What is Ticket Backlog?
Number of open, unresolved support tickets.
How to calculate it
Calculate Ticket Backlog as: Count of unresolved tickets at period end. Pull the inputs from your connected data and track the trend over time in your dashboard.
Examples
Example 1
320 tickets remain open at month end, up from 250 -- a capacity-strain warning.
Example 2
The backlog grows from 250 to 320 open tickets in a month, and a quarter of them are over a week old -> a clear capacity-strain warning.
Why it matters
Ticket backlog is the number of open, unresolved support tickets and signals capacity strain and SLA risk. A growing backlog is an early warning that demand is outpacing the team's ability to respond. Ignoring the age distribution within the backlog hides whether old tickets are festering while new ones are handled.
Benchmark context
The trend should be flat or declining; a steadily rising backlog indicates understaffing or a process bottleneck that needs addressing.
Common pitfalls
Ignoring ticket age within the backlog.
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