down, since many of the applications used by the business are housed there. Similarly, if it is only a single user unable to get to an RDS server, it may have a “Low” urgency.
Impact: This is can be defined in two different ways: the amount of people affected and the amount of money it would cost the company to have this issue remain open.
For example, an internet outage will have a "High" impact as it can affect many employees. But, if an internet outage happens only for a particular user, it may have a "Low" impact.
Status
Open: This is the default status of a ticket when it is created. And they are probably the ones that immediately need attention. When a user replies to a ticket that has a different status (other than closed), it will be moved back to open so that the agent it is assigned to can take a look at it again and fix any issues, if necessary.
Pending: A ticket can be moved into pending when an agent has replied to a ticket and is waiting to get more information from a user. By default, SLA (response/resolution) timers are turned off for pending tickets because the agent should not face any violations when they are waiting on the user. The agent can also set to pending with tickets that are on hold because of any third-party constraints that cannot be controlled by internal IT, but this should always be relayed by the agent to the user. When a user responds to a ticket in pending, the ticket moves back to open.
Resolved: When the agent is reasonably sure that they have provided the right resolution to a user, the agent can mark it as resolved. Once marked as resolved, the ticket will close after 48 hours of no response from the user. The user can also close their own ticket within this time or before it.
Closed: A ticket gets closed after 48 hours of setting the status as Resolved, with no response from the user.
Policy:
Urgent: Tickets marked urgent should be taken care of immediately.
Examples of Urgent tickets: Internet down, application server down, security breach.
High: Tickets marked with high priority should be taken care of next in line.
Examples of High tickets: When a single user is unable to work, when a non-critical application is down, when a non-critical function.
Medium: Tickets marked with Medium priority
Examples of Medium tickets:
Low: Tickets marked with Low priority should be taken care of when time allows.
Examples of Low tickets: Signature updates, group creations, service requests, a minor service issue, or general inquiry.