Incident Severity Level

An Incident Severity Level is a classification risk assessment incident management measure that categorizes incident events.

• AKA: Incident Priority Level, Incident Classification Level, Severity Classification, Incident Impact Level.
• Context:
  • It can typically determine Incident Response Priority through incident triage processes.
  • It can typically guide Incident Resource Allocation based on incident severity criteria.
  • It can typically trigger Incident Escalation Path for incident management hierarchy.
  • It can typically influence Incident Communication Protocol with incident stakeholder notification.
  • It can typically affect Incident Resolution Timeline through incident SLA requirements.
  • ...
  • It can often incorporate Incident Business Impact including incident revenue loss and incident customer affect.
  • It can often consider Incident Technical Scope such as incident system coverage and incident service disruption.
  • It can often reflect Incident Security Implication for incident data exposure and incident compliance breach.
  • It can often determine Incident Management Team composition and incident response authority.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Low Incident Severity Level to being a Critical Incident Severity Level, depending on its incident impact magnitude.
  • It can range from being a Technical Incident Severity Level to being a Business Incident Severity Level, depending on its incident assessment perspective.
  • It can range from being a Simple Incident Severity Level to being a Composite Incident Severity Level, depending on its incident factor complexity.
  • It can range from being a Static Incident Severity Level to being a Dynamic Incident Severity Level, depending on its incident evolution capability.
  • It can range from being a Qualitative Incident Severity Level to being a Quantitative Incident Severity Level, depending on its incident measurement approach.
  • ...
  • It can be defined in Incident Management Framework for incident classification standards.
  • It can be calculated by Incident Assessment Algorithm using incident impact metrics.
  • It can be documented in Incident Report Document for incident severity justification.
  • It can be tracked by Incident Management System for incident trend analysis.
  • It can be reviewed through Incident Post-Mortem Process for incident severity validation.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Standard Incident Severity Levels, such as:
    • Severity A Incident Level for critical business impact with immediate response requirement.
    • Severity B Incident Level for major service degradation with urgent response need.
    • Severity C Incident Level for moderate operational impact with normal response priority.
    • Severity D Incident Level for minor inconvenience with scheduled response timing.
  • Industry-Specific Incident Severity Levels, such as:
    • Healthcare Critical Incident Level for patient safety threats.
    • Financial High Severity Level for transaction processing failures.
    • Retail Major Incident Level for e-commerce platform outages.
  • Technical Incident Severity Levels, such as:
    • Security Critical Level for active security breaches.
    • Data Loss Severity Level for unrecoverable data incidents.
    • Performance Degradation Level for system response issues.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Risk Probability Score, which measures incident likelihood rather than actual incident severity.
  • Service Level Objective, which defines performance targets rather than incident classifications.
  • Threat Level Indicator, which assesses potential security threats rather than actual incident impacts.
• See: Risk Analysis Task, Incident Management Process, IT Service Management, Service Level Agreement, Business Impact Analysis, Crisis Management Framework, Emergency Response Protocol, Escalation Matrix, Incident Triage Process, Problem Priority Matrix.

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