Incident Priority (SEV Levels)
A classification system (P0-P4 or SEV1-SEV5) that determines the urgency and response time required for an incident.
A classification system (P0-P4 or SEV1-SEV5) that determines the urgency and response time required for an incident.
P0-P4 Priority Levels
P0 (Critical): The house is on fire. All hands on deck. Revenue stopped or data loss at risk. Examples: Site down, payment processing failed, security breach, data corruption.
P1 (High): Major functionality degraded. Core user journey affected but partial workaround exists. Examples: Checkout fails for some users, search is down, login requires password instead of SSO.
P2 (Medium): Non-critical features broken. Fix during business hours. No immediate revenue impact. Examples: Reporting dashboard down, user profile edits broken, export functionality fails.
P3 (Low): Minor issues with no user impact. Fix when convenient. Examples: Button slightly misaligned, minor formatting issue, non-critical UI inconsistency.
P4 (Trivial): Cosmetic only. Fix whenever. Examples: Typo in footer, extra space in header, formatting issue on documentation page.
Priority vs Severity
Priority determines fix order and can change based on business context. Severity measures technical impact and stays fixed. They usually correlate (P0 ≈ SEV0, P1 ≈ SEV1), but business context can create divergence: a broken internal dashboard might be SEV0 for the CEO but remain P2 if customers aren't affected.
SEV Level Mapping
| Priority | Severity Equivalent | Response Expectation |
|---|---|---|
| P0 | SEV0 | Immediate: Ack within 5 min, update every 15 min |
| P1 | SEV1 | Urgent: Ack within 15 min, update within 30 min |
| P2 | SEV2 | Standard: Ack within 30 min, update within 1 hour |
| P3 | SEV3 | Normal: Ack within 4 hours, fix within 1 business day |
| P4 | SEV4 | Backlog: Fix when bandwidth allows |
Classification Rules
- Any revenue impact or data loss → P0
- Customer-facing core functionality broken → P0 or P1
- Non-critical customer features broken → P2
- Internal tools broken → P2 or P3
- Cosmetic issues only → P4
- When unsure, default to lower priority to prevent alert fatigue
ExFinTech Platform Priority Classification
“Payment processing fails at 2 AM on a Saturday. P0 because revenue stops immediately. Automated paging to VP Engineering and 5 senior engineers based on "revenue-stopping" rule.”
Why Priority Matters
Sets expectations for response time (SLAs).
Prevents burnout by ensuring you only wake people up for real emergencies.
Common Pitfalls
Generate Your Severity Matrix
Benchmark against industry standards and identify improvement opportunities.