{"revision":"c10276e953456835cdbb1f3a60d58ae1980be353","document":{"id":33375,"path":"it-service-management/problem-management/prioritise-problems.md","title":"Data lookup for prioritizing problems","bundle":null,"doc_type":null,"release":"australia","body":"\n# Data lookup for prioritizing problems\n\nTo follow ITIL guidelines, problem records are prioritized by the impact and urgency of the problem.\n\nProblem prioritization is available on new instances.\n\nOn the problem form, users select values from the **Impact** and **Urgency** fields that determine which priority value is generated for the problem.\n\n|Field|Definition|\n|-----|----------|\n|Impact|Impact is a measure of the effect of an incident, problem, or change on business processes.|\n|Urgency|Urgency is a measure of how long the resolution can be delayed until an incident, problem, or change has a significant business impact.|\n|Priority|Priority is based on impact and urgency, and it identifies how quickly the service desk should address the task.|\n\nPriority is calculated according to the following data lookup rules:\n\n|Impact|Urgency|Priority|\n|------|-------|--------|\n|1 - High|1 - High|1 - Critical|\n|1 - High|2 - Medium|2 - High|\n|1 - High|3 - Low|3 - Moderate|\n|2 - Medium|1 - High|2 - High|\n|2 - Medium|2 - Medium|3 - Moderate|\n|2 - Medium|3 - Low|4 - Low|\n|3 - Low|1 - High|3 - Moderate|\n|3 - Low|2 - Medium|4 - Low|\n|3 - Low|3 - Low|5 - Planning|\n\nBy default, the **Priority** field is read-only and must be set by selecting the **Impact** and **Urgency** values. To change how the priority is calculated, you can either alter the priority lookup rules or disable the **Priority is managed by Data Lookup - set as read-only** UI policy and create their own business logic.\n\nIn the Problem Priority Data Lookup \\[dl\\_problem\\_priority\\] table, you can modify the data lookup rules for the task priority.\n\n## Work notes for problem priorities\n\nWhen you initially create and save a problem, the **Work notes** field is not mandatory. If you change the priority of the problem by selecting different **Impact** or **Urgency** values on a problem form that was saved, the **Work notes** field becomes mandatory.\n\n**Note:** This feature is available only in new instances starting with Jakarta or a later release. The Problem Management Best Practice – Jakarta plugin \\(com.snc.best\\_practice.problem.jakarta\\) plugin must be activated.\n\n**Parent Topic:**[Reference section for Problem Management](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/problem-management/reference-section-for-problem-management.md)\n\n"}}