Prioritizing work and unassigned NRT
Request for comments
Need
The documented guidance on prioritizing work does not include "unassigned NRT".
- The goal is for all tickets to be assigned directly to an individual.
- It is not always possible to both meet our FRT SLAs and have every ticket assigned to an individual (without overburdening people).
- As a result: we have "unassigned NRT" (tickets that need a next response but that have no assignee).
- These tickets are not ideal but they exist and will continue to exist for the foreseeable future.
- The prioritizing work section of the handbook does not talk about how to prioritize unassigned NRT.
Since every response should be part of a ticket that is assigned to somebody
Approach
We should discuss, decide and document how unassigned NRT should be prioritized alongside the other work that we have.
Benefit
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This will help us to understand when to focus on unassigned NRT.
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We don't have enough data to support this but I believe that a formalized approach of some sort could reduce
⭐ starred tickets in some situations.
Competition / Alternatives
We could just keep doing what we are doing. While it does feel a bit like whack-a-mole, perhaps this is the thing that "gives" to let us accomplish our other objectives?
- I worry that implementing a process for unassigned NRT could lead to an increase in the number of unassigned NRT.