Period Comparison
Healthy 1
Jun 28, 2026, 11:56 AM
Period Comparison
The incident management process has improved through significant reductions in rework and increased standardization, though this is offset by a rise in SLA breaches.
The incident management process has improved, driven by a significant 23% reduction in rework and a 25% decrease in process variations. However, this was accompanied by a 16% rise in SLA breaches, indicating a potential trade-off between process efficiency and service level performance that requires attention.
📅 Baseline: 2025-06-28 – 2025-12-24 📅 Comparison: 2025-12-25 – 2026-06-22
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Overall verdict
Improved
✓ Confidence: High
The verdict is 'Improved' due to strong positive signals in core efficiency metrics. Rework rate dropped by over 23% and the process became 25% more standardized (fewer variants). These significant gains outweigh the stable average duration and a concerning but less impactful increase in the SLA breach rate.
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Metric-by-Metric Comparison
Rework Rate
▲ Improved High impact
9.15% → 7.02%
-2.13% (-23.28%)
Rework is a direct measure of wasted effort. A significant reduction indicates better quality at each step, leading to faster resolution and higher team capacity.
Variant Count
▲ Improved High impact
8 variants → 6 variants
-2 variants (-25.00%)
Fewer variants mean the process is more standardized and predictable. This simplifies management, training, and automation efforts.
SLA Breach Rate
▼ Degraded High impact
8.7% → 10.1%
+1.4% (+16.09%)
This metric directly reflects the customer experience and service level commitments. An increase indicates a decline in service quality despite other process improvements.
Average Duration
→ Unchanged Low
18.49 hrs → 18.10 hrs
-0.39 hrs (-2.11%)
Overall cycle time from start to finish. A stable duration, despite higher volume and fewer resources, can be a positive sign, but in this case it is largely neutral.
Flow Efficiency
→ Unchanged Low
65.2% → 63.4%
-1.8% (-2.79%)
Represents the proportion of time work is actively being processed versus waiting in a queue. This metric remained stable, showing no significant change in wait times.
Work Items
– No data Medium
153 items → 171 items
+18 items (+11.76%)
The total volume of work increased by nearly 12%. All other metric changes should be viewed in the context of this increased workload.
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What Improved
Significant Rework Reduction
Rework Rate 9.15% → 7.02% -2.13 pts (-23.3%)
This is the strongest signal of improvement, indicating a substantial reduction in wasted effort and repeat work. It suggests higher quality initial work and frees up team capacity.
Improved Process Standardization
Variant Count 8 → 6 -2 variants (-25.0%)
A 25% reduction in process paths makes the workflow more predictable, easier to manage, and simpler to train new team members on.
Lower Volume of Re-opened Incidents
Resolved -> Work in Progress (Volume) 22 items → 17 items -5 items (-22.7%)
Fewer incidents are being re-opened after being marked as resolved. This points to higher quality resolutions and reduces frustrating experiences for both customers and support staff.
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What Deteriorated
Increased SLA Breaches
SLA breached? 8.7% of items → 10.1% of items +1.4 pts (+16.1%)
More incidents are failing to meet service level commitments. This directly impacts customer satisfaction and indicates a decline in service timeliness.
Slower Rework on Re-opened Incidents
Resolved -> Work in Progress (Avg Duration) 2.69 hrs → 4.43 hrs +1.74 hrs (+64.7%)
Although fewer incidents are being re-opened, those that are take significantly longer to address. This suggests that when failures occur, they are more severe or harder to resolve.
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Transition Changes
⬆ Improved transitions
None identified
⬇ Deteriorated transitions
Resolved -> Work in Progress 2.69 → 4.43 hrs +1.74
Work in Progress -> Assigned 4.27 → 4.77 hrs +0.50
Rework volume shift: The overall volume of rework transitions decreased. The 'Assigned -> Active' loop saw 8 fewer occurrences (-17%), and the 'Resolved -> Work in Progress' loop saw 5 fewer occurrences (-23%), reinforcing the improvement shown in the overall rework metric.
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Workflow Path Changes
Variants — baseline
8
Rework share: 9.15%
Variants — comparison
6 ▲ -2
Rework share: 7.02%
The process became more consistent and predictable. The number of unique paths taken by work items decreased by 25%, and the dominant 'happy path' remained stable, handling nearly three-quarters of all incidents in both periods.
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What Likely Drove the Changes
Improved Triage Quality
✓ Confidence: High
The reduction in overall rework rate likely stems from improved initial triage and assignment. Better categorization at the 'New' and 'Active' stages may be leading to fewer re-assignments and incorrect resolutions downstream.
Overall rework rate dropped from 9.15% to 7.02%. The volume of the 'Assigned -> Active' rework loop decreased by 17%.
Focus on 'Happy Path' at Expense of Edge Cases
✓ Confidence: Moderate
Efforts to standardize the process may have optimized the main workflow but made it harder to handle complex exceptions. This could explain why SLA breaches increased and rework, when it happens, takes much longer.
Variant count dropped from 8 to 6 (standardization). SLA breaches increased by 16%. Duration of 'Resolved -> Work in Progress' rework loop increased by 65%.
Increased Workload is Straining Resources
✓ Confidence: Moderate
The 12% increase in incident volume may be absorbing the efficiency gains from reduced rework, preventing a decrease in average duration and contributing to the higher SLA breach rate as the team struggles to keep up.
Work item volume increased from 153 to 171. Average duration remained flat instead of decreasing. SLA breach rate increased.
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What Stayed the Same
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Overall Cycle Time ~18.3 hours
The average end-to-end duration for incidents remained stable, indicating that the improvements in rework were likely offset by the increased workload or other minor delays.
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Dominant Process Path Stable at ~73.5% of all work
The core, 'happy path' process has not changed, providing a stable foundation. Improvements are happening around the edges of this main workflow.
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Administrative Closure Delay Stable at ~4.75 hours
The delay between resolving an incident and formally closing it ('Resolved -> Closed' transition) has not changed, indicating this part of the process is consistent.