Three labels sit on a ticket, and they do different jobs. Getting them right is what turns a year of tickets into something you can learn from.
| Label | Answers | Managed |
|---|---|---|
| Category | What kind of problem is this? | A fixed list, set up once. |
| Priority | How urgent is it? | A fixed list. |
| Tags | Anything else worth finding later. | Free text, created as you type. |
Categories
Categories route work and drive reporting. Keep the list short enough that people pick the right one without thinking — a long list gets used badly, and a badly used list tells you nothing about where your support load comes from.
Categories can be nested under a parent for larger teams, and one can be set as the default so nothing arrives uncategorised.
Priority
IF EVERYTHING IS URGENT, NOTHING IS
Tags
Tags are for the specifics a category is too broad for — a release, an integration, a known bug. Tag a cluster of tickets about the same underlying problem and you can pull them all up when it is finally fixed.
CLASSIFY WHEN YOU CLOSE, NOT WHEN YOU OPEN
At the start nobody knows what a ticket really is. At the end you do — a minute spent then is what makes the reporting worth reading.